BEREA, Ohio (AP) — Aaron Rodgers' NFL farewell tour continues with his final scheduled Thursday night game when the Pittsburgh Steelers face the Cleveland Browns.
Even though Rodgers is one win shy of tying Tom Brady (14) for the most QB wins on Thursdays, the Steelers have not had the same success. Pittsburgh is 0-9 on the road when facing an AFC North team on Thursday.
“Because there’s not enough damn time to embrace the tape,” defensive tackle Cam Heyward said. “But the great thing about it is they got to deal with the same problems we are. So it’s an even playing field.”
Four of those nine losses have been against Cleveland. The Browns won 24-19 two years ago when the second half was played in a snowstorm. There was also the 2019 game when former Browns defensive end Myles Garrett got in a late-game scuffle with Steelers QB Mason Rudolph. Garrett ripped off Rudolph's helmet, swung it and hit him in the head.
“We had that snowball a couple years ago, which was crazy," Heyward said. "Yeah, it can become a little bit more gimmicky because it’s not as sharp as a Sunday. But we’re just gonna embrace it and be ready for it.”
Thursday night also marks the 150th meeting all-time between the rivals, which are separated by only 135 miles.
Rodgers is 13-7 on Thursdays with 46 touchdowns and seven interceptions. One of those losses, though, came last season at Cincinnati when the Bengals rallied for a 33-31 victory.
“I just suck it up for those three hours and then know you get a reward on the back end. I think it’s part of the game now because of the money that’s in it. I think I’m just excited about the weekend,” said Rodgers, who has thrown 11 touchdowns and no interceptions in five games against the Browns.
Steelers coach Mike McCarthy is 11-5 on Thursday nights, with wins in four of the past five games.
Cleveland has won seven straight games on Thursday night, the longest active streak and tied for fourth longest in NFL history.
Deshaun Watson has four touchdowns and no interceptions in the past two games as the Browns are 2-1 for the first time since 2023. The 10-year veteran has lost to Pittsburgh in his three starts, though, while taking 18 sacks.
“It’s a great opportunity to showcase what we’re about on a big national stage. And yeah, we’re super excited," Watson said. "We’re playing a very tough opponent, experienced opponent, and we got to make sure that we have all our things locked in going into that game.”
Pittsburgh (2-1) at Cleveland (2-1)
When/where to watch: Thursday, 8:15 p.m. EDT, Amazon Prime.
Latest odds: Steelers by 2 1/2.
Against the spread: Steelers 2-1; Browns 2-1.
Last week: Steelers beat the Bengals 30-27; Browns beat the Panthers 21-18.
Last meeting: Browns beat Steelers 13-6 on Dec. 28, 2025, in Cleveland.
Series record: Steelers lead 86-62-1.
Browns offensive tackles Spencer Fano and Tytus Howard vs. Steelers linebackers TJ Watt and Alex Highsmith. Browns tackles have allowed a 13.5% quarterback pressure rate, second highest in the league. Howard is tied for most pressures allowed by a right tackle with 17. Pittsburgh has the highest pressure rate when using four or fewer pass rushers. Watt has 17 1/2 sacks in 15 meetings against the Browns while Highsmith has 11 1/2 in 11 games.
— The teams have split the season series each of the past four years, with each club winning on its home field.
— Pittsburgh cornerback Joey Porter Jr. was traded to Dallas late Wednesday night for two draft picks after a contract impasse with the Steelers front office. Steelers veteran defensive back Jalen Ramsey is dealing with a broken wrist and is listed as questionable.
— Steelers RB Jaylen Warren is coming off a career-high 176 total yards (127 rushing, 49 receiving) in Sunday's win over Cincinnati. Warren likely will get the bulk of touches again with co-starter Rico Dowdle still out because of a toe injury.
— Last week, Rodgers and McCarthy became the seventh quarterback/coach combination to win at least 100 regular-season games together since 1950.
— Cleveland center Elgton Jenkins is in the concussion protocol and will miss the game. Cornerback Tyson Campbell (knee) could be back after being inactive last week.
— Browns WR Denzel Boston leads NFL rookies with 195 receiving yards and is tied for first with two touchdowns. Eight of his nine receptions have come in the second half.
— Cleveland DT Mason Graham is tied for second with four sacks. He joined Myles Garrett (2019) as the only Browns players to have a sack in each of the first three games to begin a season.
AP Sports Writer Will Graves in Pittsburgh contributed to this report.
See AP’s full NFL coverage here
Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson (4) reacts after a play against the Carolina Panthers during the first half of an NFL football game in Cleveland, Sunday, Sept. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/David Richard)
Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, left, on the field after winning an NFL football game against the Cincinnati Bengals in Pittsburgh, Sunday, Sept. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia's new class of jet-powered drones rip across the night sky in Kyiv at hundreds of kilometers per hour, leaving Ukrainian air-defense units only moments to intercept them. It's rarely enough time.
With many of the drones getting through to the capital, defense manufacturers are scrambling to develop a new generation of interceptors to counter the deadly threat. They are building their own jet-propulsion systems and training artificial intelligence to help guide the chase.
They need to move fast because the Russian drones are driving a new tactic, ramped up in recent weeks, to hit the infrastructure keeping Ukraine’s war-battered economy afloat. Recent targets have included energy systems, key industries, railways, post offices, shopping centers, telecom networks, gas stations and grain exports.
