Difference between Russell Wilson and Aaron Rodgers on Sunday night

On a Sunday night, we saw a team give everything for a veteran quarterback to win the Super Bowl. And on the other hand, we saw a team that forced a veteran Super Bowl-winning quarterback to give up (almost) everything just to play there. This is the story of the Pittsburgh Steelers' 37-15 victory over the New York Jets.

The Jets immediately became Aaron Rodgers Incorporated The team traded for him and began the long process of steps that were directly or indirectly due to his presence there. Rodgers changed the way the team approached the draft and free agency. He changed the way the team approached the trade deadline. He changed the way the offense was played. For example, when a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame recruits a new backing band, no one wants to be the one to get a cymbal thrown at their head, which results in everyone playing a little tight. While Rodgers didn't order the firing of his head coachthe immense pressure he had there changed the way the Jets approach even the most basic human intricacies. Let's not forget that Robert Saleh was the first coach this season to be fired during Woody Johnson's tenure, even though he was just one game out of first place at the time.

And while the Jets were never really a team with a definitive, owner-created culture or identity that spanned decades and influenced years of success, it's safe to say that the team's ethos is now focused solely on making the playoffs Experiencing with Rodgers at the center somehow rationalizes how vulnerable a place prone to jokes has made itself.

Russell Wilson, on the other hand, had to become the consummate Steeler the moment he signed there, with “pole position” for a starting spot but no guarantees. He was there when the team also traded Justin Fields. He was there when Fields started the season 4-2. He had to sit there, his eye black as a painted figure, unable – or perhaps wisely unwilling – to respond to what had become a chorus of jokes about him Leave it to Beaver Attitude. He was once the highest-paid player in the sport for his current team and therefore earned the veteran minimum. Dispensable.

On Sunday, I was less excited about him scoring a total of three touchdowns and throwing for 264 yards than I was watching him jam his body underneath that line of scrimmage on multiple occasions, exposing himself to the series of trash compactor-like positions he assumes had to gain short distances. This is the same quarterback who began his new situation in Denver with a private staff and an office; a quarterback who no longer wanted to play rugby football. And while no one can blame him for wishing for less punishment at the end of his career, this was a quarterback who didn't seem at all a fit for one of the toughest, machismo-infused franchises in all of sports.

To be clear: I was one of the first people asking the Jets to acquire Rodgers and one of the Wilson's loudest critics in Pittsburgh. On a night like this, I can't switch sides and claim to be clairvoyant, but I can point out what I've missed: it's far better to bend your will to a pre-existing culture than to force it into a kind of existing one Culture in which you can bend to your will.

Before Rodgers arrived, the Jets were a team of young stars. They had the offensive and defensive rookies of the year in Garrett Wilson and Sauce Gardner. There was something new about them. Now they're more like a non-playoff team during baseball's steroid era – a list of names you know but aren't quite sure why or how they all ended up on this field.

Before Wilson arrived in Pittsburgh, the Steelers were the Steelers. On Sunday night, the Steelers largely remained the Steelers. They hit the quarterback eight times, broke up six passes and picked off two. If we could see a clear difference with Wilson in the lineup, it was a more calculated — and successful — aggressiveness. According to NextGenStats, Wilson attempted more than twice as many throws in tight coverage as Justin Fields in Week 6, which led to some game-winning chunk plays and the involvement of some hungry wide receivers, at least on one night.

Even though it's just one game, both teams' exit strategies couldn't be more different. Taking Wilson out of the lineup for Fields, a quarterback who has handled his demotion with class, would be nothing more than a few well-chosen words at the podium. Both Wilson and Fields understand how to succeed there. Both understand that living in Pittsburgh comes with certain expectations; a code, a style of play that are necessary. It would not be controversial if both started a few games later this season.

An exit from the Rodgers experiment would leave the kind of ruin that's hard to imagine, considering that after seven weeks, we still have no idea what the Jets are even building or how they'll get there.