Steelers Now
Even though Aaron Rodgers has downplayed the revenge game narrative surrounding his first career meeting versus his former team, Sunday Night Football has plenty of significance for the Pittsburgh Steelers. They’re trying to keep pace in a murky AFC landscape but, more than anything else, wipe the stench off following a disappointing loss to the Cincinnati Bengals last week. While not quite the same as the traditional bye week, teams will often use the extended days off to do some self-scouting, figuring out what’s working, what’s not, and what they can steal from other teams around the league.
One thing that needs fixed pronto is their pass defense, particularly from a coverage standpoint. This is a unit that currently ranks 21st in dropback EPA/play and 19th in success rate, largely falling extremely short of high expectations set by their head coach. When they’ve not been able to get pressure on the quarterback, there has been virtually no resistance downfield. Not only did Joe Flacco, Ja’Marr Chase, and company embarrass them on national television, but they also may have given the rest of the league a blueprint on how to attack this Steelers defense.
— Derrick (@Steelers_DB) October 19, 2025
Cincinnati’s philosophy was pretty straightforward: get the ball out quickly to negate the Steelers’ pass rush. Flacco went 21-31, 222 yards and three touchdowns on throws under 2.5 seconds after the snap, which was more yards on quick throws than any quarterback has accumulated all season long by a wide margin. The idea was to get five out in the route on as many plays as possible and hunt favorable matchups based on pre-snap identification. There’s a reason that Mike Tomlin was so irked by Andrew Berry’s decision to help out a divisional rival. Flacco has been around the block with over 200 career starts and knows where the bones are buried within the Steelers’ defensive scheme, one that isn’t overly complex to begin with.
This weekend, Teryl Austin’s group will square off with Rodgers’ protégé in Jordan Love, who currently ranks 3rd in both EPA/play and success rate this season. The Nevada product is a gunslinger at heart and plays the position with a wealth of aggressiveness while simultaneously doing an admirable job avoiding sacks in the process. Even though he didn’t get much playing time during his first few seasons in the league as Rodgers continued to rack up MVPs, it’s clear that he learned a thing or two sitting behind one of the all-time greats. Similar to the way that his mentor continues to dice up defenses in his old age, Love possesses the mental aptitude to play the point guard to methodically move the football down the field, even if he still remains prone to one goofy decision per game.
Over the first half dozen games of the 2024 season, Love is completing a league-high 89.2% of his passes and is averaging .41 EPA/DB. (For context, anything above the .3 mark is considered...
