Mike Tomlin blew a kiss into the camera as he sauntered off the field four weeks ago in Baltimore with the lead in the AFC North and a pivotal win in his back pocket.

At the time, the Steelers’ season was at a crossroads, and their coach was in the crosshairs. Just seven days earlier in Pittsburgh, fans chanted “Fire Tomlin” and booed the team’s defensive anthem “Renegade” during a demoralizing blowout loss to the Buffalo Bills that dropped the Steelers to 6-6. The NFL’s longest-tenured coach has faced criticism and calls for his job before, but never like that.

Needing a win in Baltimore to snap a skid of five losses in seven games, put the Steelers back on the path to the postseason and quiet the masses, Aaron Rodgers delivered. In one of the biggest games of the season, Rodgers played, arguably, his best game as a Steeler. He threw for a season-high 284 yards, including a season-high four completions of 20-plus air yards. He also scampered into the end zone on a broken play for his first rushing touchdown since 2022, then punctuated it with his signature Discount Double Check celebration.

After Tomlin walked off the field, victorious, with Rodgers on one side and Cameron Heyward on the other, the coach stepped to a lectern in the bowels of the M&T Bank Stadium and delivered a resounding message.

“We knew what was on the line today,” Tomlin said. “That’s why you go do business with a guy like Aaron — for thick days like today. He’s a been-there done-that guy. Beyond the experience component of it, he relishes it. You can just tell.”

Forever connected by Super Bowl XLV, Rodgers and Tomlin joined forces this offseason after careers full of parallel and intersecting moments. It was a long, strange courtship that included several false alarms and a covert visit from Rodgers in a rented Chevy Malibu. Through the uncertainty and the indecision, Tomlin remained patient. His strength has always been his ability to connect with players on a personal level. When many coaches would have given up faith or gone a different direction, Tomlin waited — and ultimately was rewarded when Rodgers signed ahead of mandatory minicamp in June.

While Rodgers still has his fastball and a supercomputer of an NFL mind, no one should have expected him to be at his MVP best this year. He hasn’t been. At 42 years old and in his 21st NFL season, Rodgers is an all-time great who has played pretty well, given his age and the limitations around him. Rodgers enters Week 18 ranked 13th in passer rating (95.3), 18th in passing yards per game (201.9), 26th in EPA per dropback (0.00) and 40th in passing success rate (40.2 percent), a stat that measures how frequently teams stay on schedule by hitting certain yardage thresholds, according to TruMedia.