Thursday, the Pittsburgh Steelers’ offensive line did a nice job protecting Aaron Rodgers against the Cincinnati Bengals’ pass rush. In fact, the hardest hit Rodgers took all night came from his own teammate.
In a bizarre moment following Rodgers’ 68-yard touchdown to TE Pat Freiermuth that temporarily put the Steelers ahead 31-30, left tackle Broderick Jones partied too hard with Rodgers. Sprinting over, he tackled Rodgers from behind, taking both to the ground. On the ground for a moment, Rodgers angrily got up and shoved Jones away.
While players getting emotional during games is common and often not worth writing about, this is one of the strangest circumstances of it happening. Even former offensive lineman Trai Essex couldn’t recall a moment like this.
“I’ve literally have never seen this shit before,” he wrote on Twitter/X after the game. “Obviously it wasn’t intentional by 77 but it was just dumb and a lack of awareness.”
Offensive linemen are usually the first to celebrate with their quarterback and earlier this month, Rodgers praised Jones and said how he’s the first person to celebrate with him. But Jones clearly got carried away in the moment. Rodgers wasn’t expecting to be taken to the ground and could’ve been injured, though he fortunately seemed to be unharmed.
Rodgers was frustrated throughout much of the day, scolding RB Jaylen Warren after pitching the ball back to him on a flea flicker that wasn’t called. Good and bad, Rodgers has always been one to wear his emotions on his sleeve.
Rodgers finished the day with 249 passing yards, four touchdowns, and two interceptions. Pittsburgh’s offense finished with 396 yards of total offense with RB Jaylen Warren nearly rushing for 127 yards, two short of his top mark. For the second-straight week and third time this season, Rodgers wasn’t sacked. Except, of course, by Jones, who will need to slow his roll the next time Rodgers and the Steelers’ offense find the end zone.
With the loss, the Steelers drop to 4-2. Under Mike Tomlin, Pittsburgh is now 2-10 in Thursday night road games and 0-7 against the AFC North.
Pittsburgh will host the Green Bay Packers next Sunday night. It will be Rodgers’ first game against Green Bay, one that will produce plenty of pre- and post-game storylines. Probably none as odd as this one though.
