It was a late-season game with playoff ramifications, which meant last Sunday's visit to Baltimore was the type of game Aaron Rodgers had anticipated playing with the Steelers all along.
"It had been a couple years since I had played in meaningful games in December," Rodgers noted after practice today. "That's why we play. Obviously, you play to win championships but you have to be in position and playing the right way late in the season.
"Good to be a part of a big-time game last Sunday and the rest of these will all be the same."
The Steelers had lost five of seven prior to visiting the Ravens.
But in Rodgers' estimation, head coach Mike Tomlin's approach in preparing and handling the team in advance of the Steelers' 27-22 triumph never wavered.
"No, he's been the same," Rodgers maintained. "He hasn't changed at all. His meeting are, for anybody like myself, or (wide receiver) Adam (Thielen) coming in, or (wide receiver) Marquez ((Valdes-Scantling), It's pretty eye-opening, him Wednesday, Thursday and Friday getting in front of the team and talking for 30-plus minutes every single day and the way that he leads without any notes and his preparedness every single week.
"The way he keeps a tight grasp of the pulse of the team and the energy of the team makes my job a lot easier."
Rodgers has said on multiple occasions the main reason he signed with the Steelers was because of Tomlin.
What he's seen from Tomlin since, particularly last week, confirms what Rodgers initially anticipated.
"It's not surprising, he's been here for how many years, 18 or 19 years?" Rodgers said. "Never had a losing season, there's gotta be something to it. I think every team is looking for that special sauce of a coach who can lead and be consistent and be involved, understand how to delegate, lead when it needs to be done, and they don't have to fill every space with words. I think that's one of his greatest gifts as a head coach. In my time here, short time, obviously, I don't feel like he's ever tried to fill a space with unnecessary words.
"That might seem like a small thing but it's actually a very meaningful thing. Sometimes the more words that are said, the more opportunities for panic or freak out that an happen. And he's very concise and to the point with the objectives each week, with the opponent that we're playing and with the expectations for us as a football team. I have a unique perspective and guys who have played elsewhere have a unique perspective coming in here. But the guys that are here should understand how special it is to have a guy like that leading the team."
The win over the Ravens gave the Steelers sole possession of first place in the AFC North Division.
It also moved Tomlin one step closer to extending his streak of never having had a losing season to 19 consecutive seasons.
"It's really impressive," Rodgers said. "We had a run, 2009 to 2016 where we didn't miss the playoffs in Green Bay and won the division a number of times during that stretch. It creates an expectation of winning and the winning gets ingrained in the culture. And I think there's a lot to be said for that. It's not overt, it's just kind of the foundational part of the locker room and the team is an expectation of winning.
"When you're a part of an organization like that, which I was in Green Bay and then didn't have it in New York (with the Jets the last two seasons), it makes a big difference. Teams that don't have that ingrained in it, there's always the opportunity to do it. It just takes the right people and the right timing and the right coaching to kind of put it together and you learn how to win.
"When you've been in a place that has a history of excellence like Green Bay with the 1960s on, like Pittsburgh with the 1970s on, it's just kind of understood when you walk in the door that winning is the most important thing. And like the great Vince Lombardi said, it's the only thing that really matters."
