The Pittsburgh Steelers escaped the Meadowlands with a two-point victory against the New York Jets. The Steelers scored more than 30 points behind four passing touchdowns from quarterback Aaron Rodgers.
But it still wasn’t exactly a pretty performance, especially from the Steelers defense. Pittsburgh allowed 394 yards, including 182 on the ground against the Jets.
Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin was diplomatic when addressing the team’s defensive deficiencies in Week 1. Tomlin stressed that the unit will make the proper corrections and pointed to the Jets lack of tendencies with a first-year head coach and new starting quarterback as one reason for the defensive struggles.
But Steelers inside linebacker Patrick Queen wasn’t as kind. When speaking to reporters, Queen ripped into his defensive teammates and delivered a harsh warning.
“We [defense] played like s***. I am not going to sugarcoat it. We played like s***,” Queen said, via Steelers insider Mark Kaboly. “And if we keep playing like that, we are going to get our face mashed in.
“It’s that simple. I call it like it is, and we played like absolute trash.”
Jets running back Breece Hall ran for 107 yards on just 19 carries, averaging 5.6 yards per carry. New York quarterback Justin Fields completed 16 of 22 passes for 218 yards with a score as well.
The Steelers sacked Fields once. But the Jets signal-caller also had 48 rushing yards and two scores on the ground.
The Steelers, though, won 34-32 to begin the 2025 season with a 1-0 record.
Dave Holcomb is a sports reporter covering the NFL and MLB for Heavy.com, with a focus on the Pittsburgh Steelers, Philadelphia Eagles and Detroit Lions. Originally from Pittsburgh, Holcomb has covered college and professional sports for outlets including FanSided, Rotowire and Yardbarker. More about Dave Holcomb
Troy Aikman called out NFL officials for a pass interference flag thrown on a critical drive in Monday night’s game between the Minnesota Vikings and Chicago Bears. With 9:57 to go in the fourth quarter, the Vikings trailed 17-12 and had the ball when JJ McCarthy threw a pass in the direction of Jalen Nailor.
Nailor slipped and fell to the ground as the pass fell incomplete. However, officials threw a flag and called a 14-yard penalty on Chicago.
Aikman voiced his disagreement with the call on the ESPN broadcast. Rules analyst Russell Yurk backed him up.
“I agree with you, Troy,” Yurk said. “It looks like he more slipped than anything. You see he touches him and there was some slight contact, but I don’t think that’s significant hindrance of his ability to catch the pass. I wish they had gotten together on that one and picked it up.”
The penalty ended up being costly, as McCarthy found Aaron Jones for a 27-yard touchdown pass on the very next play. Minnesota made the two-point conversion to take a 20-17 lead, its first all night long.
“You just see him go to the ground and you assume he got tugged,” Troy Aikman continued on the pass interference call. “Tyrique Stevenson, he is expecting the ball. When they’re bringing an all out blitz, they’re expecting the ball to come out quick than what it did.”
That woudn’t be the end as the Vikings got a stop of defense and then scored on the very next drive to go up 27-17. Chicago answered to make it 27-24, but that was as close as it got as the Vikings escaped with the win.
The pass interference call will loom large for Bears fans, but it wasn’t just that that led to the team’s collapse. In the end, Chicago has a lot to be disappointed in after it looked at one point to have the game in hand.
Vikings quarterback JJ McCarthy finished 13-of-20 passing for 143 yards and three total touchdowns in the win. That included the final two scores of the game that helped Minnesota take the lead for good.
The Vikings have to feel good about his performance down the stretch after a lackluster first half. They move on to face the Atlanta Falc
