Mike McCarthy came off the field at Stade de France talking about the people in the stands. After the Pittsburgh Steelers beat the New Orleans Saints 16-10 in the NFL’s first game in France, their head coach told reporters, “Our fans always show up,” and said Steelers supporters had been visible and loud all afternoon even though New Orleans was the designated home team.
Pittsburgh has now won three straight and sits at 5-2, with a home game against the team that last beat it coming next.
Coach McCarthy addresses the media following our win over the Saints. @Acrisure pic.twitter.com/RDYjkd29xP
— Pittsburgh Steelers (@steelers) October 25, 2026
A road game that felt like home
McCarthy praised the setting in Saint-Denis: the music, the stadium and how involved the crowd stayed. He singled out the waving towels in the big moments and said that, on a trip like this, the traveling support works in his team’s favor, though he acknowledged New Orleans had a big following in the building too. The league counted 78,488 people at the game.
He framed the bigger picture in one line about how his team is built to win right now: “Momentum creates confidence and confidence is how you win.” Pittsburgh has not lost since a 27-24 defeat at Cleveland on Thursday, October 1, which left it at 2-2. It has since beaten Indianapolis, won in overtime at Tampa Bay and now taken care of New Orleans.
Where the confidence comes from, and what still needs work
The defense carried most of the load on Sunday. The Saints ran 17 times for 18 yards and did not score after halftime. New Orleans’ best chance to go ahead died in the third quarter, when linebacker Payton Wilson dove to pick off Tyler Shough inside the Pittsburgh 15, and Patrick Queen added a third-down sack.
On offense, Jaylen Warren did the heavy lifting with 101 yards on 18 carries, and Aaron Rodgers threw a 4-yard touchdown pass to tight end Darnell Washington in the second quarter, his 540th career touchdown pass, which moved him past Peyton Manning into third place on the all-time list. The rest of the scoring came from Chris Boswell, who made field goals of 28, 47 and 39 yards. One touchdown on a day with repeated trips deep into Saints territory is the clear item on the to-do list, and Rodgers himself called the red-zone work poor after the game.
The full scoring and box score are in the Steelers-Saints Game Center.
What comes next
Back at Acrisure Stadium, Pittsburgh gets the Cleveland Browns next, with kickoff at 1 p.m. Eastern on Sunday, November 1. It is a chance to answer the Week 4 loss in Cleveland. That game was the last time McCarthy’s team walked off a field beaten.
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