The Pittsburgh Steelers and New Orleans Saints made history this week, becoming the first teams to play a regular season game in France. Despite struggling to put the ball in the end zone most of the afternoon, the Steelers managed to come away with a 16-10 win across the pond.
A few timely defensive plays helped spoil a strong performance from Saints quarterback Tyler Shough, and the Steelers continued to dominate with their run defense. It was yet another close win after needing overtime to beat the Buccaneers a week ago, but they did enough to move to an impressive 5-2 record after their third straight win.
Still, some of the same issues that have plagued Pittsburgh all season showed up again. Here are the biggest initial takeaways from the Steelers' win over the Saints
Jaylen Warren, run defense shine in Pittsburgh Steelers victory over the Saints in Paris
Jaylen Warren explodes for another big performance
After a bit of a letdown in Week 6 (by his recent standard, at least), Jaylen Warren put up 137 yards on 21 touches, his fourth game with over 125 total yards this season. Rico Dowdle also had plenty of opportunities and did well with them, but Warren is clearly the one who should continue leading the backfield.
Even if Dowdle has played well since returning from his toe injury, Mike McCarthy's unwillingness to lean on Warren is still a concern of mine. For now, though, it's just nice to see that Warren is still able to make such a big impact despite that.
Aaron Rodgers remains the NFL's most predictable QB
Aside from a handful of plays that were legitimately impressive, it was another conservative, low-upside approach from Aaron Rodgers this week against the Saints. He routinely checked the ball down to his running backs or got the ball out quickly to his receivers, often without even attempting to look downfield.
He did hit DK Metcalf on a beautiful deep ball in the first half, and there were a handful of other downfield shots that he wasn't able to connect on. But the plan going into every game feels as predictable as any across the league, and it's one that I don't think is going to work once they face better defenses. 16 points against a Saints team that entered Week 7 tied for the most points allowed this year won't help change that perception.
Steelers secondary looked much more beatable after a strong Week 6
It's hard to be too upset about how any part of the defense played when you only allow 10 points all day, but the Steelers' secondary had some rough moments in this one. Shough routinely found open receivers against Pittsburgh's zone-heavy defense, which led to several sustained drives that could have led to points.
Luckily, a few timely plays by the front seven kept New Orleans off the scoreboard. It may be time for defensive coordinator Patrick Graham to get more aggressive and trust his defensive backs to cover long enough to allow the pass rush to get home.
Steelers run defense completely shut down Saints RBs
Pittsburgh's run defense has been surprisingly stout over the last few weeks, even without 2025 first-round pick Derrick Harmon available. They took it to a whole other level against the Saints, allowing just 18 yards on 17 attempts. If you look at just running back carries, it was just 11 yards on 14 attempts.
The Steelers' defensive line dominated the Saints up front, and it allowed the linebackers to have a clear path to the ball all game. Speaking of the linebackers...
Patrick Queen, Payton Wilson both make key plays from their LB spot
For all of the negative feelings I tend to have towards this linebacker group (Patrick Queen, in particular), this was as good a performance by the duo as you could have hoped for. Not only were both excellent coming downhill against the run, but they both made plays in the passing game that played a huge part in the outcome going the Steelers' way.
Payton Wilson snagged an interception in the third quarter that ended a long drive from the Saints, and Queen sacked Shough on third down to kill the last drive that the Saints offense would get on the day. Without either of those plays, the game could have gone much differently.
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