The opening round of the 2025 NFL playoffs might have just given fans the greatest 48-hour run in the history of professional football. Four one-possession scoreboards and a total of 12 fourth-quarter lead changes highlight what has been an incredible weekend of action. The show so far has put the onus on the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Houston Texans to put on another classic for the masses.
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The Texans’ star pass rusher, Danielle Hunter, tried to ensure the action on the field favors his team. He imparted some wisdom to Will Anderson Jr. in the hope of exacting an extra sack or two on Aaron Rodgers.
Hunter has managed to farm 6.5 sacks off the former Green Bay Packer in his career. Of course, he knows a thing or two about it.
“The biggest thing with Aaron is you just can’t get frustrated, you know? Because he’ll see us, he’ll be trying to get the ball out quick, so the biggest thing is you’ve just got to keep rushing,” said Hunter.
“There’s going to be a time and a play where it’s going to be you, doing your job and what you’re supposed to do, and he’s going to be right there… He’s a veteran quarterback, knows defenses, and everything. You’ve just gotta do whatever you can to disrupt him,” he added.
The five-time Pro Bowler is confident that his teammate will be able to finally have his playoff moment, even if he felt the need to still give the preface that nothing is guaranteed. “Sometimes the biggest play of the game is to have a PBU or something like that,” Hunter added.
Hunter and Anderson Jr. combined for a total of 27 sacks in the regular season. That’s more than half of their team’s total. That earned them both All-Pro titles. So it’s apparent why they were the betting favorites walking into Acrisure Stadium on Monday night. Of course, the real narrative resides in neither the money line nor the final result of the match-up, but rather that Hunter was proven right.
During a critical third-and-goal situation in which Pittsburgh was threatening to reclaim the lead just before halftime, Anderson and Hunter managed to get to Rodgers and send the future Hall of Famer straight down to the ground. This limited the Steelers to a field goal. This was the very same sack that Hunter had predicted for Anderson during their ESPN interview.
That went down as Anderson’s 13th sack and Houston’s 48th of the season, further legitimizing the obscene amount of talent and pressure that comes with the Texans’ defensive line.
