Steelers QB Aaron Rodgers brimming with confidence as he enters his first playoffs in five years

PITTSBURGH — When the Steelers got the ball back with 2:20 remaining in Sunday night’s game against the Baltimore Ravens, there was little doubt from Aaron Rodgers they were going to win the game.

Rodgers loves being in those situations because he grew up in Northern California watching the superstars of his youth deliver in the clutch.

“It was Joe Montana and Steve Young. And it was Michael Jordan,” he said. “The conversation about those guys is there is an incredible belief that when it’s the last seconds and MJ has the ball in his hands, he’s going to make it. When it’s the ball on the 8-yard line, and you need a touchdown to win the game, Joe is making comments about John Candy up in the stands, and everyone kind of has the belief that they’re going to go down and score.

“When you grow up reading about that stuff and want to emulate your idols you want to have that belief from your teammates. So when you get the ball with 2:20 left there isn’t a doubt in your mind that you’re going to go down and score.”

The Steelers courted Rodgers for months in the offseason for exactly that situation. He was worth the wait.

The Steelers are in the playoffs and will have a chance to win their first postseason game since 2017 when they take on the Houston Texans in an AFC wild-card game Monday night at Acrisure Stadium.

Delivering in those moments is not easy, but the Steelers have done it with frequency in their late-season playoff push.

“A lot of that is due to the work we put in during the week,” Rodgers said. “The other part is the connection you make during the week, spending time together watching film and growing closer together so in those moments you don’t want to let the other guy down. That’s my mindset. I know why I’m here. That’s why they brought me here. I have to come through in those moments.”

Common goals

The Steelers’ losing ways in the playoffs in recent years is pounded into Pittsburgh’s consciousness every time they make the playoffs. They are 0-5 in their past five trips to the playoffs, a streak that has disappointed a rabid fan base and made coach Mike Tomlin a lightning rod for criticism.

Rodgers can relate. Like Tomlin, he won his Super Bowl when he was young. He’s gone on to craft a resume that will likely make him a first-ballot Hall of Famer when he is done playing. But success in the playoffs has evaded him since he beat the Steelers in Super Bowl XLV following the 2010 season.

Rodgers made it back to the NFC championship game three more times with the Green Bay Packers, but he never did get back to the Super Bowl. This is Rodgers’ first appearance in the playoffs since 2021, when the top-seeded Packers were defeated by the San Francisco 49ers in the divisional round.

“It feels good to be back,” Rodgers said. “That’s why you play — to be playing meaningful football late in the season. We put ourselves in that position.”

Rodgers added: “A lot of you — either privately or publicly — were talking about Mike T getting axed. It feels good to shut all those comments down. We have a clean slate now. Any team can make a run. It’s the hottest team. We’ve won four of five. We’re playing a lot better football than we were early in the season. I like our chances.”

Steelers face long odds

The Steelers have the second-longest odds to win the Super Bowl as the playoffs open. Only the 8-9 Carolina Panthers have steeper odds.

The Steelers enter the NFL playoffs without a top-10 scoring offense or defense, which makes them an extreme long shot to win the Super Bowl when recent history is considered.

The Steelers, who are 15th in offense and 17th in defense, are the only team in the AFC playoff field without a top-10 offense or defense. In the NFC, the Packers and Panthers also are on the outside of the top 10.

The only time this century a team won the Super Bowl without a top-10 ranking in either category was in 2007, when the New York Giants upset the New England Patriots to win Super Bowl XLII.

Rodgers likes being in the underdog role.

“There’s definitely an advantage,” he said. “When we won the Super Bowl [in Green Bay], we were definitely the underdogs. We were the last team in. There was something about that. We were free-rolling a little bit. Every team is good in the playoffs. You have to bring your ‘A’ game to win if you want to move on and not go home.”

The Texans have the NFL’s No. 2 defense and the 13th-ranked offense. Teams with top defenses have fared well making deep playoff runs since the turn of the century.

Since 2000, there have been 10 teams with the No. 1 or No. 2 scoring defense to win the Super Bowl, including the Philadelphia Eagles, who won it all last year with the league’s No. 2-ranked defense. They also had the seventh-ranked offense.

In the same 25-year period, the top scoring team in the NFL won the Super Bowl only twice. The league’s second-ranked offense never won it during that period.

The more telling statistic is having two units in the top 10. Eleven teams in the past 25 years have won the Super Bowl with well-balanced teams. Eight of the past 12 Super Bowl winners had top-10 units on both sides of the ball.

The only two teams in the AFC field this year able to boast that are the Patriots and the Jacksonville Jaguars. In the NFC, the Seattle Seahawks and Los Angeles Rams are the only two teams with that distinction.

Smith focused on Steelers

Offensive coordinator Arthur Smith will interview for the Tennessee Titans’ head-coaching job, but he won’t be able to speak with the Titans about the position until after wild-card weekend is over. Under NFL rules, assistant coaches on playoff teams cannot begin to interview until next week. For assistants on the Steelers and Texans, because they play on Monday night, they cannot interview until Jan. 14.

“The NFL cycle is what it is,” Smith said. “I’m appreciative of this, but it’s not something I’m going to focus on because the only thing I’m focused on is my current job. I try to tell people all the time — live in the present. Don’t waste your time worrying about the future. Anything like that is a distraction. All my focus is on our guys. Anything I take away from that is not doing my job. All I care about is the Steelers and our players.”

Smith is in his second season as the Steelers’ offensive coordinator. He was the head coach at Atlanta from 2021-23. Before getting the Falcons job, he spent 10 years in Tennessee, including his final two seasons as offensive coordinator.

There are currently eight openings for head coaches across the league following Miami’s decision to fire Mike McDaniel on Thursday. If Smith is hired he would be the second assistant under Tomlin to become a head coach in the NFL.

Bruce Arians became the interim head coach in Indianapolis in 2012 after his contract was not renewed with the Steelers following the 2011 season. He then became head coach of the Arizona Cardinals in 2013 and later coached Tampa Bay, winning a Super Bowl with the Buccaneers in 2020.