The NFL Went to Paris. Pittsburgh Brought a Defense, and New Orleans Forgot Its Running Game.

The NFL finally played a regular-season game in France, packed 78,488 people into Stade de France, and somehow the most important highlight was a linebacker knowing exactly where the quarterback wanted to throw. Pittsburgh beat New Orleans 16–10 in Paris on October 25. Not a shootout. Not some spectacular offensive masterpiece. A six-point game where Jaylen Warren's rushing, Chris Boswell's three field goals, and one Payton Wilson interception told you everything about which team understood how to survive an ugly afternoon.

New Orleans was supposed to be the designated home team, but the stadium had plenty of Steelers fans, and Pittsburgh was clearly comfortable letting the game get physical. Aaron Rodgers completed 19 of 30 for 212 yards, a touchdown and no interception. Tyler Shough went 30-for-38 for 278 and a score, but he threw the interception that changed the game. I don't mind comparing those stat lines. What I mind is stopping there, because the reason New Orleans lost isn't that Shough couldn't complete enough passes. It's that the Saints were forced to depend on passing for almost everything.

Eighteen Rushing Yards Is Not a Functional NFL Offense

New Orleans finished with eighteen rushing yards. Eighteen. On seventeen attempts. Alvin Kamara gained five yards on six carries. Kendre Miller got six on eight. You can say Pittsburgh's defense was prepared, you can say the offensive line wasn't creating gaps, and you can say some of those backs had nowhere to go. Those explanations are all relevant. But if an NFL team can't run for twenty yards in a game, its quarterback is playing with one entire dimension of the offense missing.

Pittsburgh understood the opposite approach. Warren ran eighteen times for 101 yards, including a 29-yard gain that helped announce the Steelers' commitment to a heavier offensive look. They used an extra offensive lineman as an eligible receiver on some snaps, and Warren kept converting the kind of short-yardage runs that don't always end up on social media. Rico Dowdle added 41 rushing yards. Pittsburgh converted ten of sixteen third downs. That is how you hold onto a game without asking Rodgers to spend three hours throwing desperate passes into coverage.

And don't pretend every Warren carry was some highlight. A handful of those third-and-short conversions were more valuable to the final result than an isolated thirty-yard catch. The Steelers finished with 148 rushing yards and 343 total. They weren't overpowering the Saints for forty points. They were consistently doing enough to keep possession and limit how many opportunities New Orleans could get to fix its own mistakes. Sometimes effective football looks boring because the defense doesn't get another chance to run onto the field.

One Touchdown and a Whole Lot of Boswell

Rodgers found Darnell Washington for a four-yard touchdown in the second quarter, and I like that play because it was more than the veteran quarterback casually tossing a ball into the flat. Washington had to secure it through contact and finish with his feet in bounds. That was Pittsburgh's only touchdown all game. DK Metcalf added a 51-yard gain within a two-catch, 56-yard afternoon. Nice explosive moment, but Pittsburgh still struggled to convert its red-zone chances into six points. The Steelers were one-for-four in the red zone. That's a real criticism even after a road win.

Boswell hit field goals from 28, 47 and 39 yards. The 47-yarder as the first half expired pushed Pittsburgh ahead 13–10. The 39-yarder late in the third made it 16–10, and neither team scored again. Ten kicking points from a perfect three-for-three day shouldn't be treated like the kicker just happened to be standing around while the rest of the team won. He was central to the result. But I'm not congratulating an offense for needing three field goals in a game its defense gave it every chance to control.

Payton Wilson Read the Situation Better Than the Entire Saints Offense

The Saints entered the second half only three points behind. They drove toward the Pittsburgh goal line with a legitimate chance to take the lead, and Shough went looking for a throw near the 10. Wilson recognized the route, broke on the ball, made a diving interception at the Pittsburgh 11 and returned it eighteen yards. That's the play the game turned on. A touchdown would have put New Orleans ahead; instead the possession was over. Pittsburgh didn't have to make some heroic last-second tackle. Wilson anticipated the play and took the football.

That's not permission to pile everything onto Shough. He completed thirty passes, spread the ball around, and found Devaughn Vele for a one-yard touchdown on fourth down in the second quarter. Kamara caught seven passes for 57 yards, Chris Olave had six for 56, and Vele added five for 54. The passing game had moments. But it wasn't explosive enough to compensate for the total absence of rushing, and the interception arrived at exactly the moment New Orleans needed its offense to be calm and disciplined.

Patrick Queen made ten tackles, Keeanu Benton had two tackles for loss, and T.J. Watt kept pressure on the protection. The Steelers didn't have to dominate every pass route when the Saints couldn't threaten them between the tackles. That is the tactical point people should take from this game: the defense was allowed to play its preferred brand of football because New Orleans couldn't punish it on the ground. Wilson's interception was the headline. The structure that made Shough's day uncomfortable mattered just as much.

6ixTake: Don't Confuse Winning Ugly With Playing Perfect Football

I'm giving Pittsburgh credit for winning in a weird environment, on another continent, in front of a crowd that was split between two fan bases. Warren controlled the short-yardage downs, the defense erased the Saints' running game, and Wilson made the kind of play you build a highlight package around. But I refuse to act like scoring one touchdown means the Steelers solved their offense. They got to the red zone four times and cashed in once. Nigga, that leaves a whole lot of room to improve. If you're serious about competing for something bigger than a nice Week 7 record, you can't build every victory around your defense saving a three-point lead.

And New Orleans has a different problem. Everybody is going to stare at Shough's interception because it happened near the goal line, and he absolutely deserves that criticism. But he wasn't the reason Kamara and Miller combined for eleven rushing yards. He wasn't the reason the offense was functionally one-dimensional the entire day. Coaching, blocking, run design, and the decisions that put the quarterback in predictable situations deserve scrutiny. The Saints had a chance to win in France and spent most of the game making it harder to win the next snap.

Pittsburgh left Paris 5–2. New Orleans went to 2–5. That matters, but the bigger takeaway is how a team wins when its offense isn't pretty: protect the ball, run enough to stay on schedule, make the short-yardage plays, and have defenders ready to punish a risky throw. Pittsburgh checked those boxes. New Orleans had eighteen rushing yards. There's your difference.