Browns Pro Bowler takes a shot at Aaron Rodgers after forcing game-winning deflection that could rewrite Steelers’ season
Denzel Ward wasn’t afraid to let Aaron Rodgers hear about his incompletions to end the game.
Everyone seems to have a different reason or theory why the Pittsburgh Steelers lost the game to the Cleveland Browns on Sunday. The facts of the matter are clear, however. The Steelers simply didn’t have anyone at WR whom the Browns feared.
There was no vertical threat, no explosive playmaker that had a good Browns’ secondary shaking in its boots. Certainly not anyone that would be a challenge for Browns Pro Bowler Denzel Ward. Yet with the game on the line, not once, not twice, but three times, Aaron Rodgers threw his way, only to have every pass fall incomplete. Well, Ward let Rodgers hear about that after.
Denzel Ward throws shade at Aaron Rodgers for throwing his way three times to end the game
“Like I said, I’m always just prepared and ready for moments like that, but, yeah, I just try to make it hard on teams every time they decide to look at the scouting report and see who they’re going to attack, and make it hard on them when they come my way,” said Ward via Ashley Bastock on X/Twitter. “Like I said, I don’t know whose bright idea it was to try me for the game for three plays in a row, but glad we [were] able to come through and get the [win].”
If you recall the final drive, then you remember the Steelers and Rodgers moving the ball down the field at will, finally resembling an NFL offense. However, when the team got into the red zone, they and Rodgers went away from what was working.
Instead of attacking the middle of the field and picking on an LB group that was reeling with injury, Rodgers targeted Marquez Valdes-Scantling three straight times to end the game. The first one should have been intercepted by Ward, the second one wasn’t close, and the third one sealed the game and potentially the Steelers’ playoff chances.
I understand being wary of the middle of the field in the red zone. The middle has often been off-limits for Steelers quarterbacks, and the red area is a narrow space where passing windows and route concepts must be constrained.
But this is Aaron Rodgers. Who has been playing his best football as of late. Who didn’t have his top two WRs at his disposal and who lost his safety blanket when Darnell Washington broke his arm. The red zone, and particularly the middle of the red zone, is why the Steelers re-signed Pat Freiermuth. It’s why the Steelers hired Arthur Smith.
Yet in the biggest moments of the game, with the fate of the season quite literally riding on those plays, the Steelers and Rodgers throw the ball to a player they just signed off the practice squad a few weeks ago. Not just once, not twice, but three straight times.
If a similar situation presents itself against the Ravens, perhaps the Steelers will be ready this time.
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