Aaron Rodgers torches Jets in Steelers debut: 4 TDs and a 60-yard winner cap a wild return

Rodgers’ revenge tour starts with a bang

At 41, Aaron Rodgers didn’t just look ready; he looked ruthless. In his first game for the Pittsburgh Steelers, he shredded the New York Jets—the team that cut him loose in the offseason—for four touchdown passes and a 34-32 win at MetLife Stadium. It wasn’t pretty the whole way. It was better: sharp, stubborn, and clutch in the final minutes.

This was a reunion with an edge. Rodgers made it personal without pretending otherwise, saying he “loves beating everybody” but was “happy to beat everybody associated with the Jets.” The performance backed it up. Four touchdowns to four different receivers, no interceptions, and a pair of late drives that squeezed the air out of a game the Jets had every chance to grab.

The day even started with a ghost from Pittsburgh’s past getting buried. The Steelers punched in an opening-drive touchdown for the first time in a Week 1 game since 2008. It set the tone: fast, decisive, and aggressive. Pittsburgh didn’t spend Sunday easing its new quarterback into anything.

The Jets kept answering, though, and led 32-31 late in the fourth quarter. Then came the sequence that flipped the building. Rodgers strung together a composed march highlighted by a ridiculous 11-yard catch by DK Metcalf. The ball pinged from Metcalf’s hands to Sauce Gardner, then Andre Cisco, then off tight end Jonnu Smith’s arm, before Metcalf snatched it just shy of the sideline. It was the kind of circus grab that usually decides tight games, and it did—just not on the scoreboard right away.

That drive set up Chris Boswell from 60 yards with 1:03 left. Career long. Franchise record. The kick never drifted. The Steelers led by two, and the defense finished the job with a fourth-down stop by defensive back Jalen Ramsey to close it out.

How Pittsburgh pulled it off—and what it means

Rodgers didn’t force anything. That’s the headline inside the headline. He worked through progressions, used the check-down when it was there, and took his shots only when the corners turned their hips. The ball placement was familiar: away from leverage, on time, and catchable. The stat everyone will circle—zero interceptions—felt baked in from the first series.

The touchdowns showed the range of what Pittsburgh asked him to do. He connected with Jonnu Smith near the goal line, found Jaylen Warren in space, dialed up an 18-yarder to Calvin Austin III that gave the Steelers a 31-26 lead early in the fourth quarter, and opened the day by cashing in that long-awaited first-drive score. Four different targets, four different looks. That’s trust. That’s also a sign the playbook didn’t shrink when the field did.

Austin summed up the mood cleanly afterward: “We just wanted to play for each other, and play for 8. We have full confidence that whatever he’s saying, he’s getting us in the best position to succeed.” You could see that buy-in on critical downs. Receivers stayed active when plays broke, backs chipped and released with purpose, and protection held long enough for Rodgers to put defenders in conflict.

Two milestones stitch the story together. He became the first player since 2010—Ryan Fitzpatrick did it then—to throw four touchdown passes against a former team. He also made league history with consecutive four-touchdown passing games, each coming with a different franchise, after closing his Jets stint with the same total. It’s a quirky record, but it tells you what you just watched: the arm still lives, and the decision-making hasn’t dulled.

Context matters, too. Rodgers was let go after a brief offseason meeting in which new Jets coach Aaron Glenn said the club was “going in another direction.” He didn’t dodge that scene. “It was nice to remind those people that I still can [play],” he said. The revenge angle can get overplayed in this league. This one didn’t feel forced. It felt like a veteran responding to a door getting closed in his face.

The Jets didn’t fold, and their defense flashed in spots. Gardner got his hands on a few throws, and the front muddied protection with movement. But the Steelers leaned on a quick game—slants, outs, and play-action boots—to soften the rush. Once Pittsburgh settled the pocket, Rodgers started winning on timing: three steps, plant, throw, live to the next snap.

Let’s talk turning points. Three snaps swung the afternoon:

• Opening-drive touchdown: Pittsburgh scripted tempo and motion, then punched it in. After years of slow starts, that first punch mattered.
• Tip-drill grab by Metcalf: It kept the go-ahead drive alive and broke the Jets’ momentum after they seized the lead.
• Boswell’s 60-yarder: Not just three points—proof the Steelers trusted their kicker and defense in winning time.

On the other side of the ball, the Steelers’ defense was opportunistic late. The pass rush compressed throwing lanes and forced the Jets into shorter, risk-averse calls as the clock bled. Ramsey’s fourth-down stop sealed it, but the drive before it mattered just as much—clean tackles in the flat, no freebies over the top, and smart spacing in the middle of the field.

There was also a game-within-the-game: clock and situation. Down 32-31, Rodgers resisted the hero shot. He bled the play clock, trusted the underneath routes, and nudged the ball into Boswell’s range without inviting disaster. That’s veteran football. No panic throws. No baited picks. Just profit and move on.

Zoom out, and the win checks a lot of boxes. The new quarterback answered the “Does he still have it?” question in one afternoon. The red-zone execution looked cleaner than it has in a while. The receivers didn’t need 10 targets each to feel involved. And the line—often the last piece of a new offense to click—kept the interior clean on the snaps that decided the game.

For the Jets, this stings because the script was there. They had the lead late, created tips and contested throws, and still got beat by a classic two-minute surgeon. The defense can live with contested touchdowns. What will eat at them is the inability to get Rodgers behind the sticks or take the ball away when the Steelers were in chase mode.

Pittsburgh walks out 1-0 with something more valuable than a September win: identity. Efficient on early downs, versatile in the red area, and tough when it’s time to salt a game. The splash plays—like the tip-drill catch and the 60-yarder—grab eyeballs, but the quiet winning was everywhere: hot reads hit on time, check-downs turned into positive yards, and substitutions came without chaos.

Rodgers’ debut also reset the room. When a quarterback commands the huddle, the offense plays faster. You saw receivers adjust splits without chatter, backs communicate protection on the fly, and the sideline stay calm when the Jets punched back. That kind of rhythm doesn’t usually show up in Week 1 with a new signal-caller. It did here.

There’s a long season ahead, and plenty for Pittsburgh to clean up—penalties that stalled drives, a couple of miscommunications in coverage, and some short-yardage calls that got stuffed. But when your quarterback can toggle between explosive and patient, the margin for error grows.

As debuts go, this one had it all: a grudge, a record kick, a last stand on fourth down, and a 41-year-old quarterback who looked like time took the day off. The Jets will see the film session as a missed chance. The Steelers will see it as proof their bet on a veteran arm still pays. And Week 1 already has its headliner.