Mike Tomlin isn't giving Aaron Rodgers a pass by saying his veteran quarterback simply had an "off night" in Pittsburgh's lopsided loss to the Los Angeles Chargers.
Then again, the NFL's longest-tenured head coach also isn't worried about the NFL's oldest active player bouncing back from one of the worst performances of his 21-year career.
Rodgers completed just 16 of 31 passes for 161 yards with a touchdown in garbage time and two interceptions — one of which smacked off the hands of wide receiver Calvin Austin III — while also being sacked for a safety in a 25-10 setback that wasn't even as close as the final score might indicate.
"Sunday night was what it was," Tomlin said Tuesday. "But I have no long-term reservations about his ability to play the position and play the position at a high level for us."
Tomlin credited the Chargers for getting the better of his offense, but he doesn't think his unit is getting too predictable, even with the AFC North-leading Steelers (5-4) finishing with under 300 total yards for the third straight week.
Instead, he pointed to an inability to extend drives on third downs. Pittsburgh has converted just 36% of its third downs on the season, including 21% (7 of 33) over the last three weeks. Tomlin put the onus on his coaching staff to find ways to make opponents pay for double-teaming wide receiver DK Metcalf, who has just 10 catches for 96 yards over that period.
"We haven’t done a good enough job of putting others other than DK in position to win and win big, and they haven’t won big enough," Tomlin said. "We've got to do a better job there."
The Steelers declined to make a significant trade to upgrade the receiving corps behind Metcalf, opting instead to hold on to their significant
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