PITTSBURGH (AP) — Aaron Rodgers urged patience, not panic, after the new-look Pittsburgh Steelers seemed an awful lot like the old-look Pittsburgh Steelers through two weeks.
The four-time NFL MVP urged anyone who would listen to avoid being lured onto the emotional roller coaster that often can be a trap during a 17-game season. Rodgers held firm that the offense that coach Mike McCarthy was brought in to modernize would sort things out eventually.
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Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Roman Wilson (14) is lifted by offensive tackle Max Iheanachor (71) after Wilson scored a touchdown during the first half of an NFL football game against the Cincinnati Bengals in Pittsburgh, Sunday, Sept. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Justin Berl)
Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Ben Skowronek, left, and Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, right, celebrate after Skowronek caught a pass for a touchdown during the first half of an NFL football game against the Cincinnati Bengals in Pittsburgh, Sunday, Sept. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Ben Skowronek (15) catches a pass for a touchdown during the first half of an NFL football game against the Cincinnati Bengals in Pittsburgh, Sunday, Sept. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Justin Berl)
Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Roman Wilson, left, reacts after catching a pass for a touchdown as Cincinnati Bengals cornerback Jalen Davis, right, chases during the first half of an NFL football game against the Cincinnati Bengals in Pittsburgh, Sunday, Sept. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
Eventually arrived on Sunday, when over the span of three-plus hours, the Steelers put to bed any questions about whether McCarthy's play-calling could still leave defenses flat-footed.
The proof was laid bare throughout a 30-27 win over previously unbeaten Cincinnati in which Pittsburgh piled up 411 yards, punted just once and, more importantly, reached the end zone three times after doing it just once across the season's first eight quarters.
McCarthy expected a few rough patches in the early stages of his inaugural season as he tries to put his own stamp on a franchise that doesn't change much. Those patches were all over the place during the first two weeks. Yet he sensed in the run-up to the Bengals that things were starting to smooth out.
“Once you get through the first of everything as a team, there's usually bumps you go through,” McCarthy said. “So they've stayed the course.”
Having the X's and O's on the iPad turn into yards and points in chunks in real life helps. Pittsburgh reached the end zone twice in the first quarter for the first time since the 2022 opener with a pair of calls that showcased why McCarthy remains one of the league's better offensive minds at 62.
The Steelers took the early lead when Rodgers floated a pass to a wide-open Roman Wilson for a 38-yard score. Wilson was part of a bunch formation to Rodgers' left at the snap, then expertly raced by Cincinnati defensive back Jalen Davis to the goal line.
It was more of the same the next time Pittsburgh got the ball, with wide receiver/special teams ace Ben Skowronek going in motion behind Rodgers before splitting inside tight end Darnell Washington. Cincinnati's secondary, believing Skowronek was going to serve as a lead blocker for running back Jaylen Warren, pushed forward. Skowronek kept right on running, easily hauling in his first touchdown since Week 1 of the 2025 season.
Rodgers' third touchdown pass, this one to embattled wide receiver DK Metcalf, came after a pair of Bengal defenders banged into each other on the play.
“It's nice having a guy wide open,” Rodgers said.
There was a lot of that going around against the Bengals, whose revamped defense looked decidedly ordinary.
The timing couldn't have been better. A week after a feckless Week 2 performance that raised external alarm bells, Pittsburgh responded by reaching 30 points for the first time since last November to keep pace with the rest of the AFC North at 2-1.
“I think we have a great veteran group here who has their eyes on the bigger prize,” tight end Robert Tonyan said. “They're not going to waver.”
Jaylen Warren is one of the NFL's most unsung success stories. Signed as an undrafted rookie free agent in 2022, Warren has outlasted a former first-round pick (Najee Harris) and become one of the most versatile backs in the league when healthy. With co-starter Rico Dowdle sidelined by a toe injury, Warren posted a career-high 176 total yards while playing with a tender shoulder. Those numbers would have been even higher if an 80-plus yard run in the fourth quarter wasn't called back because of a holding penalty behind the play and if Warren hadn't tripped over his own feet on his way to the end zone later in the same drive.
Joey Porter Jr. says he wants to play this season. The secondary certainly looked like it needed him while letting Joe Burrow complete his first 14 passes on his way to a 282-yard, three-touchdown performance. Porter, who has been inactive for each of Pittsburgh’s first three games because of a back injury amid a contract impasse, says he “definitely” wants to play for Pittsburgh in 2026, but with each passing week it seems more and more unlikely.
