Rodgers Silences Critics After Steelers’ Wild Week 1 Win
o one would have been too surprised if Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers rubbed a little salt in the wound of his former team after beating the New York Jets on Sunday. Rodgers has that type of reputation, and he voiced his displeasure about his departure from the Jets this offseason.
But instead, Rodgers targeted critics of the Steelers offense after defeating his former team in Week 1. The quarterback opened up on those critics when CBS Sports’ Evan Washburn noted during their postgame interview that he looked comfortable in Arthur Smith’s offense.
“There’s a lot of garbage being talked about either myself or Arthur out there. How are we going to co-exist? We’ve got a great relationship,” Rodgers told Washburn on the field right after the game. “He called a really good game. I’ve got to play a little bit better in spots. But happy to be 1-0.”
Rodgers completed 22 of 30 passes for 244 yards and four touchdowns with zero interceptions during his Steelers debut. He also led the team into field-goal range in the final two minutes of regulation.
The Steelers held on to defeat the Jets 34-32 in Week 1.
Aaron Rodgers Impresses in First Game With Arthur Smith
The 41-year-old quarterback didn’t play at all during the preseason. That made Sunday his first game action in Smith’s offense.
Few pundits would have been shocked if the Steelers started slowly on offense. The team hasn’t been able to score a lot of points in recent Week 1 matchups. Rodgers also came into Sunday with a poor season opener record this decade.
But the veteran signal-caller delivered, becoming the first Steelers quarterback with four touchdown passes in a game since Ben Roethlisberger.
The Steelers needed every bit of Rodgers’ production too. The Pittsburgh-New York matchup surprisingly became a shootout, with the Steelers hyped defense giving up 394 total yards.
The Jets outgained the Steelers on the ground 182-53. But behind Rodgers’ efficient day and four touchdowns, Pittsburgh outscored the Jets by 11 points in the fourth quarter to win.
Rodgers completed four passes for DK Metcalf and Calvin Austin III, who were Pittsburgh’s top two receivers Sunday. Rodgers’ four touchdown passes went to four different pass-catchers — Austin, Ben Skowronek, Jaylen Warren and Jonnu Smith.
Jordan Love Has 1 Word for Packers Defense After Week 1 Win
The Packers were set to enter the 2025 season in hopes of making continued progress toward Super Bowl contention, and considering they’d gone from 9-8 two years ago to 11-6 last season, progress seemed like a reasonable goal.
Instead, Green Bay went out and made an extraordinarily rare move for this franchise, landing the highest profile star on the trade market, arguably the best defensive player in the game, Micah Parsons. That was just a bit more than a week ago and now, the Packers’ end game has shifted dramatically.
It’s pretty much Super Bowl or bust from here on. For that to happen, what had been a good Packers defense (fifth in yardage allowed, sixth in points) would have to turn great. On Sunday in a 27-13 win in the opener against a Lions team that won both games against Green Bay in 2024 and had won six of seven meetings between the two, the defense was not just great.
It was, in the one word that quarterback Jordan Love used, “Dominant.”
Packers Defense ‘Dominant’
The Packers limited Detroit to just six points before a late-fourth-quarter touchdown. Quarterback Jared Goff went for 225 yards on 31-for-39 passing, but was intercepted and sacked four times, including once by Parsons.
The defense had allowed 235 yards on the ground to the Lions in two games in 2024, but held Detroit to 46 yards on 22 carries on Sunday.
“Dominant, I would say,” Love answered when asked to describe the defense. “That is a really good offense over there. Any time you can hold them to, going into that last drive there, six points, that’s a dominant performance. That’s something that is a great start for them, but obviously it is something we want to keep being able to build on. That shows you how good of a defense we’ve got because that is a pretty good offense over there.”
Jordan Love Threw for 188 Yards in Week 1
Love was just 16-for-22 himself, with 188 yards passing and two touchdowns, but the Packers’ defense was critical, the rushing game added 78 yards and the special teams were spot on, especially punter Dan Whelan, who landed to kicks inside the 20.
It all came together to give the Packers a win in the NFC North, after going 1-5 against the Lions, Vikings and Bears in 2024.
“Big picture, it all starts with the NFC North. So to have a North team come in here, Week 1, be able to get the job done, go to 1-0 in the North is the start we wanted right there,” Love said. “Big, big picture for us is, yeah the Super Bowl is down the road but it all starts with the NFC North so we gotta go out there and obviously get off to a better start than what we did last year and obviously it starts with what we did today.
“This is a team that got us the last couple of games we played against them. It was a big test, coming in here Week 1, really good team coming in. We know what type of team we have, but it definitely confirms it and gives you more confidence to keep building on. But obviously it still is Week 1.”
