Cris Collinsworth Bemoans Aaron Rodgers’s Inability to Hit Wide Open Receiver

Aaron Rodgers did not light it up in the first half against the Ravens.
Aaron Rodgers did not light it up in the first half against the Ravens. / Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images

The Pittsburgh Steelers hosted the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday Night Football in the final game of the regular season. The stakes were high, as the winning team would take the AFC North and be the last team into the playoffs.

Pittsburgh did not get off to a great start. Baltimore took a 10-0 lead while the Steelers punted and turned the ball over on downs on their first two drives. On the Steelers' third drive of the game, Aaron Rodgers finally saw a man open downfield and promptly threw the ball over his head.

Cris Collinsworth could not believe what he was seeing.

"That's terrible," said Collinsworth. "That was their big home run play. And it was there. You had MVS gonna clear out down here and then you've got the route coming over. Look how wide open this is. Look at the space. And they can't hit that play!? I don't know what happened to the timing. You can see Aaron kind of shuffle his feet for a minute. Maybe wasn't sure if he was going deep or across the field, but oh my goodness, you can't miss home run plays like that."

On the next play Rodgers took off towards the sideline and realized he could not beat a defensive lineman to the edge. Collinsworth and Mike TIrico seemed to agree that a younger Rodgers would have gotten a first down.

Despite the drive stalling, the Steelers did kick a field goal on fourth down to get on the board.


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Stephen Douglas
STEPHEN DOUGLAS

Stephen Douglas is a senior writer on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. He has worked in media since 2008 and now casts a wide net with coverage across all sports. Douglas spent more than a decade with The Big Lead and previously wrote for Uproxx and The Sporting News. He has three children, two degrees and one now unverified Twitter account.