Following one of the worst individual performances in Aaron Rodgers’ career during Sunday night’s mistake-filled loss to the Chargers, Steelers coach Mike Tomlin offered a blunt assessment of the two-time NFL MVP’s outing. Tomlin stared down a reporter when asked to evaluate Rodgers’ two-interception, one-touchdown stat line that also featured a 51.6% completion rate, Rodgers’ worst single-game number in five seasons.
“How would you?” Tomlin said. “Next.”
Pittsburgh’s 25-10 dud was its third loss in the past four games since a 4-1 start with Rodgers. It trimmed the Steelers lead in the AFC North to just one game ahead of the Baltimore Ravens.
“We, as an offensive collective were off today, and certainly, he’s a component of that,” Tomlin said. “I’ll let him speak for himself, but we certainly got to be better. Didn’t feel like they did anything unanticipated, but certainly, they outperformed us, particularly in possession-down play.”
At one point in the first quarter, Rodgers ate a sack in his own end zone and fumbled, before falling on the football. The lone Steelers touchdown came on Roman Wilson’s 27-yard reception from Rodgers with 2:57 to play, which snapped 25 unanswered points from Los Angeles.
“This was not my best performance,” Rodgers said. “I got to play better than this for us to win. Whatever it takes … if it’s better checks, if it’s better throws, whatever it is, I got to play better. I will. … We got to play better on offense, for sure. But this is part of the season. There’s ebbs and flows, there’s ups and downs, and we can’t ride the wave.”
Sacked three times by a harassing Chargers defense, Rodgers missed on all five passing attempts that traveled at least 15 yards. Leading receiver DK Metcalf was ineffective for the second straight game, finishing with three catches for 35 yards on seven targets.
“A lot of stuff wasn’t working,” Rodgers said. “We were bad on third down. I was just a little bit off. I missed DK early. Could have been a big play. … I missed some throws for sure. And then we weren’t getting guys open … times the guys were open, I missed some throws I usually make.”
The Steelers host the Bengals next week before traveling to play the Bears in Chicago.
“We stunk it up tonight,” Tomlin said. “We’ll be back.”
