With 60 points and more than 70 combined pass attempts, Aaron Rodgers’ return to Lambeau Field did justice to the hype. The future NFL Hall of Famer also managed to complete two-thirds of his pass attempts, producing 219 passing yards and two touchdowns for the Steelers. However, it wasn’t enough to outshine Jordan Love, the quarterback who replaced him in Green Bay.
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Love, a third-year starter, was able to complete 78.4% of his 37 pass attempts for 360 passing yards and three touchdowns. His 134.2 passer rating stole the headlines and won over Pittsburgh legend Ben Roethlisberger.
Big Ben was forced to sit back and watch in awe as the Utah State product outdueled one of the greatest quarterbacks in history. “I was rooting for Aaron to beat all 32 teams. That would have been really cool,” Roethlisberger admitted during the latest episode of his self-titled podcast.
The former quarterback was, however, forced to reconcile with the fact that Green Bay is better than his beloved Steelers. “I think Jordan Love is a really good football player. When you give him time, he can make things happen,” Big Ben said.
“He had 20 straight completions. Now part of that is on the defense. But I think you saw the potential of that team. You saw a team that could get after it, and I’m afraid to say that I think the Packers may be who we thought they were,” he added.
Before the start of the season, when Green Bay decided to make the blockbuster trade for Micah Parsons, the Packers were being given some of the more favorable Super Bowl odds of any team in the league. Now, thanks to their convincing 35-25 victory over the Steelers, they are being booked as the third most-likely team to claim the Lombardi Trophy.
Meanwhile, Pittsburgh’s odds of winning it all have dropped significantly. Heading into Week 9, they are seeing +6500 Super Bowl odds, which effectively means that they have about as good a chance at the Lombardi Trophy as the Chicago Bears and the Dallas Cowboys.
After last Sunday, these two teams appear to be trending in opposite directions. And much to the chagrin of Rodgers, this also looks like a turning point match-up that will impact his legacy. Of course, there are still 10 more games that can be used by the Steelers to reverse this trend. So there’s no need to panic, at least not yet anyway.
