Rodgers & Queen Postgame Press Conference (Week 8 vs Green Bay Packers) | Pittsburgh Steelers

Rodgers & Queen Postgame Press Conference (Week 8 vs Green Bay Packers) | Pittsburgh Steelers

anyone. Aaron, how would you describe your emotions right now? Disappointed. Disappointed that I didn’t play better that we didn’t play better, especially in the second half. What do you feel like changed in the second half offensively? Not a whole lot. I just feel like we had some discipline issues and some penalties that were unnecessary. And then you’re not going to win a lot of games when we’re so bad on third down. Bos bailed us out with some four incredible kicks, but you play good teams, you need to score touchdowns, and we just stalled out in the high red zone. What can you say about Jordan Love and just how far he’s come over the years and also just how he played out tonight? Yeah, I thought I thought Jay Love played great and uh he was super efficient. You know, he didn’t get sacked, moved around really well, made some plays outside the pocket. Thought he played outstanding. Aaron, not finishing those drives. Is that enough carryover for the offense, you know, especially heading into the second half when you’re not able to finish in the first half? Well, it felt good. It was 16-7. They, you know, we had a nice drive there at the end of the first half and then, you know, just didn’t decide the game, but the one play where I don’t know if it seemed like the guy was off sides on third and eight and didn’t come up with a catch. They didn’t make a penalty call and then we punt it and they hit a kind of wild play to 85 to kind of get back in the game. That was like a big momentum turn in the game. Aaron, what does an offense have to do when you get behind the sticks to be able to overcome that? Like you were talking about those third downs in the high zone. Yeah, we had too many penalties, too many uh negative yardage plays, and then, you know, we just I wasn’t accurate enough on third down, and we weren’t creating enough space. But we’ll look at the film, and, you know, we’ll get better, and we got a good team coming in next week. I guess when you look at those, is it more about what do we do on third and long, or what do we do to not get to third? Well, it’s it’s either we’re having a sack on we had a sack on first down on one drive. We had a 15 yard penalty on third and two after the play that went to third and 17. Those aren’t high conversion drives or plays. So, you know, we got to be better on first and second down. I thought we ran it pretty well at times. Um didn’t get as much out of the keeper game as we have been. Didn’t get as much out of the action game. I’m sorry. From a personal standpoint, is the game kind of what you thought maybe emotionally with your feelings against the Packer? Yeah, like I said, it would it would have been different had it been in Lambo. Um, good to see a lot of people that I grew up with in the league and had time, you know, three hours before the game I was out there spending time with some of those guys and I enjoyed that. How did you compartmentalize some of the emotions that come with playing? Obviously, like you said, it’s different. would have been different if it were in Lambo, but how do you compartmentalize the conversations you have three hours before the game versus when the game starts? Well, that this game is about relationships. So, some of my dearest friends are not players, you know, and the guys who are still over there, uh, you know, I didn’t have much time with many of those guys. I had JLo in the room with me for three years. Um, but most of those guys were young guys other than Rashawn Gary played with me for a few years. Um, so the guys that I spent 18 years with, you know, training staff, equipment staff, nutritionist, um, Connor Lewis who was in our room for a while, Luke Getsy was there, Bodkus, Stenovich, you know, guys I spent a lot of time with. Uh, those friendships are special and it was good to see those guys. There’s the names you don’t know. Um, the fans in the in the crowd. Um, what was it like just to see that many Packers fans here and that you probably never shut down the go Pack go chant with the completion? Say the last part. What was your I mean at one point they were chanting go Pack go and you hit DK for a 25 yard. That had to be a little bit of a strange feeling to quiet that chant for once. I’ve heard that chant for 18 years. So um Packer fans travel really well. Uh, first time in a while I’ve used silent count for a home game. Um, that’s a credit to those Packer fans. Aaron, this team lost two games in a row now. What is needed to get this team back on track? Well, just an honest assessment, I think, uh, setting feelings aside and being okay with criticism of any position, any player, and being honest about what we need to do to improve. And then we can’t beat ourselves. I think in the three losses, there’s been times where we’ve had opportunities and we’ve we’ve hurt ourselves with, you know, turnovers um or just uh negative plays. So, we got to we got to