Rookie right tackle Max Iheanachor certainly looked the part while making his first NFL start. The 21st overall pick in the draft was physical and assertive while lining up next to veteran guard Gabe Hoffman as Pittsburgh's line allowed just two sacks a week after Rodgers was pummeled by New England.
If there's a blueprint on how to neutralize edge rushers T.J. Watt, Alex Highsmith and Nick Herbig, the Bengals provided it. Burrow got the ball out quickly in an effort to keep Pittsburgh's talented outside linebacker group at bay. It worked for the most part. The trio combined for two tackles and one quarterback pressure.
Veteran defensive back Jalen Ramsey is dealing with a wrist injury. The eight-time Pro Bowler has not missed a defensive snap this season.
26-11 — Pittsburgh's record since 2000 in games following a loss of 15 points or more. Their .703 winning percentage in those contests is the best in the NFL over that span.
Figure out a way to beat Cleveland on the road during a short week. The Steelers are 0-4 in their last four trips to Huntington Bank Field on Thursday nights.
See AP’s full NFL coverage here
Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Roman Wilson (14) is lifted by offensive tackle Max Iheanachor (71) after Wilson scored a touchdown during the first half of an NFL football game against the Cincinnati Bengals in Pittsburgh, Sunday, Sept. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Justin Berl)
Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Ben Skowronek, left, and Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, right, celebrate after Skowronek caught a pass for a touchdown during the first half of an NFL football game against the Cincinnati Bengals in Pittsburgh, Sunday, Sept. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Ben Skowronek (15) catches a pass for a touchdown during the first half of an NFL football game against the Cincinnati Bengals in Pittsburgh, Sunday, Sept. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Justin Berl)
Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Roman Wilson, left, reacts after catching a pass for a touchdown as Cincinnati Bengals cornerback Jalen Davis, right, chases during the first half of an NFL football game against the Cincinnati Bengals in Pittsburgh, Sunday, Sept. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
Benjamin Netanyahu traveled secretly to the United Arab Emirates over the weekend, the two countries revealed Monday.
The meeting between Netanyahu and Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan took place on Sunday, two people who were briefed on the trip confirmed. One said Netanyahu asked the Emirati leader to deny a report he’d warned Israel about a looming Hamas threat ahead of the Palestinian militant group’s Oct. 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel.
Meanwhile, the European Union's top diplomat Kaja Kallas said the bloc is applying for observer status in a Saudi-led maritime defense coalition formed to protect the kingdom's energy exports. The EU already has six vessels deployed to the Red Sea to protect shipping.
Here is the latest news from the Middle East on Monday. Full coverage is available here.
The Israeli prime minister held an hourlong meeting with the UAE’s president on Sunday, according to two people briefed on Netanyahu's trip, which was first reported by Israel’s Channel 12 TV station.
One of them said the talks focused on a report published by the Israeli daily Haaretz earlier this month that said the Emirati leader warned Netanyahu about a looming attack by Hamas just ahead of Oct. 7, 2023.
Netanyahu asked Sheikh Mohamed to deny the report, according to a person said to have firsthand information about the meeting. Netanyahu’s office had previously denied the Haaretz report.
The person, along with a regional official briefed on the meeting, spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the secret trip.
Late Monday, the UAE confirmed the meeting, saying the two leaders discussed bilateral relations “and ways to strengthen and develop them.”
Netanyahu's office also said late Monday the meeting focused “solely on strengthening relations.” It denied making any request to the Emirati leader about the newspaper report.
It also said the Shin Bet security agency had filed a complaint accusing Channel 12 of violating censorship rules by reporting his visit before he had returned to Israel.
—By Josef Federman in Jerusalem and Samy Magdy in Cairo
The European Union is applying for “observer status” in a new multinational maritime defense coalition led by Saudi Arabia formed to protect the kingdom’s energy exports.
The bloc’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas made the announcement on Monday, ahead of a Brussels meeting. The energy-hungry EU is facing record energy prices due to the war in Iran.
Kallas said she will ask for an expansion of the bloc’s own small naval force in the Red Sea dubbed ASPIDES to help escort cargo vessels through the key strategic chokepoint of the Bab el-Mandeb strait and protect them from attacks by Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels.
Kallas said the “need is bigger than it’s ever been” for more ships. It’s unclear what observer status in the Saudi-led coalition would mean operationally for either the EU or ASPIDES.
Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, has praised his country’s fighters for allegedly preventing “enemy forces” from “roaming freely” in the Strait of Hormuz.
