Fans of the Pittsburgh Steelers may need to take an aspirin after the team's brutal beatdown at the hands of the New England Patriots. The Steel City brand of football was utterly outclassed, and while the offense is largely to blame, nothing was pretty about the Week 2 performance.
Still, we at Steelers Wire decided to analyze the biggest winners and losers from Pittsburgh's 20-3 loss to the Patriots, featuring four solid performers and three dreadful showings on offense.
Winners
T.J. Watt
Watt's 2026 redemption tour continued in Week 2. Although Watt didn't find the same level of success as last week's performance against the Atlanta Falcons, the veteran defender still led the team with 1.5 sacks.
Alex Highsmith
Highsmith was a consistent thorn in the Patriots' side in Week
2, pressuring quarterback Drake Maye and making huge plays against the run. He finished the contest with three combined tackles, two tackles for loss, three QB hits, and one sack.
Jaylen Warren
Warren didn't have a monster outing against New England, but he led the team with 43 rushing yards and was second through the air with 34 receiving yards. The offense was terrible on Sunday, but Warren was one of the lone bright spots. This spot would've belonged to rookie wide receiver Germie Bernard, but his costly mishap late in the fourth quarter led to an ugly turnover.
Cameron Johnston
Johnston had a busy day in Foxborough, as Pittsburgh's abysmal offense resulted in the veteran punting eight times. He finished the game with three punts inside the 20, 385 total punt yards, and a long of 53 yards.
Losers
Steelers' offensive line
Pittsburgh's offensive line was somehow worse in Week 2, with New England constantly pressuring Aaron Rodgers in the blowout loss. The run blocking was bad, but the pass protection was terrible. Mike McCarthy's offensive line experiment has been an utter failure with Troy Fautanu at left tackle and Dylan Cook at right tackle. It's time to head back to the drawing board.
Aaron Rodgers
Rodgers didn't get a lot of help from his receivers or the offensive line, but the veteran quarterback put together a dreadful performance against the Patriots. Finishing the game with a stat line of 187 passing yards and zero touchdowns, along with a terrible 60.5 passer rating, is hardly a winning recipe. Steelers fans won't make it through the 2026 season if Rodgers continues to offer performances like this one.
DK Metcalf
Is Metcalf broken? The $30 million-plus wide receiver was bad in Week 1, but it got even worse against the Patriots. Drops were far too frequent for Metcalf, who finished the game with just four catches for 27 yards on nine targets. If Pittsburgh knew this was the Metcalf they'd get from the Seattle Seahawks, there's no way they would've been so eager to hand out a $132 million extension.
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This article originally appeared on Steelers Wire: Biggest winners, losers from Steelers' Week 2 loss to Patriots