cut those out. We got to get on the same page on offense and defense and and keep the faith. Aaron, did you sign a jersey for Jordan after the game minister? Are you comfortable sharing what you grew up to him? No, not comfortable sharing it. Aaron, uh, just Jordan’s game overall, what was your takeaway impression of how he performed today? Yeah, he played great. Played fantastic. Um, he’s had a really nice season. He’s been really efficient with the football. He’s opportunistic though. Um, I felt like he was very patient tonight. He took the run solutions. He took the checkdowns. Uh, moved in the pocket well. Thought he played really well. How much did Isaac Samoa’s injury kind of affect what you guys were able to do on offense, particularly in the second half, not being able to go to using the packages with Spencer and Darnell? Yeah, it took one of our pass catchers u you know, off the field and into the offensive line. So, that was uh some change up for us, but uh Isaac’s a warrior and he wanted to be back out there, but he was, you know, obviously not 100%. Um, we still have big personnel stuff that we can do with two tight ends instead of Darnell and Spence. And obviously that’s been an effective personnel group for us and didn’t have it. But I feel like we still had opportunities to run the ball. I thought Jaylen and his limited touches. Again, he’s a damn good runner. I thought he had a nice game. On the other side of the ball, how’s the flooding? Was Deshawn’s injury and everything he brings to this team day in and day out? Yeah, I love Deshawn. um from the first time I was out here in the spring of mini camp and he’s a special special guy and that uh it’s tough to see. Anyone else? Pat, what what do you think are some of the big issues that you guys are having in defending uh defending the pass? Whether it be man stuff, stuff over the middle. I mean, Tucker Craft was just repeating. It was like repeating over and over again. What What are What are some of the issues that you’re seeing? I think it just comes down to understanding situations. Um doing your job, doing it at a high level. Um just playing with a sense of urgency. I think when you understand the situations, um understand the formation at the end is is tails is keys. And um I think that’s the part that we got to be better at. Um, I think when it’s manto man, you just gota it’s man to man. Like you got to eat. Like I think we got the best guys to cover in the world. I think we just got to go out there and do it. It’s just um we just got to lock in on the details, do what we do. Um and just be better. How do you fix a an issue with sense of urgency? How do you get guys to play with more of that? I think you just got to do it at practice. We do it at practice. Um, I think when you get to the game and something go left, um, you kind of get a little timid or whatever, whatever you want to call it from that, I think you just got to hone in, lock in, and just be ready for the next play and the next play and the next play. Just keep going. Like, it’s a Warriors game. Like, things ain’t always be perfect. We just got to battle back. Are you seeing guys maybe getting frustrated and then compounding problems on defense? I think Yeah, I think I think sometimes when you get beat, you kind of get frustrated. Um especially like maybe you knew the situation or maybe you just got beat man to man. Like whatever it is, I think um when it comes to that, I think you kind of get frustrated as a human, you know, and as a player cuz you want to be great, you’re competitive. I think every single guy on our defense is competitive and not want to lose a rep. Um so I think that’s when we just got to hone in on the details and just be better. Just be honed in, just have a sense of urgency and be physical, be be fast, be aggressive. What do you think’s changed from the first half to the second half tonight? Um they they were better and we weren’t. I think that’s as simple as I could put it. I think they won their rest and we lost ours. When you talk about compounding issues, how much did Deshawn Elliott’s injury kind of snowball and impact the rest of the defense once he went out? Yeah, it hurt. Um Deshan’s a one of a kind player. U we know what he brings to this defense, but at the same time, I think the guys that we got are good players. I think they could step in and do the job. Um you know, and it it definitely hurt. Um got emotional about it, but I think at the end of the day, um we get played to play the sport. We we’re good at the sport. We’re competitive. I think it shouldn’t be no fall off. I think we should come in and dominate. Um, and that starts with me. I got to be better. So, that’s what it is. When you when you zoom out, just what do you feel like are some of the most biggest recurrent issues that are playing against defense overall? Situations. I think we just got to understand situations, understand formations, and know what they about to do. Um, I think that’s the biggest thing, just us honing in on that detail and being better at that. I think every time on third down, um, no