Steelers' Aaron Rodgers Explains Big Debacle That Could Have Cost Pittsburgh The AFC North Title

The Pittsburgh Steelers took down the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday to claim the AFC North title and clinch a spot in the playoffs. Pittsburgh will now host the Houston Texans at the end of Wild Card weekend as the franchise will look to end its drought of going nearly a decade without a playoff win. The win over Baltimore was exciting as there was a lot of back and forth as the game came down to a missed field goal by the Ravens as time expired, but before that, Pittsburgh had to put together some efficient touchdown drives.

At one point in the fourth quarter the Steelers were facing a four point deficit, but the offense had the ball in a goal-to-go situation. There was just under six minutes left in the game at the time, and the offense seemed out of it as communication was an issue. Quarterback Aaron Rodgers was clearly frustrated, and it seemed like the communication system in his helmet was not working. 

He was forced to use a timeout, and a few plays later he was forced to use the team's final timeout. The quarterback was asked about what happened during that time during his post-game press conference.

"I couldn't hear anything." Rodgers said. "In that situation, because of the personnel we had on the field — we had big personnel on the field, I mean Spence [Anderson] was in the game — There's not a whole lot of plays we can get to, that I can just call kind of off the cuff. We did it on the one, and I was just thinking, 'This is way too important. We're down four, we need a touchdown here, who cares about the timeouts at this point?' I couldn't believe though when we got the replacement helmet that that one didn't work either."

Essentially the issue was that Rodgers could not hear Offensive Coordinator Arthur Smith in his coach-to-player communication system that is in all quarterbacks' helmets. Since there is technology in the helmet, there is always a backup helmet on the sideline. Rodgers got that new helmet but it didn't work either, which prompted him to use the team's final timeout.

Timeouts are important, especially in close games that decide the division, but Rodgers also understood that the moment the team was currently in was far too big. The quarterback wanted to make sure the offense got the right personnel on the field with the right play call, and that is what happened as Kenneth Gainwell was able to run in for the touchdown. 

Throughout all that commotion Rodgers was also seen going through an interaction with Mason Rudolph, which he also explained to the media.

"Yeah, there's a wristband." Rodgers said. "I've been kind of, for most of my career, anti-wrist band. Mike McCarthy was always anti wrist band. I haven't been wearing it this year. But Mason likes to have the wrist band on the sideline. He threw it out to me, and I thought the backup helmet was going to work so I threw it back and the backup helmet wasn't working. So we were having some communication issues."

A lot of quarterbacks wear wristbands with their team's offensive plays on it which makes it easier operating within the huddle and getting the calls from the coordinator. Rodgers doesn't like to operate that way, but a wristband probably would have saved Pittsburgh a timeout or two during that communication debacle.

Steelers Should Not Have Any Serious Communication Issues Against The Texans

Now that this issue happened with the helmets once, hopefully the issue is fixed and can be prevented moving forward. The franchise cannot have something like this happen again in the postseason. It all turned out fine this time around, but something like this could ruin a drive which in turn could ruin a team's chances at winning a game, especially in the playoffs.

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