Steelers Now
Former Pittsburgh Steelers cornerback Joe Haden ripped Aaron Rodgers for his controversial decision to throw a fade route to Scotty Miller on fourth-and-1 in the second quarter of Sunday’s 13-6 loss to the Browns.
“You’re throwing at Scotty on a fade ball versus Tyson Campbell? What are we doing?” Haden said on the Deebo & Joe podcast. “You got [Adam] Thielen and [Pat] Freiermuth here working versus [Grant] Delpit and the linebacker. They were in a nice little rub route playground there. He motioned over there, him and Thielen [and] him and Freiermuth ran like a little pick play, and he had it right there, right in front of A=Rod for like a two-yard gain, first down. And you choose to throw that fade over there versus that seatbelt that been strapping him up the whole game. And now you wanna throw it over there on fourth-and-1. You’re tripping, you’re bugging.
“I’m not mad at the play. I’m mad at the decision maker there. I’m mad at A-Rod. You got to throw that to Thielen for the quick one.”
4th-and-1 following the Sawyer interception and the Steelers throw a 50/50 ball to Scotty Miller?
These are the plays that cause you to lose games to bad teams. pic.twitter.com/IbxKxJYSH7
— Kevin Smith (@KTSmithFFSN) December 28, 2025
The Steelers were also in an empty look on fourth-and-1. Why not just run the ball? The Steelers finished with 131 yards on 24 carries, an average of 5.5 yards per carry.
“(Aaron Rodgers) certainly had options, and he was one of them,” Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin said after the game when asked about the fourth-and-1 mishap. “I’ve got no qualms about us playing to win the game in the way that we did.”
Rodgers explained why he made the throw, but it was a rather simple response.
“One-on-one,” he said.
Miller said he was singled up and “had a step on the cornerback.”
The Steelers continued to get in their own way with mind-boggling play calls and decisions.
With the game hanging in the balance, Rodgers targets Marquez Valdes-Scantling’s three straight times. All were incomplete. The last one was another 50/50 ball on a fade route.
Browns five-time Pro Bowl cornerback Denzel Ward was baffled by Pittsburgh’s decision to target him on three straight plays.
“I’m always just prepared and ready for moments like that. I just try to make it hard on teams each time they decide to look at the scouting report and see who they’re going to attack, and make it hard on them when they come my way,” Ward said, via Ashley Bastock of clevelanddotcom. “I don’t know whose bright idea it was to try me for the game on three plays in a row, but we was able to come through and get the win.”
Haden thinks Rodgers just had an off day. His decision making was mind-boggling to the former Pro Bowl cornerback.
“He didn’t play well this game,” Haden said. “When...
