Aaron Rodgers may not have the same wheels he once did in Green Bay, but when the Steelers needed a play late in Sunday’s Week 7 matchup with the Saints, he still had enough left to make one.
With Pittsburgh clinging to a one-score lead in the fourth quarter, Rodgers dropped back on third-and-6, felt the pocket closing and stepped through the traffic for an eight-yard scramble that kept the drive alive. That run helped the Steelers bleed the clock to the final minute, putting Chris Boswell in position for a 37-yard field goal try. New Orleans’ offside penalty on the kick handed Pittsburgh another first down, and Rodgers finished it off by kneeling twice as the Steelers escaped Paris with a 16-10 win.
“RODGE KEEPER‼️”
Afterward, Rodgers joked with ESPN’s Molly McGrath that he used to get a little more out of those runs in his prime.
"Well, I used to be able to get maybe one or two more yards than I got today," Rodgers told ESPN's Molly McGrath after the first-ever regular-season game in Paris. "Listen, we had to keep the clock going.
They kind of gloved us on the routes. I cleared the pocket with good protection and just kind of peeked to see how far I had to get.
It was longer than I thought.
"There were some important plays in the game, and that was one of them."
The win stretched Pittsburgh’s run to three straight, but Rodgers wasn’t in a celebratory mood when it came to the offense. The Steelers found a few long drives against New Orleans, yet only one ended in a touchdown, and Rodgers made clear that part of the performance fell well short.
"I don't think we played very good on offense today," Rodgers said. "Credit to their defense, but we've got a lot to work on.
They're a 2-5 team. We're a 5-2 team, but we're not playing as well as we can at this point.
I thought our defense, obviously, played great. It was a disjointed game with the length of the possessions, but we were really bad in the red zone.
We've got to clean that up. We had too many penalties, especially 15-yard penalties."
He didn’t soften the message from there.
"However, it is hard to win in this league," Rodgers continued. "We traveled over on Thursday night, Friday.
Guys were tired, so it was a gutsy win for us. But we've got to go back, get healthy and play better.
We've got Cleveland next week."
That next test carries extra weight. The Steelers lost to the Browns in Week 4, and the Nov.
1 AFC North rematch gives Rodgers and Pittsburgh a chance to even the season series. For all the relief that came with a win in Paris, Rodgers made it plain: the quarterback scramble was a nice moment, but the offense has bigger problems to fix.
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