As we do every week to get you ready for the upcoming game, our X-factor of the week. Sometimes, it’s a player, unit, concept, or scheme. Here’s our X-factor for Saturday’s game against the Seattle Seahawks.
X-FACTOR: QB Mason Rudolph
If I chose anyone else, I’d be lying. Obvious as he is, Rudolph is the key to how much Week 18 matters for the Pittsburgh Steelers. He was the difference in Saturday’s victory over the Cincinnati Bengals, making the plays Kenny Pickett and Mitch Trubisky couldn’t make this season.
Rudolph balances well between being aggressive without being reckless. Pickett was arguably too conservative at points and lacked a great feel for dealing with pressure, panicking too often and not hitting his safety valve. Rudolph knew exactly where his outlet was. Trubisky could hit his check-down but was too YOLO, a formula that doesn’t win in Pittsburgh. Rudolph picked his spots, and flat out, his chances paid off. It’s a bottom-line business, and Rudolph put up points and yards. That’s what matters.
But he’s gotta do it again. One game is one game. If he stinks it up in Seattle on Sunday afternoon, no one will remember or care about the Bengals’ performance. It’ll be a one-off, a backup who happened to have one good day. Any backup can do that. Stacking positive days is what matters the most. And this one will be a tougher test. On the road in a tough venue like Seattle against a better defense (though not a great one) with a full game’s worth of tape on him for the Seahawks to study.
There isn’t much more to say. Rudolph has to do what he did. Playing from within the pocket is what the Steelers have been looking for. Not just about hanging in against pressure, not bailing and drifting, and working through his reads. Hitching, climbing, and sliding. And can he put up points? It might not have to be 30, but it’s going to have to be more than 20 to come out with a victory.
If Rudolph plays well and wins this, he’s the starter for Week 18. There’s no turning to Kenny Pickett. That creates its own set of longer-term problems, but for the week, that’s not going to matter. And Rudolph will have proven staying power as a starter, at least beyond just one game, and it’ll drive up his price tag. He’s set to become a free agent in March. To the point where he could price himself out of Pittsburgh in this quarterback-starved world.
