Just last week, the Pittsburgh Steelers’ head coach, Mike Tomlin, allegedly threw shade at the Browns’ management for trading Joe Flacco to the divisional rivals, the Cincinnati Bengals. Flacco took it personally and played wonderfully by completing 31 of 47 passes for 342 passing yards and 3 touchdowns. On the other side, Aaron Rodgers‘ 2 interceptions made them lose the key moments at Paycor Stadium.

“The first half, we allowed them to run the ball too much,” the coach said in his post-game press conference. “They had about 100 yards rushing at the half, and then we turned the ball over a couple times, and so that just kind of set a negative trajectory, and we’re fighting uphill the rest of the way. I certainly appreciate the fight. But man, we got to be cleaner. We got to be better. And we weren’t tonight. And that’s life in this business. We certainly got to learn from it, man, and keep pushing.”

The Black and the Gold scored a touchdown on the opening drive of the game and sat at a 10-0 score with 10 minutes remaining in the second quarter. But the Bengals WR Ja’Marr Chase scored a TD at the 4:38 mark in the 2nd quarter. Additionally, safety Jordan Battle intercepted A-Rod’s pass for DK Metcalf on the next drive. They had 9 carries for 97 rushing yards compared to 12 rushes for 65 yards by the visitors.

The very next drive, Flacco found Tee Higgins and scored another touchdown. Suddenly, the Pittsburgh Steelers pressed the panic button. On the next drive, right cornerback DJ Turner intercepted A-Rod’s pass to Metcalf. To make matters worse for the visiting team, the Cincinnati Bengals scored a field goal on the last drive before halftime, ending the half on a 17-10 score, a 7-point lead.

Even defensively, the Black and the Gold failed to control the gaps. Higgins was open when Flacco darted the ball for 29 yards. “We didn’t do a good enough job of gap control. They popped a couple big ones, and it kind of created an unsteady environment,” the coach said while admitting the errors.

However, he acknowledged that their poor record haunted him. “Yeah, we won’t be defined by this performance, but it certainly was disappointing tonight.” This is Tomlin’s 2-9 record on the road in Thursday games, including 0-6 against divisional opponents. Additionally, the Steelers are 1-5 on Thursday night since the start of the 2019 season.

No doubt, Tomlin’s QB tried to come back, but failed.

Aaron Rodgers clarified his mistakes

With 2 picks on 2 back-to-back drives, everyone wanted to know if the signal caller had communication issues. But he didn’t give a straightforward answer, leaving the question for later. “I was trying to look off the safety, and I was just kind of throwing to a spot. I got to go back and look at it,” he said. But when asked again about the flea flicker, he clarified that there were no communication issues. “It wasn’t supposed to be a flea flicker. Yeah, we weren’t on the same page,” he added.

However, he ended the post-game conference with confidence, claiming that losses do happen. But they are still 4-2, first in the AFC North division. “We want to win every game. There needs to be an expectation of winning, but this is a short week, division opponent, anything can happen,” A-Rod said in reply to the question about the rollercoaster finish.

With the final 2 minutes remaining in the game, the Steelers had a 1-point lead. But Flacco had the ball. With 11 seconds left on the clock, kicker Evan McPherson kicked a 36-yard field goal that took them ahead 33-31. But when asked, Aaron Rodgers doesn’t want such finishes. “I’m not going to ride the roller coaster, and I know Mike isn’t. And hopefully you guys follow suit,” he added while ending the conference. He also said that they will try to dominate the upcoming home games. But despite the loss, he had some good news.

The veteran also moved up in the NFL history books by recording 249 passing yards. He surpassed the Steelers legend Ben Roethlisberger and sat in 5th place among the QBs for highest passing yards (64,222). His predecessor at the GB Packers, Brett Favre, sits above him with 71,838 yards. But that might be a gap too long for him to cover.