Mason Rudolph entered Week 16 as the Pittsburgh Steelers’ starter at quarterback. QB Kenny Pickett had injured his ankle against the Arizona Cardinals in Week 13 and Mitch Trubisky struggled to get the offense going in two-and-a-half games of play.
Due to his excellent performance, the crowd in Pittsburgh broke out into a “Mason Rudolph” chant following Alex Highsmith’s fourth-quarter interception.
Rudolph has not only played well, he had the best quarterback performance this season for the Steelers. As of the writing of this article, he has the Steelers up 34-11 with under seven minutes remaining in the game. He has completed 17-of-27 passes for 290 yards and two touchdowns. Both of those touchdown passes were explosive plays to WR George Pickens, who has a career-high 195 yards and two touchdowns.
Rudolph entered this game having not started a game since 2021. That ended in a 16-16 tie to the Detroit Lions. Prior to that, he had one start in 2020 and eight starts in 2019. His overall record as a starter in the NFL was 5-4-1 but will be 6-4-1 after today. He is the savior of Pittsburgh this Christmas and keeps the team’s playoff chances alive for one more week, putting a halt to a three-game losing skid.
The Steelers scored 30 points once in 2022 but had since failed to reach that mark until today. If the 34-11 score holds, the Steelers have scored their most points in a game since a 37-point performance in Week 11 of the 2021 season.
This stellar performance by Rudolph will likely create some controversy in Pittsburgh this week as Pickett began practicing this week. If both are ready to go, there will at least be some questions asked about starting Rudolph over Pickett.
