Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers faced heavy criticism after one of the worst games of his career, throwing two interceptions and struggling to score in the Week 10 matchup. However, former quarterback Ben Roethlisberger has a different perspective on Rodgers’ performance.

Roethlisberger admitted the veteran QB didn’t have a “good day.”

“Like he missed more guys like early on DK Metcalf,” he said. “That deep ball to kind of a little scramble throw it back across the pile.”

But Roethlisberger also added that the entire blame shouldn’t go to Rodgers and pointed out the QB’s second interception that was slipped through wide receiver Calvin Austin III’s hands.

“He had a bad day. He admitted that, too,” the former QB said on Footbahlin with Ben Roethlisberger.

But the podcast host also explained that the credit for the Steelers’ 5-4 record and their 1st position in the AFC North has been mostly due to Rodgers.

“He’s been the glue and the catalyst that’s got this team to where we are. Like if it wasn’t for him this this would have been a much different season in my opinion. Record-wise,” he said.

And he might be right when we look at how the Steelers began their season. They opened with a good 4-1 start. In Week 1, Rodgers and the Steelers defeated the New York Jets, with the veteran quarterback throwing four touchdowns. Although they fell to the Seattle Seahawks in Week 2, the team bounced back in Week 3 when Rodgers made a clutch touchdown pass to Austin III with just over two minutes remaining.

In Week 4, he connected with wide receiver DK Metcalf for an 80-yard touchdown that ultimately sealed their 24-21 win over the Minnesota Vikings. But the same can’t be said about the game against the Los Angeles Chargers.

Roethlisberger also had some advice for the Steelers’ offense and urged that the offense needs to do a better job in protecting the quarterback.

“I think that if we would run the ball a little bit more, I think it would create openings for him in the back end, openings for DK, and openings for other guys.”

Now, Rodgers was sacked three times during the game. This also includes his sack by outside linebacker Khalil Mack, resulting in a safety. He explained the situation during the press conference.

“I didn’t really see anybody open, and I felt like when I stepped up, I saw Mack, and I didn’t realize that he had kind of lost touch with (tackle) Troy (Fautanu),” Rodgers said of the safety. “I should have thrown the ball on somebody’s feet there.”

However, as a veteran QB, he knows where the criticism will be directed. During the press conference, he even admitted to being a  “little bit off.”

But like Roethlisberger, the Steelers’ coach, Mike Tomlin, didn’t blame Rodgers for everything that went wrong.

Mike Tomlin addressed the issue with Aaron Rodgers’ performance

Coach Tomlin initially refused to talk about Rodgers.

“How would you?” Tomlin said when asked about the QB. “Next.”

Rodgers recorded his lowest completion percentage in five years at 51.6%. However, the coach believes that the QB is part of the offense that got outperformed by the Chargers. And, he has no long-term concerns about the player.

“Sunday night was what it was,” he said. “But I have no long-term reservations about his ability to play the position and play the position at a high level for us.”

Coach Tomlin seemed confident that Rodgers would continue playing at a high level. That shifted the focus to whether the struggles were due to the Chargers’ defensive coordinator Jesse Minter’s strategies. But when asked about it, the coach didn’t have a direct response.

“I’m just not going to allow your words to be my words, that’s all,” he said.

As of now, it’s clear that the coach has complete faith in his quarterback, even as he stressed the need for the offense to improve. Now, while the Steelers have climbed to the top with Rodgers leading the way, they’ll need to keep getting better to hold that position, especially with the Baltimore Ravens steadily improving.