Late touchdown pass puts Aaron Rodgers, Steelers into AFC playoffs

6 days ago 2

Aaron Rodgers is heading back to the playoffs for the first time since 2021, but it took some serious magic to get there.

The ex-Packers quarterback led his Pittsburgh Steelers to a 26-24 victory in a winner-take-all battle with the Baltimore Ravens for the AFC North on Jan. 4, sealed when Baltimore kicker Tyler Loop missed a 44-yard field goal as time expired.

Rodgers found a wide-open Calvin Austin for a 26-yard strike with 55 seconds left, the culmination of a vintage Rodgers drive that gave the Steelers the lead, but kicker Chris Boswell missed the extra point to give Baltimore life.

And sure enough, the Ravens surged down the field, including a 26-yard pass to Isaiah Likely on 4th and 7 from the 50 to set up a possible game-winning kick. But Loop missed the kick wide right, and the Steelers finished the year 10-7, good for first place in the AFC North with a playoff game looming.

Pittsburgh will host the Houston Texans in a Monday night wild card-round game Jan. 12.

Rodgers has not appeared in the playoffs since a gut-punch 13-10 loss to San Francisco at snowy Lambeau Field in the divisional round after the 2021 season. Special teams nearly cost Rodgers again in the 2025 finale.

The Packers did Rodgers no favors last week when they lost in lopsided fashion to the Ravens, setting up the all-or-nothing battle in the final game of the season. Eerily similar to a 2013 finale in which Rodgers found Randall Cobb in the final minute to beat the Bears with identical stakes (win the division or go home), Rodgers delivered. He finished 31 of 47 passing for 294 yards and the touchdown, with no interceptions.

Wisconsin native T.J. Watt made one of the plays of the game, corralling a deflected Lamar Jackson pass for an interception that led into a go-ahead Steelers field goal in the third quarter. Watt, who hadn't played since Dec. 7 after surgery for a partially collapsed lung, also had two tackles.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Late touchdown pass puts Aaron Rodgers, Steelers into AFC playoffs

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