Aaron Rodgers left Pittsburgh needing a rescue and then supplied his own. Thirteen points down in the fourth quarter against Tampa Bay, the Steelers escaped with a 26-19 overtime win. Rodgers threw two touchdowns. The Buccaneers had reached the part of the afternoon where protecting the lead was supposed to be somebody else’s problem. It remained theirs until there was no lead left.

Philadelphia’s quarterback problem comes without that reassuring final act. Jalen Hurts is going on injured reserve, and the Eagles fell to another defeat on Sunday. Whoever takes his place inherits the huddle and the expectation that it should still function.

Philadelphia has already seen the uncomfortable version of this demonstration. On September 29, we wrote about Chicago beating the Eagles behind Case Keenum, making his first start in almost three years. A reserve quarterback had enough football left to dismantle them. Now Philadelphia needs that sort of discovery in its own dressing room.

There is the personnel economics beneath Rodgers’s comeback: a club buys its starting quarterback’s ability and carries the risk of his absence. The understudy occupies very little of the conversation until he inherits all of it.

Rodgers got the fourth quarter and overtime to repair Pittsburgh’s afternoon. The man replacing Hurts will have to make Philadelphia’s offence work from the opening snap.