PARIS — They flew 4,000 miles to what is arguably the most famous city in all of Europe, a place often dubbed the fashion capital of the world.

There was, however, nothing cosmopolitan about the Pittsburgh Steelers’ visit to the City of Light. Their gameplan was anything but chic. Their workmanlike mindset not aligned with Parisian elegance.

“We felt as a football team that we needed to own the line of scrimmage on both sides,” Steelers coach Mike McCarthy said.

“We definitely hit the target there.”

The Steelers dominated the trenches, taking an old-school, “smashmouth” approach to beat the New Orleans Saints, 16-10, on Sunday in Stade de France.

Jaylen Warren had 101 of the Steelers’ season-high 148 rushing yards, and the defense limited New Orleans running backs to less than a yard per carry (11 on 14 attempts).

“We can feed off each other,” offensive lineman Mason McCormick said of his unit and their teammates on the defensive line. “We block them every day in practice. They’re a really good D-line. They make us better, and so it’s awesome to see them go out there and play well.

“We feed off them (stopping the run), and I’m sure they feed off us running the ball as well.”

“We wanted to use our strengths against their weakness.”

Jaylen Warren said the Steelers mentality and gameplan today was to run the ball vs the Saints https://t.co/dlbbIcSYDi

— Chris Adamski (@C_AdamskiTrib) October 25, 2026

The win was the third in a row for the Steelers (5-2), setting up a showdown with the rival Cleveland Browns (5-2) next Sunday at Acrisure Stadium in which the winner will have sole possession of first place in the AFC North.

The first NFL regular-season game in France was played under a blue Parisian sky after a weekend of rain and significant wind storms here.

Warren finished with 137 yards from scrimmage, accounting for 36 of Aaron Rodgers’ 212 passing yards. Rodgers threw a touchdown pass to Darnell Washington as the Steelers racked up 345 yards of offense.

The Steelers’ other running back, Rico Dowdle, contributed 86 yards from scrimmage.

“Today was really about the run game,” Rodgers said. “I felt like we controlled the line of scrimmage with Jaylen and Rico. Those guys both had really nice games.

“We knew coming in we could run it against them.”

The Saints came in ranked 30th in the NFL in rushing defense, and it showed. Warren had gains of 29, 26 and 15 yards in the first half alone after coming into the game with 568 yards from scrimmage over his previous four games.

The tone was set almost immediately in regards to the Steelers’ demeanor. On the second snap of the game, for the first time this season the Steelers deployed a “jumbo” package using a sixth offensive lineman (Spencer Anderson) as a tight end.

Warren ran for 29 yards on that first play.

“We knew what we knew about them,” Warren said, “and so we wanted to, you know, use our strengths against their weaknesses.”

Though that first drive produced only the first of thee Chris Boswell field goals, the Steelers took a lead and would never trail. More importantly, it sent a message that they were going to rely on physical play.

That was the case on both sides of the ball. Aside from a 6-yard, third-quarter scramble by quarterback Tyler Shough, the Saints managed 12 rushing yards on 16 attempts. According to ESPN, it had been more than four years since an NFL team did not have at least one player rush for 10 or more yards.

“We just had a mindset of stopping the run,” said inside linebacker Patrick Queen, who had a game-high 10 tackles.

“We knew… if they had a run game, it was going to be tough to beat those guys.”

Queen’s biggest play was what ended up being the final play of the game for the Steelers’ defense. He sacked Shough on a third-and-10 from the New Orleans 40 with 6 minutes, 41 seconds left in the game.

It capped a dominant finishing series for the Steelers defense. The Saints had the ball at their own 26 with 7:04 left in regulation and down only six points. With a first-and-10 at the 40, defensive linemen Yahya Black and Cameron Heyward batted down consecutive Shough passes. Then, Queen blitzed and brought down Shough.

Leaning on the running game, the Steelers bled out the final 6 minutes. The biggest moment came when facing a third-and-6 from the New Orleans 34, Rodgers scrambled 8 yards for a first down to for all intents and purposes sealed the win.

The Steelers’ lone touchdown was set up by their second-longest play of the season, a fine 51-yard catch by DK Metcalf to the Saints’ 4 on a third-and-14 midway through the second quarter. Two plays later, Rodgers hit Darnell Washington near the left sideline in the end zone. The 6-foot-7, 300-plus pound tight end caught the ball over a largely helpless 5-11 New Orleans cornerback Kool-Aid McKinstry, deftly getting two feet in bounds for a touchdown.

Though Payton Wilson had an interception of Shough in the third quarter, the Steelers twice during the second quarter were initially ruled to have forced a Saints fumble while in the red zone, but each time a video review reversed it and allowed New Orleans to retain possession and get points. One was a T.J. Watt strip sack of Shough, the other when Queen tackled Saints running back Kendre Miller near the goal line, and Cole Holcomb forced what appeared to be a fumble.

When it got overturned, New Orleans scored on a Shough pass to Devaughn Vele for a touchdown on the next play.

That briefly tied the score at 10, but the Steelers were able to use the final 105 seconds of the half to get into range for a Boswell 47-yard field goal to make it 13-10 Steelers.

They never relinquished their lead from there.

“A lot of guys played some really good football,” Watt said. “Obviously, with the (travel) schedule time (zone) change, there’s a lot of adversity there. So, to come away with the win is big time.”