Patriots’ return to prominence stuck in neutral as Rodgers, Steelers chug along
Watching the New England Patriots and Aaron Rodgers in 2025 is a whole lot like watching a classic rock band's reunion, a wheezing nostalgia trip more notable for the memories they summon up than their actual present-day ability. Rodgers and the Steelers defeated the Patriots on Sunday, 21-14, but Pittsburgh got a whole lot of help from a very generous New England offense ... and now, there are a whole lot of questions in Foxboro that weren't there three weeks ago.
The Patriots turned the ball over five times on Sunday - four fumbles and a touchdown - that led directly to 14 Pittsburgh points. Slice it however you want, that figure doesn't get any prettier: four turnovers in Pittsburgh territory, three in the red zone, two from the two-yard-line.
Turnovers are very hard to overcome," Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel said immediately after the game. They erase all the good things that you do. They take away momentum, they take away points, give them field position."
The focus of Patriots fans' ire: running back Rhamondre Stevenson, who fumbled twice. Most notably, he lost the ball just before breaking the plane of the goal line for what would have been a game-tying touchdown:
Rhamondre Stevenson fumbles before breaking the plane. #Steelers recover the #Patriots' fumble and take over.
- New England Sports Fellow (@NESportsFellow) September 21, 2025
This is Stevenson's 2nd fumble today pic.twitter.com/ozME4blM5U
Those are the kinds of plays that drive even mild-mannered coaches into fits of clipboard-smashing fury, and nobody ever called Vrabel mild. Shortly after the game, he was as steady as he could be, but the frustration was obvious.
We need him. We absolutely need him," Vrabel said. We'll just have to look at the technique and we'll have to look at the ball security, but we're going to need him and we need his ability, but we also need to take care of the football. It's a long answer to tell you that I'm not really sure 20 minutes after the game, what we're going to do, but we need him."
By most offensive statistical measures, New England should have won this game easily. The Patriots bested the Steelers in passing yardage, rushing yardage, total yardage, offensive plays, first downs, penalty yardage ... almost every offensive stat except the one that counts. Defense, though, was another matter:
Patriots had 14 missed tackles today for a 23.3% missed tackle rate. This was their 2nd-highest single game missed tackle rate in @NextGenStats database that goes back to 2016.
- Nate Tice (@Nate_Tice) September 21, 2025
Vrabel hinted at the direction that this week's practices will take for the Patriots:
Ball security comes down to technique," he said. It comes down to other people protecting the guy with the ball, second guy in. Those are all things that we continue to talk about, have talked about, and will talk about." And if you think those talks" will be at a conversational level, well, you probably believe that Brady and Belichick are coming back to save this team, too.
And speaking of the good ol' days ... another relic of the 2010s benefitted from all the Patriots' miscues. Strangely enough, Aaron Rodgers had never won a game in Foxboro. And he didn't exactly torch New England, throwing for just 16 completions, 139 yards and an interception. But he did also throw for two touchdowns, and since the Patriots were in the process of beating themselves up, that was more than enough.
Another stat of note: one of those two passing touchdowns put him past Brett Favre on the career TD list, and if you think that doesn't mean anything to Rodgers, well, you probably believe he'll take Green Bay to another Super Bowl title, too. Rodgers is now officially on the quarterback Mount Rushmore alongside career passing touchdown leaders Tom Brady, Drew Brees and Peyton Manning.
The defense won the game, a classic Blitzburgh performance," Rodgers said after the game. We've got to get better on offense. I've got to play better."
Maybe so, but when your opponent is giving you so many gifts, you take them and move on. As for the Patriots, well, there's work to be done. Close isn't anywhere near good enough.
It's just a close game of inches," Vrabel said. We weren't able to recover the fumbles, and they were."