5 takeaways—must wins, Rodgers overseas, LBs, RBs, FG

PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – Steelers are doing what they have to do while Aaron Rodgers is playing well and speaking his mind. The middle linebackers were huge as the running game performed as did the field goal unit.

It’s the five takeaways from the Steelers 16-10 win against New Orleans in Paris.

Beat who you should have

Steelers are 5-2 and tied for first place in the AFC North with Cleveland doing what they needed to do, beating the teams they should beat. It is not to take anything away from the win, as you heard said many times, wins are hard to get in the NFL. There are some wins you have to get, beating Tampa Bay with an undrafted rookie quarterback and then a two-win New Orleans team follows with that logic. Many can recite those games the Steelers lost but should have won over the years, credit for finishing the job, even if they were close games, the last two weeks.

Middles were big

Oft-criticized as a group, and Patrick Queen as an individual, the Steelers middle linebackers showed up big on Sunday and were a huge part of the win. Payton Wilson made one of the plays of the game, intercepting a ball with the Saints at the Steelers 10-yard line. Impressive that he made the play, but the diving, fingertip catch made it more so. Add into the fact he had a personal foul earlier in that series and atoned it for it with a game-altering play. Afterwards he credited his coaches for putting him in the right position. Rodgers noted Wilson intercepted him in practice on the same play.

Queen was the Steelers leading tackler with 10 (7 solo), a sack, tackle for loss, quarterback hurry and pass defensed. The consistency hasn’t been what he wants, but he showed up with a double-digit tackle performance helping to a win.

That’s the split

Early in the season, Rico Dowdle was the starting tailback and it appeared he would get a slight majority of the snaps or at worst an even split. After Dowdle’s injury, Jaylen Warren was a workhorse and a show horse, getting over 90% of the snaps and succeeding, named the AFC Offensive Player of the Week. With Dowdle back, and given Warren’s success, Sunday’s split of running touches was spot on for now—Warren with double the carries, but both contributing. Warren finished with 18 rushes for 101 yards and 3 receptions for 36 yards. Dowdle had 9 carries for 41 yards and 6 receptions for 45 yards. The pair combined for 223 yards of total offense with Warren still the lead, but the first-year Steeler getting an opportunity as to not wear the 27-year-old Warren out. What is also cool about their story, both were undrafted.

Aaron’s World

Rodgers had no turnovers, an 8-yard run that helped seal a win and moved into third place alone on the all-time NFL passing touchdowns list with 540 passing Payton Manning. The 42-year-old is also seventh in the league currently in touchdown passes. He also had a few opinions after the game

On the 3^rd down run

• “Sometimes you got to suck it up and make a play for your guys. I think because I am so much less athletic than I used to be it actually fires up the guys more on the sidelines. I think the guys were super-excited I made that run because it’s so unexpected. So it’s kind of like a backhanded compliment, but I’ll take it.”

Not satisfied

• “We still got to play better on offense to help our defense out.”

Needed more time overseas

• Rodgers is thankful for all four of the international games he played, but wished he could have come over and enjoyed Ireland and France for a longer period of time.
• “I wish there was a mandate too from the league, and they (NFL owners) would have to open up their pocket books too, and maybe they are a little tight on money. I think they should mandate every team coming over Sunday or Monday to really enjoy the culture and the place you are going. You could do events in those cities and outreach stuff and community work, but they won’t because they are a little tight.”
• He said he was a part of CBA talk in 2011 when there was talk of doing 16 different international games where the season would be 16 regular season games with two bye weeks (one of those bye weeks was recovery from an international game)
• “Owners pushed for 17 games for the extra revenue and they care so much for player safety.” (Rodgers explained as to why the 16 game, 2 bye week schedule didn’t happen)

FG Fire Drill

You don’t know if they will need it again, but impressive how the Steelers field goal team ended the first half. On a third-down play Rodgers was sacked with 19 seconds and no timeouts. As the offense ran off the field, the field goal unit ran on, got in place and perfectly executed a 47-yard field goal. Christian Kuntz perfect snap to holder Cameron Johnston and Chris Boswell drilled a normal ball right down the middle for one of four field goals Sunday.

Recognition here as well to Kaden Wetjen for his career-long 35-yard kickoff return which helped setup the first field goal.