matter what the distance is, we kind of fall short of that. Um, so I think we got to be better. Definitely think we got to be better at third downs for sure. Pat, the issue of covering the tight ends continues. What needs to happen to get that issue resolved? It’s going to be resolved. It’s going to be resolved this week. The third straight game that the defense hasn’t forced a turnover. Is there anything that you can attribute that to? I think we just got to hunt it hunt it more. I think there’s opportunities there. Um, I think we just got to be more I think when we have a more level of comfort and we had a sense of urgency pre- snap, I think postnap will be better. I think um that will lead to turnovers. I think guys in the right spot um guys flying to the ball doing the things that we do at a high level. Get back to doing that and I think we’ll get the ball. You were playing against the team that Aaron played for 18 years. Did you get a sense of what this game meant to him and did he address the locker room after the game? Um he did not address the locker room but I we all knew what it meant. Um, and that’s that’s the stuff that kind of stings the most is you want to go get that for him. Like obviously with me last year, the whole talk and that you got the win the first time. Um, you kind of get to the next year and he’s in that situation. You want to go get it for him. Um, so that definitely stings. Um, definitely definitely stings. You got kind of chippy on the field a couple times. Is that because of the heightened emotion knowing that you want to win this game for Aaron or was it being frustrated at yourself? What were kind of some of the factors? Just football. You get chippy every game. I think at the end of the day, we’re competitive. Emotions are high. We’re guys. So, I think at the end of the day, it’s going to be chippy. I It’s football. Like, it’s a competitive sport. It’s a contact sport. It’s going to get chippy. It’s going to be rough. It’s It’s football. You when you’re giving up Yak the way you were and and Craft had over 100 yards himself, what do you attribute that to? I couldn’t hear you. I’m sorry. When you give up as much yards after the catch as you were, Craft had over 100 by himself. What do you attribute that to? I think we just got to be better, honestly. I think I don’t think it’s no certain thing. thing I think is just being better. I think um understanding who he is and knowing what he can do. Um you watching the film, you know what he can do. You know what routes he run certain formations, certain situations, what what you going to get from him. I think we just got to hone in on that. It’s nothing more than just knowing situations, knowing personnel, knowing who’s in the game, what they do, how they do it. Um and you know, it’s it’s that simple. As a defense, how frustrating is it that you guys are able to stop the run and a league springs somewhere else? I mean, how do you kind of describe that feeling? It sucks. It sucks. You want to put it all together um in games. Um you go through in practice all week, you have a good practice and don’t work out the game. Um so it definitely sucks, but I think at the end of the day, we’re going to get better. Um it’s a long season. We just going to keep keep building, keep stacking, learn from these um and just get better. Coming into the season, you know, a lot of guys on defense weren’t afraid to talk about the potential that this group had. What gives you confidence at this point in the year after a lot of struggles that you guys can still reach your full potential? I know who we are. I know who I am. Um, I’m not one to shy away from things. You know, anytime there’s fire, I’m willing to go run in it. I don’t I don’t care. Um, starting with me, I got to be better. Um, and every single day, these guys going to get whatever they need from me. Energy, focus, whatever it is. Certainly urgency. Um, I’m I’m I’m going to be there for them. I’m going to get there. I’m going to get to the ball. I’m going to do whatever I got to do to help this team win. Um, and you know, the best way I could do that is by lead by example. You know, it’s just one thing to talk, but I’m going try to lead and do that for them. When you have two straight games like this, giving up this many points, this many yards, do you worry about losing confidence as a group and even as individuals? Yeah, I think I think from time to time we’re human, you know, so that that that that happens, but at the end of the day, you know, we got to pull each other back as as a brotherhood, as a family. Um, and just try to, you know, battle back from these things. You know, always always keep your family close. Always try to do the best you can to keep everybody locked in and close with each other so we can battle back from these things. Appreciate y’all. Thank you, guys. Anyone else coming? Uh, no. No one else coming.

Aaron Rodgers & Patrick Queen speak to the media about the Steelers matchup against the Green Bay Packers in Week 8 of the 2025 season.

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