Entering Saturday’s Week 16 game against the Cincinnati Bengals at Acrisure Stadium, there were some questions as to which Mason Rudolph would show up for the Pittsburgh Steelers in his first start since 2021 against the Detroit Lions.
Would it be the Rudolph who lit up the Bengals in 2019 and the Cleveland Browns in 2020, or would it be the Rudolph who struggled late in 2019 and was a mess in 2021 against the Lions?
Turns out, it was the borderline great version of Rudolph who showed up. The veteran quarterback, getting his first start in over two years, completed 17-of-27 passes on the night for 290 yards and two touchdowns in the Steelers’ 34-11 win. Lighting up the Bengals’ secondary, he consistently took chances downfield and connected on a number of them, giving the Steelers’ offense a spark.
He had great rapport with second-year wide receiver George Pickens, who had a career night with 195 yards and two touchdowns on four catches. For Pickens, Rudolph’s performance wasn’t all that surprising.
“Mason’s always been doing that. Kind of like I said about Mitch [Trubisky], about KP [Kenny Pickett] when he was behind Mitch, you know what I mean? Those guys, they always follow their job and do their role pretty good,” Pickens said of Rudolph, according to video via the Steelers’ YouTube page. “And Mason’s been doing that the whole time.”
During his tenure with the Steelers, Rudolph has had to deal with some serious adversity. As a rookie in 2018, the Steelers didn’t have a quarterbacks coach, so as the third quarterback on the roster behind Ben Roethlisberger and Joshua Dobbs, Rudolph didn’t get many reps in practice and didn’t really get much work on the side, either.
He relied on virtual reality to get practice reps.
Then, in 2019 once Roethlisberger went down with a season-ending injury in the second quarter of Week Two against Seattle, Rudolph was thrust into the lineup for his first real action in the NFL, forced to learn on the fly. It was a rollercoaster experience for him, which resulted in him being benched for Duck Hodges.
Since then, it’s been very up and down. But through it all, he’s been the utmost professional, a great teammate and leader behind the scenes and one who is always prepared and works his butt off. He was rewarded on Saturday for that preparation and professionalism.
Rudolph let it rip, wanted to have no regrets coming out of the game and had a remarkable performance in the win. Especially impressive in his hooking up with Pickens to bury the Bengals: they didn’t have much experience together outside of a few reps in training camp and then some work this week leading up to the Bengals game.
For Pickens, it was all about hoping Rudolph would just give him a chance. Did he ever.
“It was just him just giving me chances, and me trying to make the most out of them. …I was just hoping he’d gimme a chance,” Pickens said of his performance and connection with Rudolph. “You never know where he’ll throw the ball, so I didn’t have a full idea [of having a big day individually]. But anytime he’s throwing the ball, I’m just trying to make the best play.”
Pickens made some serious splash against the Bengals, hauling in a short slant route on the second play from scrimmage for the Steelers’ offense and taking it 86 yards for a touchdown. Later in the first half, Pickens had a tremendous toe-tap grab for 44 yards, setting up a Chris Boswell field goal.
Then, in the third quarter, Pickens hauled in a 66-yard touchdown from Rudolph, capping his monster day.
The deep shots very quite evident from Rudolph. The Steelers came into the game wanting to be aggressive and take chances down the field. To Rudolph’s credit, he let it rip.
“The plays that we had dialed up, Mason just let it rip,” Pickens said. “It’s all up to the QB and I feel like he was taking more shots personally.”
Rudolph was very aggressive Saturday night and it paid off for the Steelers. His 290-yard passing performance with two touchdowns was the first game from a Steelers’ quarterback with 250-plus passing yards and two touchdowns since Ben Roethlisberger in 2021. That’s rather fitting.
Rudolph came out, stayed true to himself, and let it rip. And he was rewarded for it. It might have surprised many in the fan base and the media, but for teammates, it was no surprise.
