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 absolutely incredible weekend for the National Football League, and it put the onus on the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Houston Texans to put on one last classic for the masses.
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Seemingly aware of the current temperature in the room, the Texans’ star pass rusher, Danielle Hunter, did his best to impart some wisdom to Will Anderson Jr. in hopes of it resulting in an extra sack or two on Aaron Rodgers. Seeing as he’s managed to farm 6.5 sacks off of the former Green Bay Packer throughout his career, we’re sure 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. 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.”
Suffice to say, the five-time Pro Bowler is confident that his teammate will be able to finally have his playoff moment, even if he did feel 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 explained.
Throw in the fact that these two combined for a total of 27 sacks throughout the regular season, which accounted for more than half of their team’s entire total and resulted in both Hunter and Anderson receiving an All-Pro title, and it becomes readily apparent why they were the betting favorites as they walked 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, limiting the Steelers to a field goal and recording the very same sack that Hunter had predicted for Anderson during their ESPN interview.
That’ll go down as Anderson’s 13th sack and Houston’s 48th of the season, further legitimizing the obscene amount of both talent and pressure that comes with the Texans’ defensive line.
