Pittsburgh Steelers star Aaron Rodgers had the best game of the young season on Sunday, September 27, against the Cincinnati Bengals, but the veteran quarterback still had plenty of frustration to vent.
Cameras caught Rodgers, 42, letting it all out at somebody on the Steelers’ sideline early in the fourth quarter with the Steelers trailing 27-24.
“That motherf***ing sucks ass,” he said. “F***ing sucks ass.”
It is not clear exactly what Rodgers was complaining about, but some fans have theorized Rodgers was unhappy with the Steelers’ play-calling.
Rodgers finished the game 19-34 passing, good for 292 yards and three touchdowns. Pittsburgh won the game, 30-27.
Rodgers’ solid game came one week after an embarrassing 20-3 loss to the New England Patriots in which he failed to connect for a touchdown. That prompted Patriots legend Rob Gronkowski to opine that Rodgers may regret not retiring at the end of last season.
“Aaron Rodgers is probably thinking that he should have retired last year,” Gronkowski, 37, told former Patriots teammate Julian Edelman on Fox Sports’ “The Gronk & Jules Show” on Monday, September 21. “After watching the first two weeks, I’m saying that’s what he was probably thinking. He may be thinking that if it continues the way it continues for the Steelers. I mean, there’s just no juice on that offensive side of the ball.”
Gronkowski added, “Already, two weeks into the season, Aaron Rodgers had one touchdown pass in Week 1 and zero touchdown passes in Week 2.”
Rodgers was measured after the game despite the dramatic improvement.
“There’s overreactions when we put up three points and look like dog… you know what,” he told reporters. “We had a nice game today. We put up over 400 yards and 30 points, and it could have been a lot more. But every week is a different week, different challenge, different opponent, different defense.”
He continued, “We’ve got to be critical of some things. There’s a lot of things to clean up. We had some drops, had some [missed assignments], but I thought it was a tighter week for us mentally, as far as execution-wise.”
Rodgers’ comments also came two weeks after he called out his teammates and the officials in the aftermath of the Steelers’ Week 1 victory over the Atlanta Falcons.
“I think we did a lot of good things out there,” he said after the game. “We had a chance to be really, really explosive. We had a couple drops, a couple off targets, a couple non-calls, looked like penalties.”
Rodgers added, “We had a 40-yard [pass interference penalty]. It could have been a touchdown. We had a couple other ones — could have been big plays. So, you know, we were just a little bit off. But they got a good scheme.”
The Steelers return to action on Thursday, October 1, when they travel to Cleveland to face the Browns.
