Aaron Rodgers and Mike Tomlin have differing views on a busted play call during the Pittsburgh Steelers' defeat to the Cincinnati Bengals, which left the QB raging at Jaylen Warren
05:59 ET, 17 Oct 2025
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Aaron Rodgers was not happy with Jaylen Warren(Image: Dylan Buell/Getty Images)
Aaron Rodgers raged at Pittsburgh Steelers running back Jaylen Warren after a botched flea-flicker play in Thursday's defeat to the Cincinnati Bengals, and the quarterback addressed the mixup after the game — although he had a very differernt view to head coach Mike Tomlin.
The bungle happened midway through the first quarter with the Steelers leading 7-0 at Paycor Stadium, and it ultimately proved to be inconsequential. Rodgers handed the ball off to Warren, who quickly turned and tossed it back to the four-time MVP.
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Rodgers, 41, was caught off guard, but he showed veteran poise to scramble to his right and throw the ball away, avoiding potential disaster. Nonetheless, the former Green Bay Packers and New York Jets star was furious with Warren and had an angry message for him once the play was blown dead.
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The Steelers would suffer a 33-31 defeat to their AFC North rivals, spurning a huge opportunity to grab the division by the throat. Pittsburgh fell to 4-2, with the second-place Bengals — inspired by the recently acquired Joe Flacco in Joe Burrow's absence — improving to 3-4 on the year.
After the game, Rodgers was asked for his perspective on the blown play with Warren. He indicated that the running back was at fault.
“Yeah, it wasn't supposed to be a flea flicker. Yeah, we weren’t on the same page," Rodgers told reporters in his post-game press conference.
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The situation was made more peculiar when Steelers head coach Tomlin weighed in on the situation. When asked if a flea-flicker had been called by offensive coordinator Arthur Smith, Tomlin replied: "It was."
Tomlin, though, had bigger things to worry about, particularly the Steelers' run defense, which allowed Bengals star Chase Brown to rack up 108 yards at almost 10 yards a clip.
“The first half, we allowed them to run the ball too much,” Tomlin said. “They had about 100 yards rushing at the half, and then we turned the ball over a couple times, and so that just kind of set a negative trajectory, and we’re fighting uphill the rest of the way.
"I certainly appreciate the fight. But man, we got to be cleaner. We got to be better. And we weren’t tonight. And that’s life in this business. We certainly got to learn from it, man, and keep pushing.”
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Rodgers called for calm despite such a bitterly disappointing defeat. He said: "We want to win every game. There needs to be an expectation of winning, but this is a short week, a division opponent and anything can happen.
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"Obviously, Joe played well for them, and [Ja'Marr] Chase and Tee [Higgins] got going for them, but this is the NFL. We had a chance to open up some space, but we're 4-2, we're still first in the division.
"We've got a couple of home games coming up back-to-back, another Sunday night opportunity against my former team. So I'm not going to ride the rollercoaster, I know Mike isn't, and hopefully you guys follow suit."