Russia also has an advantage with its ballistic missile arsenal, which poses another challenge as Ukraine runs low on interceptor missiles.
The effects of the barrage are being felt in Kyiv, which increasingly resembles a front-line city, without the relative safety that had long set it apart from the fighting. Food supplies have been disrupted, explosions echo day and night, and residents scramble for cover from strikes that reach closer to the city center.
Ukrainian officials say they are testing new interceptors that have successfully hit jet-powered Russian drones, which fly much higher and faster than propeller-driven drones and are much harder to stop.
“They’re moving so fast that we can’t get a proper lock on them,” said Volodymyr Serdiuk, commander of an air-defense unit.
Building the prototype interceptors in sufficient numbers, and training pilots to fly them, could take up to six months, manufacturers say. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called for faster production.
Air-defense crews have no time to wait. Facing constant waves of drones, they improvise, but lives are lost almost daily.
Serdiuk's air-defense crew begins their night shift at 8 p.m.
He studies a tablet connected to a centralized radar system to track the sky above his sector. A circle marks the stretch of airspace his unit is responsible for protecting.
“It’s like chasing a pig in the forest,” he said of the new drones, which are based on Iranian-designed Shahed models.
His son is serving on the front line in eastern Ukraine and now calls him in Kyiv just to check that he is safe, a measure of just how much life in the capital has deteriorated.
To the west, the lights of Kyiv twinkle on the horizon. To the east, the green countryside and suburbs stretch into the darkness, with a power plant visible in the distance.
Then a red marker appears on the screen, moving rapidly across the map. It's a jet-powered Shahed drone.
“Exit!” someone cries. Serdiuk looks up.
Moments later, the Shahed streaks across the night sky. It is already beyond his unit’s reach. His team relies on heavy machine guns, but their rounds cannot match the drone’s speed or altitude.
Then, a flash. Seconds later, the sound of an explosion reaches them from several kilometers away.
In that particular attack, it was not clear if the blast was from the Russian drone that flew past them, as official channels reported, or from a Ukrainian air-defense rocket, as witnesses at the site told The Associated Press.
The same sequence happened again and again throughout the night.
Even if the drones pass directly overhead, “the problem is they’re flying too high" to fire at them accurately, said Sean Almeida, a former U.S. Marine and volunteer for the unit.
Ukraine’s air defenses use electronic warfare and AI to steer incoming Russian drones into narrow corridors in the sky, giving interceptors a better chance of catching them.
But the latest jet-powered Shahed drones are testing that strategy. The fastest Ukrainian interceptors typically reach 300 to 400 kph (186 to 248 mph), not fast enough to meet the new threat.
Crews have started training on a new interceptor that includes a cooling system to keep its batteries from overheating as the drone is pushed to higher speeds to match the jet-powered enemy.
For now, salvation can appear on a radar screen as a blue blip representing one of Ukraine’s few F-16 fighter jets, scrambled to hunt down the fastest drones. They are capable of stopping the drones, but they need a lot of maintenance. Many are currently out of service and awaiting repairs.
“It’s very encouraging to see the blue part,” Almeida said.
Casualty reports soon began appearing on news channels. A mother and her child were killed in Kyiv’s Fastiv district, one said.
The deaths were from the explosion Serdiuk watched from several kilometers away.
As air-defense crews hunt drones, Ukrainian engineers are racing to set up industrial production.
Ukraine had been warned that faster, jet-powered drones were coming, but manufacturers did not have a ready solution when the new variants appeared, said Oleksii Babenko, CEO of Vyriy Drones.
Defense companies are now pursuing faster interceptors, new propulsion systems and autonomous guidance capabilities. The biggest challenge is scale. Acquiring components, testing designs and training crews take time.
Miniature turbojet engines are one of the bottlenecks, with much of the supply coming from European manufacturers whose production capacity is far below Ukraine’s potential needs.
At least one Ukrainian defense company has successfully tested an interceptor against the new threat. Babenko estimates it could take three to four months to scale up and close the gap. Military analyst Taras Chmut puts the timeline at six months or more.
“Right now, we’re in a race for speed,” Babenko said, “trying to build faster interceptors and new solutions.”
The improved interceptors cannot come soon enough for Ukrainians such as Daria Kuchynska.
The 31-year-old had just stepped into the road Friday outside her Kyiv flower shop when an explosion from a jet-powered drone went off without warning. The blast threw her to the ground and filled the street with dust and smoke. Beside her lay an unconscious woman.
Kuchynska checked for a pulse, but the woman was already dead.
“So many people are constantly dying around us. I don’t know how we survive. It’s simply a matter of luck," she said. “It's unreal.”
A Ukrainian air defense soldier gets ready to repel Russia's drone attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday evening, Sept. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
A Ukrainian air defense soldier gets ready to repel Russia's drone attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday evening, Sept. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
A Ukrainian air defense soldier gets ready to repel Russia's drone attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday evening, Sept. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
A Ukrainian air defense soldier gets ready to repel Russia's drone attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday evening, Sept. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
A Ukrainian air defense soldier gets ready to repel Russia's drone attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday evening, Sept. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
A Ukrainian air defense soldier gets ready to repel Russia's drone attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday evening, Sept. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
