PITTSBURGH — Aaron Rodgers spent the week insisting his first-ever game against the Green Bay Packers wasn’t personal. That he wasn’t looking for revenge against the team he defined for the better part of two decades.

Good thing, because there was none to be had on Sunday night in Pittsburgh’s 35-25 loss to Green Bay.

Instead, there was only reminder after reminder that while the 41-year-old Rodgers can still compete at a high level, the team that surrounds him remains very much a work in progress. And maybe an iffy one at that.

Rodgers threw for 219 yards and two scores in Pittsburgh’s second straight loss, the first time he’s ever looked across the field and watched the Packers celebrate victory on the other.

“Disappointed,” Rodgers said. “Disappointed that I didn’t play better, that we didn’t play better, especially in the second half.”

Rodgers spent 18 years in Green Bay building a resume that will one day land him in the Hall of Fame. Four MVPs and a Super Bowl title will do that. Yet rather than retire as a Packer, Rodgers kept going.

That journey eventually brought him to Pittsburgh, where he is serving as a highly skilled stopgap to whichever franchise quarterback might come next. Rodgers has shown flashes that he can still bring it when he has to in his 21st season. But the days when his brilliance can almost single-handedly overcome his team’s considerable warts are over.

After a promising 4-1 start, the Steelers have dropped two straight and while Rodgers has no interest in riding the weekly roller coaster that is the NFL season, he’s also well aware there’s too much for Pittsburgh to address for him to get caught up in playing “remember when” when talking about the Packers.

Rodgers spent a chunk of the pregame catching up with old friends, many of them members of the Green Bay support staff who have remained following his departure.

Yet when he was introduced to a loud and long ovation while wearing Pittsburgh’s garish or inspired (depending on your perspective) throwbacks, Rodgers was all business. All Pittsburgh.

He deftly guided the Steelers to four scoring drives in the first half while building a 16-7 lead. The problem is, three of those drives ended in long field goals by Chris Boswell instead of touchdowns.

“Bos bailed us out on four incredible kicks, but when you’re playing good teams, you need to score touchdowns, and we stalled out in the high red zone,” Rodgers said.

Green Bay righted itself offensively after halftime behind Love — who at one point tied a franchise record by completing 20 straight passes — and Rodgers and the rest of the Steelers couldn’t keep pace.

Pittsburgh’s first five possessions in the second half went punt, field goal, punt, punt, fumble. A wholly unnecessary 15-yard penalty against wide receiver DK Metcalf blunted a late drive before it even started. A fumble by running back Kenny Gainwell set up a Green Bay field goal that effectively put the game out of reach.

“We can’t beat ourselves,” Rodgers said. “I think in the three losses, there’s been times where we’ve had opportunities and we’ve hurt ourselves with turnovers or just negative plays. So we got to cut those out. We got to get on the same page on offense and defense and keep the faith.”

That faith will be tested in the coming weeks. Pittsburgh welcomes AFC South leading Indianapolis next week before a trip to Los Angeles to face the Chargers. There is plenty to clean up, particularly on a high-priced defense that has looked overmatched for long stretches and has now not produced a turnover in three straight games.

If there is a saving grace for Rodgers, it’s this: there are no longer any more former teams for him to face this season. Seven weeks after his tenure with Pittsburgh began with a four-touchdown masterpiece against the Jets, he watched Love put on a Rodgers-like performance while he and the Steelers sputtered at key times.

Afterward, Rodgers and Love shared a brief embrace at midfield, with Love putting in a request to get a signed jersey from the man who showed him what it means to be a professional quarterback.

And as discouraged as he might have been at the final score, Rodgers also couldn’t help but take notice of his protege, the player who looks and plays at times an awful lot like his mentor.

“He played great,” Rodgers said. “He played fantastic. He’s had a really nice season. He’s been really efficient with the football.”

All sentences that have been used to describe Rodgers at times during his career. Just maybe not on Sunday, when nostalgia gave way to the reality that there is work to be done if Rodgers wants his one-year coda in Pittsburgh to end on a more upbeat note than his time in Green Bay did.

After CBJ wins, we’ll give three takeaways about what stood out or what we’ll remember from the Blue Jackets’ victory.

BLUE JACKETS 5, PENGUINS 4 (SHOOTOUT)

1. In a crazy game, the Blue Jackets showed their resilience yet again.

Saturday night had just about everything – eight goals, two reviews, a fight, some dramatic saves and, finally, a shootout.

And considering just how back-and-forth it was, one of the key factors that allowed the Blue Jackets to leave Pittsburgh with a rare win was how the Blue Jackets kept their heads on their shoulders.

That might sound a little crazy considering Columbus led by a 4-2 score with 10 minutes to go, then proceeded to do exactly what you don’t want to do in that situation. The Blue Jackets took back-to-back penalties, leading to a power-play goal by Kris Letang that cut the lead to one, before the Penguins got an extra-attacker tally to tie it with 3:06 to go.

Columbus had largely dominated the puck throughout – they had a 36-15 advantage in shots on goal at 5-on-5 – but the late penalties allowed the Penguins to get back in the game and got PPG Paints Arena rocking.

So, yes, that wasn’t ideal, and what did most CBJ fans think after Bryan Rust’s tying goal? Likely: Well, we’ve seen this movie before, and we don’t like the ending.

But it wasn’t over, in large part because the Blue Jackets stuck with it. It wasn’t always perfect – see Ivan Provorov’s heroic save of a shot off the line in overtime – but the Jackets had their chances as well before Kent Johnson, Adam Fantilli and Kirill Marchenko went good morning, good afternoon and good night in the shootout. It marked just the fourth time in team history the Jackets went 3-for-3 in a shootout and the first since 2011.

“I think there’s some perseverance obviously by the group,” head coach Dean Evason said. “Our commitment was fantastic, and our composure was good when it could have went sideways again. They held their composure, and we were able to get the job done.”

2. There were several CBJ standouts in this one, but how about the play of Yegor Chinakhov and Dmitri Voronkov?

As the Blue Jackets were summoned for postgame questions in the PPG Paints Arena locker room, two players made sense to chat.

There was Dmitri Voronkov, whose sixth career two-goal game was a huge part of the victory. And then there was Yegor Chinakhov, who was a healthy scratch to start the season but has built his game over the past few contests and put the Blue Jackets ahead in the third period with his first tally of the season.

There’s also the little issue of Voronkov not speaking much English, so Chinakhov did double duty. First, he answered questions about his game, then he served as a translator for Voronkov.

As for Chinakhov, his play has taken a notable step up in the past few contests. After he notched a single shot on goal in his first two contests after stepping in for the injured Miles Wood, Chinakhov has nine in the last three games, and his wired wrist shot past goalie Arturs Silovs just 1:55 into the third period put the Jackets up 3-2. It was vintage Chinakhov, who has the quick release and heavy shot to beat goalies clean from almost anywhere in the offensive zone.

“I like scoring,” Chinakhov said. “It feels great. I love the hockey, so I just try to be better every day.”