CHICAGO — After the touchdown quieted the home crowd, the opponent stood in the corner of the end zone at Soldier Field. Staring directly at a throng of Chicago Bears fans, he mimed putting on a championship belt.
The move was recognizable to all as one of Aaron Rodgers’ signature celebrations. Over his 18 seasons in Green Bay, Rodgers compiled a 24-5 record against the Bears, including wins in the last eight matchups. But on Sunday, it wasn’t Rodgers but T.J. Watt celebrating. The star pass rusher had strip-sacked Bears quarterback Caleb Williams and Nick Herbig jumped on the loose ball in the end zone for an early defensive touchdown.
Rodgers, meanwhile, stood on the sideline in sweats, a mere spectator. The quarterback who, in his own words, “owned” the Bears over the past two decades, entered Sunday with a questionable injury designation after he broke a bone in his left wrist suffered last week. He was fitted with a cast or brace and was a partial participant at practice on Thursday and Friday. But on Saturday, the Steelers made the decision to start Mason Rudolph. Coach Mike Tomlin said the lack of practice reps was the biggest motivating factor.
“It was a prudent decision to make,” Tomlin said. “Certainly, it wasn’t fluid week for (Rodgers). It was a fluid week for Mason (Rudolph) in terms of reps and so forth.”
The Steelers needed the defense and the running game to step up and support Rudolph; at times, they did. Offensive coordinator Arthur Smith gave Rudolph a number of easy completions on screen passes. He also leaned into his heavy personnel packages — including using offensive lineman Spencer Anderson as fullback — and dug deep into his bag of tricks with a Wildcat formation and a fake tush push. As a result, the Steelers exposed a Bears defense that was missing countless key pieces, racking up a season-high 186 rushing yards. And on defense, the Steelers produced one touchdown and contributed to another by forcing a fumble.
However, Bears quarterback Caleb Williams threw for three touchdowns, repeatedly connecting on in-breaking routes over the middle of the field. Rudolph, who completed 24 of 31 passes for 171 yards, settled in after throwing an interception on his first pass. But his two turnovers, including a third-quarter fumble, proved costly. The Bears produced 14 points off of turnovers — 21 if you include a turnover on downs.
“Like I just told the team, man, it’s tight when it’s good-on-good, particularly when you’re in a hostile environment,” Tomlin said. “Any number of plays could have changed the outcome of the game, and that’s why we just got to live every down singularly in all three phases.”
The defeat was especially damaging for the Steelers and their playoff hopes. At one point in early October, they sat at 4-1 and held a commanding lead in the always-unpredictable AFC North. At the time, the Ravens were 1-4 and quarterback Lamar Jackson was sidelined with an injury. The opportunity was there for the taking.
But beginning with a surprising Thursday night loss to Joe Flacco and the Bengals, the Steelers have lost four of their last six games. A division lead that’s been slipping away for weeks officially changed hands on Sunday. After the Steelers’ loss and the Ravens’ win over the Jets, both teams are now 6-5. But because of tiebreakers, the Ravens now sit atop the AFC North.
In the current playoff picture, the Steelers are on the outside looking in. They have the AFC’s eighth-best record in a seven-team playoff field. According to The Athletic’s Playoff Simulator, the Steelers have an 18 percent chance of making the playoffs. There’s still a path. If they can upset the Bills, beat the Dolphins and Browns and split with the Ravens, they’ll get to 10 wins and have a 93 percent chance to make the playoffs. But a 9-8 finish gives them only a 46 percent chance.
“I’ve been a Pittsburgh Steeler long enough to know we’ve been behind and down in the division and up, and there’s just it’s a natural ebb and flow season,” Rudolph said. “I’m very confident in our guys to keep fighting and end up on top.”
Tomlin said after the game that he anticipates Rodgers will be ready to return in seven days to play the Bills after a full week of practice. The Steelers need more than just Rodgers to return; they need him to perform at a high level to steady a team that’s showing cracks in all three phases.
Back when the Steelers signed Rodgers, the optimistic view was that a dominant defense and a reliable running game would support the veteran QB. If the Steelers got consistent performances from their defense and running game, they wouldn’t need Rodgers to play at his MVP best. But they haven’t. Running the ball has been an inconsistent endeavor (aside from Sunday) and the defense has fallen well short of expectations.
“We have a lot of things that need to be fixed, fixed quickly,” Watt said. “We need to be playing our best football at this stretch of the season. We need to get better and get better quickly.”
It would be one thing for Watt to make this statement in September. It’s jarring to hear this kind of comment at the end of November. It appeared the defense had found some stability beginning in Week 9 when they moved Jalen Ramsey to safety full-time. However, they regressed on Sunday, a game when they needed the defense to be at its best with a backup QB behind center. Overly reliant on turnovers, the Steelers have struggled to get off the field on possession downs (Chicago went 7-for-13 on third down and 1-for-1 on fourth down). Sunday marked the fifth time the defense has surrendered 30 points or more.
It only gets tougher from here. Four of the final six games are against offenses ranked in the top 10 in scoring entering Sunday: Bills (second), Lions (third), and the Ravens (ninth) twice. To get into the playoffs, the Steelers defense will need to show it can stop playoff-caliber offenses — and Rodgers will have to be at his best in what could turn into a month of shootouts.
“We got some good teams coming up,” inside linebacker Patrick Queen said. “It’s going to show us where we’re at. We can prove to the world who we are — or we’re going to fold. That’s the mindset. I know me. I like to compete and I like to compete at the highest level, regardless who is on the field.”