The Steelers walked out of Week 2 with a mess on their hands, and the root of it was impossible to miss: Aaron Rodgers and an offensive line that couldn’t hold up when the Patriots turned up the heat.
Pittsburgh’s offense never found a pulse in the 20-3 loss on the road in New England. The team had already flirted with big plays in Week 1 against the Atlanta Falcons, coming inches from connecting on several deep shots.
This time, there was no such spark. The ball barely moved with any consistency, and Rodgers spent most of the afternoon under pressure.
By halftime, the numbers already told a bleak story. Rodgers had completed 12 of 22 passes for 84 yards, with no touchdowns and no interceptions. His 63.4 passer rating through two quarters didn’t come close to capturing how rough the offense looked.
The second half didn’t bring any kind of recovery. Rodgers finished 23 of 39 for 187 yards, averaging just 4.8 yards per attempt, with no touchdowns and one interception in the red zone on a pass that bounced off Germie Bernard’s hands. ESPN stats gave him a 60.5 passer rating.
But the quarterback’s stat line was only part of the problem. The line in front of him was just as alarming.
Rodgers was hit over and over, and the Steelers looked lost trying to sort out the blitz. He was sacked four times for minus-43 yards and kept getting knocked down, forced to drag himself back up after play after play.
Right guard Spencer Anderson had a rough outing, too. Late in the game, he missed a stunt that led to a strip-sack on Rodgers and a scoop-and-score for the Patriots defense. Offensive tackles Troy Fautanu and Dylan Cook also had trouble early and often.
Even with Pittsburgh winning the time of possession battle 32:47 to 27:13, none of it translated into anything useful on the scoreboard. Instead, Mike McCarthy’s team was left with a humiliating road defeat and a growing list of concerns.
There are options on the line if the Steelers want to shake things up. Fans, and even former players, are already pushing for rookie first-round pick Max Iheanachor and rookie third-round pick Gennings Dunker to get a chance. After this performance, an offensive line shakeup would not be a surprise.
Rodgers, though, is a different story. The Steelers are stuck with him, and he isn’t going anywhere in the starting role until Pittsburgh is officially out of playoff contention.
That’s what makes Week 2 so troubling. Rodgers had looked encouraging the week before despite some missed deep chances, but against the Patriots it was the opposite. Mike Vrabel’s defense clearly saw the formula: blitz Rodgers, keep him from making plays downfield under pressure, and don’t worry much about him escaping the pocket.
That’s a blueprint other opponents will notice, and the Steelers now have to live with it.
There were plenty of ugly takeaways from this loss, but the biggest one is staring Pittsburgh right in the face: the Steelers have an Aaron Rodgers problem and an offensive line problem, and not all of it is fixable in 2026.
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Steelers Drive Turned Into A Bizarre Mess Fans Need To See
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Even after the recovery, Pittsburgh was left staring at a 4th-and-43, a rare and ugly spot that summed up how badly the possession had gone off the rails. For a team trying to settle into the game and protect its rhythm, the sequence was the kind of chaos that fans replay because it is hard to believe on first watch. [Read more 🡒]