Steelers Now
INGLEWOOD, Calif. — Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin was rather blunt when asked how he’d assess Aaron Rodgers’ performance in Sunday night’s 25-10 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers.
“How would you? Tomlin snapped. “Next question.”
It was the third question that Tomlin received about Rodgers, so it apparently was a sore subject.
Tomlin thought the offense overall was off against the Chargers.
“We as an offense collective were off today. And certainly he was a component of that,” Tomlin said of Rodgers. “I’ll let him speak for himself. But we certainly got to be better. Didn’t feel like they did anything unanticipated, but they certainly outperformed us, particularly, in possession down play.”
Given Tomlin and Rodgers’ experience in the NFL, he’s not worried about one bad night.
“I’m not lacking confidence, I don’t need a pat on the back. We stuck it up tonight. We’ll be back.”
Rodgers admitted that he wasn’t good enough in Sunday night’s 25-10 loss to the Chargers.
To say the least, it was a brutal performance for the four-time NFL MVP in Southern California on Sunday night. It was by far his worst game of the season, completing 16 of 31 passes (51.6%) for 161 yards, one touchdown, two interceptions, and a passer rating of 50.6.
“I expect to play great every single week, and this was not my best performance,” Rodgers said after the game. “I got to play better. Whatever it takes. If it’s better checks, if it’s better throws. Whatever it is, I got to play better. We got to bounce back. We got a division opponent next week. We’re 5-4, we’re a ahead by a game in the division. We got to play better on offense for sure.”
Rodgers knows there’s still plenty of season left to correct things.
“This is a part of the season. There’s ebbs and flows, ups and downs. We can’t ride the wave,” he said. “I felt like our energy, it starts with me. It wasn’t great on offense. We were struggling a little bit, couldn’t get a play to get going. We always say, if we can get a first down, we can get a score on the drive. We had so many three-and-outs. We hurt ourselves with a couple of penalties, and I didn’t play very good at all. I’ve gotta play better.”
The Steelers were an abysmal 2-11 on third down against the Chargers.
“Plastering our guys,” Rodgers said when asked what the Chargers did to stymie the Steelers’ offense on third down.
Tomlin also pointed to the third down miscues as being a big reason for the loss.
“A lot of stuff wasn’t working … I was just a little bit off,” Rodgers said. “I missed DK early, could have been a big play. A little high to Jonnu. Didn’t run the ball super effectively the first half. I missed, obviously, some throws for sure. The times the guys were open, I missed the throws.”
*Alan Saunders provided reporting from...
