Games locked in as 16-yr first, big rivalry in divisional round <\/a><\/p>\nWas that the end for Aaron Rodgers? Justin K. Aller\/Getty Images\/AFPSource: AFP<\/p>\n
Rodgers said in his post-game press conference on Tuesday that he would not make \u201cany emotional decisions\u201d. <\/p>\n
When pressed if he wanted to stay in Pittsburgh if he decided to play on, Rodgers said he was \u201cnot going to talk about that\u201d. <\/p>\n
As for whether he entered Tuesday\u2019s game thinking it could be his last, Rodgers was again coy.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery game could be my final game,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Steelers coach Mike Tomlin\u2019s future will also be a talking point despite extending his streak of winning seasons to 19 this year.<\/p>\n
Tuesday\u2019s loss made it a ninth year that Pittsburgh would go without a playoffs win, having last tasted success in the postseason against the Kansas City Chiefs in January 2017.<\/p>\n
While Rodgers was cryptic on his own future, he was emphatic when asked about Tomlin.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I first got into the league there wouldn\u2019t be conversations whether those guys (Tomlin and Matt LaFleur) were on the hot seat,\u201d he said in his post-game press conference.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut the way the league is covered now and the way there are snap decisions and the validity given to the Twitter experts and all the experts on TV now who make it seem like they know what the hell they\u2019re talking about it, to me it\u2019s an absolute joke. <\/p>\n
\u201cFor either of those two names to be on the hot seat is really an apropos of where we are at as a society and as a league. Obviously Matt has done a lot of great things in Green Bay and we had a lot of success. Mike T has had more success than damn near anybody in the league for the last 19 (to) 20 years. <\/p>\n
\u201cMore than that though, when you have the right guy and the culture is right you don\u2019t think about making a change but there is a lot of pressure that comes from the outside and obviously that sways decisions from time to time but that\u2019s not how I would do things and how the league used to be.\u201d<\/p>\n
49ers nail INSANE play against Eagles | 00:31<\/p>\n
The Steelers were first on the board through a Chris Boswell field goal and had an opportunity to put more points on the board after a Stroud fumble on an attempted flea flicker. <\/p>\n
Instead, Pittsburgh went three-and-out as Metcalf dropped what would have been a big completion on 2nd-and-10.<\/p>\n
The Texans then methodically worked their way into the red zone before Stroud faked the jet sweep to Xavier Hutchinson and instead found Christian Kirk open for the go-ahead touchdown.<\/p>\n
Stroud, who had not fumbled all season before Tuesday, coughed up possession again later in the second quarter but the Steelers once more were forced to settle for a field goal. <\/p>\n
It was always expected this game would be a defensive arm wrestle and after Houston extended its lead with a Ka\u2019imi Fairbairn field goal, the relentless Texans pass rush eventually got through to sack Rodgers for the fumble recovery touchdown. <\/p>\n
That put Houston ahead 17-6 with 11 minutes left before Marks punched one in and Rodgers then threw a pick-six in a desperate attempt to salvage the game for the Steelers.<\/p>\n
Pittsburgh had struggled to move the ball consistently all game and had found it particularly hard to get explosive plays and that remained the case for the remainder of the fourth quarter as the Texans booked a meeting with Drake Maye and the New England Patriots.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Was that the end for Aaron Rodgers? The legendary quarterback\u2019s playing future will be the biggest story to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":411216,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[559],"tags":[64,63,593,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-411215","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-nfl","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=411215"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411215\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/411216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=411215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=411215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=411215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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