Tight ends stepped up: In a game where the offense puts up 31 points, it should be enough to win.
On this night, though, it wasn’t.
Quarterback Aaron Rodgers completed 23 of 34 passes for 249 yards and four touchdowns in the loss to the Bengals. During the game, Rodgers passed former Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger to move into fifth place on the all-time NFL passing yards list with 64,222 yards.
Running back Jaylen Warren carried the ball 16 times for 127 yards for a ground game that has benefited from the extra blocking provided by offensive lineman Spencer Anderson, who reports eligible, and tight end Darnell Washington.
“I think we’ve done a good job, when Spence is on the field, or really just Darnell,” said Rodgers. “Darnell is such an important part of our offense, and as you’ve seen, thus has started to take some steps offensively the last three weeks.
“There’s no surprise his snap counts go up. So, I’m really proud of Darnell.”
And Washington isn’t the only tight end Rodgers feels that way about. It was his tight ends that caught all four touchdowns. Pat Freiermuth, who led all receivers with 111 yards, had two touchdown receptions, while Jonnu Smith and Darnell Washington both added one each.
“I’m really proud of the other tight ends as well,” said Rodgers. “We had four touchdown catches by tight ends. Pat had two of them and Jonnu had a nice scramble drill.
“I was telling Darnell during the week on the play that he caught for a touchdown, I said, ‘I know you are 6’8”, but try and get lost on this play.’ And he did exactly what I was hoping he would do on that one.
“So, I’m really proud of those guys, especially Pat. Pat’s a great player and he hasn’t had a lot of looks. His play time has gone down, but his attitude hasn’t. And I think there’s a lot to be said for the professionalism that he showed, especially over the last couple of weeks.”
While Rodgers was disappointed with the loss, there is one thing he won’t do. He won’t let his attitude change either.
“We want to win every game,” said Rodgers. “There needs to be an expectation of winning. But this is a short week, division opponent, anything can happen. Obviously, Joe (Flacco) played really well for them and (Ja’Marr) Chase and Tee (Higgins) got going for them.
“This is the NFL. We had a chance to really open up some space, but we’re 4-2, still first in the division. Got a couple home games coming up back-to-back. Another Sunday night opportunity against my former team (Green Bay).
“I’m not going to ride the roller coaster, and I know Mike (Tomlin) isn’t, and hopefully guys follow suit.”
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