Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers unfortunately didn’t come out on the winning side of the “Unc Bowl” on Thursday night. His counterpart, 40-year-old quarterback Joe Flacco, led the Bengals to a 33-31 victory over Pittsburgh.
But Rodgers nearly pulled off one of his late fourth-quarter comebacks.
Down 30-24 with just under two minutes remaining, two plays into the drive, Rodgers scrambled to avoid the rush and found tight end Pat Freiermuth for a 68-yard touchdown reception to give Pittsburgh a 31-30 lead.
Rodgers, 41, was pumped up, celebrating with his teammates. But his offensive tackle Broderick Jones got a little too excited.
As Rodgers was running back to the sideline, Jones — all 311 pounds of him — came up behind the quarterback and tackled him to the ground in his own form of celebration. Once Rodgers got to his feet, it was evident he wasn’t happy and let Jones have it, even pushing him away and yelling some likely unkind words.
Aaron Rodgers was ready to throw hands after he got tackled by his own linemanpic.twitter.com/GyFWEevfjc
— Barstool Sports (@barstoolsports) October 17, 2025
That would be the last bit of celebrating by anyone on the Steelers, though, as the Bengals would retake the lead just minutes later. Flacco led his newly acquainted team down the field 52 yards so Evan McPherson could nail a 36-yard field goal for the go-ahead score.
After the game, Rodgers told reporters the expectation for the Steelers every week is to win — but acknowledged that divisional games can go either way.
“I’m not going to ride the roller coaster, and I know Mike (Tomlin) isn’t,” Rodgers said, per ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler.