Aaron Rodgers climbed a rung higher on the NFL’s all-time regular-season touchdown passes leaderboard Sunday, throwing a four-yard touchdown to Darnell Washington that moved him past Peyton Manning — and doing it on the league’s first-ever game in France. The play came midway through the second quarter at Stade de France and helped power the Pittsburgh Steelers to a 16-10 victory over the New Orleans Saints, a result that improved Pittsburgh to 5-2.
Milestone throw in an international setting
Entering the Paris game, Rodgers was tied with Peyton Manning with 539 career regular-season touchdown passes. He pushed ahead when he connected with tight end Darnell Washington on a fade for a short score, giving the Steelers a 10-3 lead in the second quarter and putting Rodgers at 540 touchdown passes for his career.
The timing underscored the moment’s resonance: the milestone came during the NFL’s first contest staged in France, a landmark in the league’s international expansion. The match at Stade de France provided a global stage for Rodgers’ climb on the all-time list and for both franchises to be part of that history.
How the game unfolded in Paris
Pittsburgh opened the scoring with a 28-yard field goal from Chris Boswell on the game’s first drive. New Orleans answered early in the second quarter when Daniel Carlson split the uprights from 38 yards, but Rodgers later engineered a 77-yard drive capped by the four-yard touchdown to Washington.
Aaron Rodgers found tight end Darnell Washington for a four-yard touchdown, capping off a 77-yard drive to give the Steelers the lead. The Saints answered with Tyler Shough hitting Devaughn Vele on a short touchdown with under two minutes left, and Boswell then converted a 47-yard field goal as time expired to give Pittsburgh a 13-10 halftime lead.
That margin held through the second half as Pittsburgh closed out a 16-10 win. The scoring sequence — three field goals for Pittsburgh (28 and 47 yards) and a touchdown, alongside New Orleans’ 38-yard field goal and a short touchdown — produced a low-scoring but tightly contested international debut.
The victory pushed the Pittsburgh Steelers to 5-2 on the season. For Rodgers, the game altered the all-time passing touchdown pecking order, moving him clear of Peyton Manning on the regular-season list.
Context beyond the stat line
Sunday’s matchup carried extra weight off the field as well. The French capital had experienced a month of violent protests and civil unrest leading up to the game, and the NFL adjusted some fan activations — including the closure of its NFL House activation on Saturday — while proceeding with the contest at Stade de France.
On the field, Rodgers’ touchdown was a concise example of situational execution: a fade route converted inside the red zone that turned a long drive into points and shifted momentum in a tight, internationally significant game. The milestone pass stood out not only for the place it moved Rodgers on the leaderboard but also for where and when it happened — in front of a global audience and in the league’s expanding footprint.
Rodgers’ ascent past Peyton Manning adds a tidy footnote to the NFL’s Paris debut: a personal career benchmark achieved amid broader league ambitions overseas and a competitive win for the Pittsburgh Steelers that left them atop the scoreboard in a landmark international outing.
