Fuming Aaron Rodgers explodes over helmet issues in final minutes of Steelers-Ravens clash

Before Aaron Rodgers played hero Sunday night, he saw it all falling apart before his eyes.

The 42-year-old star quarterback was having trouble communicating with the sideline as the game reached crunch time of an eventual 26-24 Steelers win and AFC North division title.

With the Steelers down 17-13 with 4:29 remaining, Rodgers began screaming at the sideline as he couldn’t get a call from offensive coordinator Arthur Smith.

Rodgers at one point ripped his helmet off and ran to the sideline to switch helmets with backup quarterback Mason Rudolph as the communication devices inside the helmets were malfunctioning.

The Steelers were forced to call two timeouts during the drive with over four minutes remaining on the clock, meaning the Ravens were going to have the opportunity to drain the clock if they wanted to.

“I couldn’t hear anything,” Rodgers said postgame. “In that situation, because of the personnel we had on the field — we had big personnel on the field. … There’s not a whole lot of plays we can get to that I can just call kind of off the cuff.”

After the Steelers called their last timeout, they made a gutsy play call on third down at the goal line: an outside handoff to Kenneth Gainwell, who scampered into the end zone near the pile.

Rodgers explained he was furious because the second helmet he put on malfunctioned as well.

“We did it on the one, and I was just thinking, ‘This is way too important. We’re down four, we need a touchdown here, who cares about the timeouts at this point?’” Rodgers said. “I couldn’t believe, though, that when we got the replacement helmet, that that one didn’t work either.”

The broadcast seemed surprised that Rodgers was calling timeouts to get play calls from the sideline, suspecting that the quarterback could probably call the plays on his own if needed.

Sure enough, the offense really picked up when Rodgers and the Steelers went with the hurry-up offense that made it look easy with a game-winning touchdown drive to take the lead for good.

Rodgers drove 66 yards on six plays in 85 seconds while going 4-for-6 with 65 yards and a game-winning touchdown pass to Calvin Austin III.

The Steelers will head into the wild-card round, where they will face the Texans on Monday night while the Ravens move into an offseason loaded with questions.