The Pittsburgh Steelers sent their quarterback out there tonight, held together with tape and grit. Aaron Rodgers is dealing with fractures in his wrist, and everyone knew this game with Buffalo was going to be a bruiser. Maybe it was too much to ask. He took another heavy hit and ended up bleeding on the turf.

Early in the third quarter, on the very first snap, Joey Bosa came crashing in off the edge. The Bills’ pass rusher looped around as the quarterback scanned the field, then swallowed him whole. He never felt Bosa bearing down, lost the ball on the way down, and came up with blood on his face. And he wasn’t ready to take another snap tonight.

Aaron Rodgers said he wasn’t ready to take a snap under center tonight, but wishes to change that next week.

“Aaron Rodgers: “I’m not ready to take a snap under center yet,” the quarterback said.

The wrist had nothing to do with the bloody nose, but the reality is he probably shouldn’t have been out there to begin with. Before kickoff, insider Ian Rapoport reported Rodgers is dealing with at least three fractures in that wrist, one of them the kind of break that only happens with heavy force. Playing through that against Buffalo’s front was always a risk, and it didn’t pay off.

Before he exited, Rodgers had thrown just 10 passes for 117 yards and no touchdowns. The fumble Bosa forced was scooped up by corner Christian Benford, who ran it back 17 yards for the Bills’ first score of the night.

Backup Mason Rudolph came in for a series, and it didn’t go much better. He fired an interception straight to Benford, and Buffalo turned that mistake into another touchdown, stretching the lead to nine. Rodgers eventually returned, but by the time he was pulled again on the final drive, the Steelers were drifting to a 26–7 loss.

Now the question becomes next week, and whether Rodgers should even try. He hopes to recover quickly, but the risk of putting him behind center too soon is obvious. We saw the cost of risking it tonight. Before that sack, the Steelers were leading 7-3. It changed everything. Rodgers simply isn’t 100%, and him staying on the pitch would not make anything better right now.

The offensive display was expected. But what’s harder to explain is the defense, particularly the run defense that used to be the backbone of this team. It sputtered.

The Steelers’ shockingly poor run defense

The Steelers came into this matchup knowing exactly what the assignment was: slow down Buffalo’s run game or spend the night chasing their own mistakes. The Steelers are the second-best rushing team in the league, racking up 147.2 yards per game. Running back James Cook and Josh Allen account for a large part of those yards.

Before the game, Steelers’ star edge rusher T.J. Watt warned the locker room against the Bills’ passing game, but it feels like they didn’t listen to him.

“You guys hear me preach every week, you’ve got to stop the run first and foremost, and obviously, whenever an offense is able to effectively run the ball, it opens up a lot of things for them. So if we can keep him bottled up as long as possible to hopefully get them in one-dimensional situations, it’ll lead to success for us,” he said.

Well, that went horribly. The Bills came in already leaning on the ground game more than they have in years, and the Steelers made them look like the league’s old-school rushing kings.

James Cook looked like he was gliding through open doors, and when Ray Davis came in behind him, the script didn’t change. By night’s end, the Bills had piled up 249 rushing yards, the most any visiting team has ever dropped on the Steelers since they moved into Acrisure Stadium in 2001.

And this wasn’t some “the Steelers were short-handed” storyline, either. Yes, both starting linebackers and multiple defensive starters were banged up. But injuries don’t excuse getting shoved around for four quarters.