Khamenei said in a message carried by the state broadcaster on Monday that Iran’s enemies now “do not come" closer to the strait than the Arabian Sea, which is part of the Indian Ocean.
Soon, "the Arabian Sea too, will be rid of them,” said the message, issued to mark the two-year anniversary of the killing of the militant Hezbollah group's longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah in Lebanon.
Khamenei hasn't been seen or heard publicly since the opening attacks of the war on Feb. 28 that killed his father and previous supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The World Health Organization said Sunday it has documented 164 deaths and 645 injuries from the war in Yemen between Sept. 19 and Sept. 26.
This brings the overall casualties since Aug. 6 to 4,481, with 838 fatalities. The latest intense fighting between the Iran-backed Houthis and Yemeni government forces has displaced more than 180,000 people.
A woman was killed and her husband wounded when an Israeli strike hit a Gaza City rooftop on Monday, Shifa Hospital officials said. Another person was also wounded and in critical condition.
The Israeli military later said it was aware of this strike and was looking into its results.
Later Monday, a second Israeli strike, on a school in the Nuseirat refugee camp, left one person critically injured, according to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in central Gaza.
The Israeli military said it targeted a “military operative,” but did not immediately provide further details or identify the individual.
More than 1,400 Palestinians have been killed since the Gaza ceasefire took effect nearly a year ago. Around half of that number are women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which maintains detailed records that international organizations consider reliable.
The United Nations' acting Mideast envoy said Monday that settler violence in the West Bank has reached “unprecedented levels” – often with Israeli forces present.
Ramiz Alakbarov told the U.N. Security Council that 630 documented settler attacks between June 13 and Sept. 18. resulted in casualties, property damage or both. Three Palestinian communities were "fully depopulated" during that period, he said, "bringing to 49 the number of communities fully displaced under similar circumstances since January 2023.”
Israel’s expansion of settlements in the West Bank, in violation of international law, also threatens prospects of a contiguous Palestinian state and a two-state solution, Alakbarov said.
Israel’s polarizing Cabinet minister in charge of settlement construction, Bezalel Smotrich, has condemned a decision by the attorney general to freeze a contentious project near Jerusalem.
Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara ordered the project to be put on hold until after the Oct. 27 elections so it wouldn't “be used for election propaganda.”
The project — known as E1 settlement development — is especially controversial because it would carve out a strategic section of the West Bank in a way that critics say would destroy hopes for a viable future Palestinian state.
Smotrich accused on X Baharav-Miara of “interfering in the election campaign” and acting in the service of Netanyahu’s political opponents.
Israel summoned the Spanish Embassy’s chargé d’affaires over remarks by Spain's youth minister who declared the country's public support for a Palestinian state “from the river to the sea” — a slogan that implies a call for the elimination of the Israeli state.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry said Monday that Spanish Youth Minister Sira Rego’s remarks were “part of a systematic anti-Israel policy pursued by the Spanish government” and its leader, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez. Rego was barred from entering Israel in Sept. 2025.
This report will be updated throughout the day as new developments emerge.
A displaced Yemeni walks at Al-Firdaws camp in Ras Imran, on the western outskirts of Aden, Yemen, Monday, Sept. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdulnasser Alseddik)
Cargo ships are anchored in the Strait of Hormuz off Bandar Abbas, Iran, before sunrise Monday, Sept. 28, 2026. (Amirhosein Khorgooi/ISNA via AP)
A motorboat passes an anchored cargo ship in the Strait of Hormuz off Bandar Abbas, Iran, early Monday, Sept. 28, 2026. (Amirhosein Khorgooi/ISNA via AP)
A displaced Yemeni boy plays at Al-Firdaws camp in Ras Imran, on the western outskirts of Aden, Yemen, Monday, Sept. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdulnasser Alseddik)
Volunteer Naseem Al-Adini, right, provides free meals to displaced people at the Al-Akdaf camp in Taiz, Yemen, Saturday, Sept. 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdulnasser Alseddik)
A displaced Yemeni walks at Al-Firdaws camp in Ras Imran, on the western outskirts of Aden, Yemen, Monday, Sept. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdulnasser Alseddik)
Displaced Yemenis sit outside at Al-Firdaws camp in Ras Imran, on the western outskirts of Aden, Yemen, Thursday, Sept. 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdulnasser Alseddik)
Displaced Yemeni children from Al-Kadha, west of Taiz, gather at the Al-Akdaf camp in Taiz, Yemen, Saturday, Sept. 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdulnasser Alseddik)
FILE - Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu listens during a news conference with President Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago, Dec. 29, 2025, in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)
