Thanks to some big performances, most notably from Aaron Rodgers, the Pittsburgh Steelers managed to escape from New York with a narrow victory. A turbulent offseason led to a lot of new faces on both sides of the ball, and it certainly took some time for all of that to jell. However, one player who’s been around for a while, Alex Highsmith, was impressed with some of those new names.
“I mean, it’s awesome, seeing those guys come in and making plays for us,” Highsmith said, speaking to media after the game. “All of those guys are great players, and so all of them made great plays today. Aaron of course, DK making great plays, and then Jalen was making plays all over the field today. And so, it’s just awesome having guys come in and buy in to our culture.”
The Aaron Rodgers-DK Metcalf connection is critical for the Steelers’ offense this year, and there were some bumpy moments in their first action together on Sunday. However, Metcalf did still put together a good performance. He only had four receptions, but picked up an impressive 83 yards with them.
Metcalf did some nice work with the ball in his hands with a few chunk plays. However, sometimes you just need a bit of luck, which is what the Steelers had here.
The defense certainly wasn’t as good as many expected it to be. However, they did come up big when necessary. Highsmith gives some credit to Jalen Ramsey, who iced the game for Pittsburgh with this huge hit to force a turnover on downs.
That said, the Steelers don’t win this game without Rodgers. Highsmith gave him some additional praise after the game as well.
“He’s one of the best to ever do it,” Highsmith said. “He was out there doing his thing today. He’s a great leader for us… Putting up 34 points was just huge.”
Aaron Rodgers’ Steelers debut could not have gone better. He threw for four touchdowns and carried an offense that struggled to establish the run throughout the game. Aside from Russell Wilson’s 400-yard performance in 2024, the Steelers haven’t had that type of quarterback play since Ben Roethlisberger. It ended up being the difference and helped the Steelers win a game they likely wouldn’t have last year.
There are certainly some things to clean up heading into Week 2. But for now, Aaron Rodgers and the rest of Pittsburgh’s new faces did just enough for a win.
