Steelers Beat Buccaneers 26-19 in Overtime as Rodgers Rallies From 16-3 Down

TAMPA · SUNDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2026

For three quarters, Aaron Rodgers looked every bit like a quarterback having a long, hot, miserable afternoon in Florida — sacked five times, intercepted once, stuck on three points. Then the fourth quarter started, and the oldest quarterback in the league produced the kind of finish that has defined his career. Rodgers rallied the Pittsburgh Steelers from 16-3 down to beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 26-19 in overtime on Sunday at Raymond James Stadium, a comeback that kept Pittsburgh level at the top of a suddenly crowded AFC North.

Let us be honest about the first three quarters, because the comeback makes no sense without them. According to the Associated Press report carried by TampaBay28, Rodgers was sacked five times in the first three quarters and threw a first-quarter interception that led to the first of four Chase McLaughlin field goals for Tampa Bay. Pittsburgh managed only a single Boswell field goal across its first 10 possessions, Reuters reported. The Buccaneers, starting rookie Jalon Daniels for the third straight week with Baker Mayfield out with a thumb injury, built a 16-3 lead methodically and looked, frankly, like the more organized football team for most of the afternoon.

Daniels finished 22-of-43 for 164 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions, both of them in a fourth quarter he will want back, according to NBC Sports. For three quarters, though, Tampa Bay's plan worked: protect the young quarterback, kick field goals, let the defense hunt a 42-year-old quarterback behind a struggling line. McLaughlin was perfect on the day until the math changed. The problem for Tampa Bay is that football games against Rodgers have a nasty habit of compressing everything that matters into the final fifteen minutes, and Sunday followed that script to the letter.

Sixteen unanswered points in one quarter

The comeback started with 13:48 left in the fourth, when Rodgers found Darnell Washington for a 5-yard touchdown to cut the deficit to 16-10, Reuters reported. Then Pittsburgh's defense, quiet while the offense sputtered, started taking the game over. Rookie Daylen Everette intercepted Daniels, setting up a Boswell field goal that made it 16-13 with about eight minutes left. Boswell then tied the game 16-16 with a 58-yard bomb with 1:55 remaining — and Pittsburgh still was not done. Two plays later, former Buccaneer Jamel Dean intercepted Daniels and returned it 40 yards to the Tampa Bay 3-yard line, a moment of pure theater against his old team.

Tampa Bay's defense, to its credit, held Pittsburgh out of the end zone on three straight plays from the doorstep. Boswell's 20-yarder with 1:21 left gave Pittsburgh its first lead of the day, 19-16, and it felt like the ending. It was not. Daniels, showing real nerve after two brutal interceptions, completed passes of 22 and 13 yards to rookie Ted Hurst to move Tampa Bay into range, and McLaughlin drilled a 53-yard field goal in the final seconds to tie the game 19-19 and force overtime, according to the Associated Press. NBC Sports reported that Pittsburgh dominated the fourth quarter statistically, gaining 230 yards in the period alone after being outplayed for three quarters. Both things were true at once: Tampa Bay refused to die, and Pittsburgh had finally woken up.

Overtime belonged to Rodgers and a rookie

Pittsburgh got the ball first in overtime and never gave it back until it mattered. Rodgers led a 12-play, 70-yard drive that consumed 6:45 of the 10-minute period, Reuters reported, and finished it with a 6-yard touchdown pass to rookie Germie Bernard with about 3:15 left. Bernard finished with 11 catches for 87 yards and his first career touchdown. According to Still Curtain's analysis of the game, those 11 receptions are the most by a rookie playing with Rodgers in Rodgers's 22-year career — a remarkable footnote for a receiver who began the day as a supporting piece and ended it as the headline.

DK Metcalf matched Bernard catch for catch, finishing with 11 receptions for 93 yards as Rodgers leaned on his two most reliable targets again and again on the decisive drives. Rodgers finished 33-of-49 for 253 yards with two touchdowns and one interception, and Reuters noted, citing Pro Football Reference, that the rally marked the 27th fourth-quarter comeback of his career. Tampa Bay got one last possession and drove across midfield, but Jalen Ramsey sacked Daniels on fourth down to end the game — Ramsey's second sack of the day. The Bucs fell to 1-5, a record that does not reflect how close they were to the best win of their season.

What this says about both teams

For Pittsburgh, the encouraging and alarming versions of this team are the same team. A contender should not need 16 fourth-quarter points and overtime to beat a 1-5 opponent starting a rookie quarterback. A contender also does not win this game without a quarterback who has spent two decades treating fourth-quarter deficits as a scheduling inconvenience. USA Today's Steelers report card graded Rodgers's performance in the B-minus range, noting his 5.2 yards per attempt and a first half full of rushed, disrupted throws before the late surge. That feels about right. Rodgers was ordinary for three quarters and inevitable for one, and in the AFC North this season, inevitable in the fourth quarter might be enough.

For Tampa Bay, the loss is cruel in a specific way: the defense sacked Rodgers five times, the kicker went 4-for-4 including a 53-yarder to force overtime, and the rookie quarterback made the throws to send the game to an extra period after throwing the interceptions that nearly ended it early. Daniels's two fourth-quarter picks are the plays that will lead the film session, and fairly so, but a team that gets that performance from its defense and its kicker at home is supposed to win. Instead the Bucs are 1-5, and the margin between their record and respectability is about four plays.

The AFC North, all bunched up

Pittsburgh's win landed in a division that spent Sunday rearranging itself. Cleveland's walk-off win over Baltimore — covered in our report on the Browns taking the AFC North lead — plus this overtime result left the Browns, Steelers and Ravens all at 4-2, with Cincinnati 3-2 after its bye. Ravens Wire noted that Baltimore began Sunday alone in first place and ended it third. Pittsburgh, meanwhile, keeps finding ways to win games it spends three quarters losing, a habit that travels well in a division race even if it ages its fans considerably.

Elsewhere on a busy Sunday afternoon, Tennessee finally got its first win in a 26-20 upset of the Colts in Indianapolis, and the early window also produced New Orleans holding off the Giants at MetLife. For the full picture from Week 6, head to our Sports desk. Rodgers, for his part, added another comeback to a career full of them — and a rookie named Germie Bernard got a game ball he will keep for the rest of his life.