Saturday’s performance against the Baltimore Ravens might not have been a banner day for QB Mason Rudolph. In a driving rain with temperatures just barely above freezing, ball security was a problem for himself and the Steelers (and for that matter, the Ravens). But it ended in a win.
And ended in a record.
When the football wasn’t slip-sliding around M&T Bank Stadium, it was landing in Steelers receivers’ hands. Rudolph finished the day 18-of-20 for 152 yards and one touchdown. His 90-percent completion rate is the highest in team history of any Steeler with at least 15 pass attempts in a single game.
He was the second Steeler to make franchise history in the win, Najee Harris becoming the first Steelers running back with 1,000 rushing yards in each of his first three NFL seasons and the first leaguewide in a decade.
The previous high for completion percentage was held by Mike Tomczak, who completed 15-of-17 throws (88.2 percent) in a 1998 loss to the Tennessee Titans, combining with QB Kordell Stewart to throw four touchdowns in the defeat. Ben Roethlisberger’s highest mark came in 2018, 22-of-25 (88.0 percent) in a primetime win over the Carolina Panthers.
In important context, Rudolph didn’t spend the game chucking the ball downfield. Given the blustery and dreary conditions, Rudolph generally kept the ball short and underneath. He peppered his running backs with passes, Harris and Warren combining to catch 10 of Rudolph’s 18 completions while TE Connor Heyward made a couple of tough grabs off boot-action.
Rudolph’s only two incompletions came further downfield. The first was a 3rd-and-3 shot deep down the left sideline to WR Diontae Johnson, who seemed to slow up on the route and not make effort for a football seemingly in his air space. It’s possible he lost the ball in the air or misjudged where it would land (or perhaps he pulled up a little lame, taking a long time to jog off the sidelines to the point where Pittsburgh was flagged for 12 men on the field on the ensuing punt).
The other came on one of Rudolph’s worst plays of the day. Firing over the middle for WR Allen Robinson II, he was nearly picked by Ravens S Marcus Williams, who let the ball go through his hands.
Other than those two moments, Rudolph took care of the football and found his targets. The running game and lead didn’t force him to do too much. And he made the play of the game, throwing a rope on a slant to Johnson that hit him in stride, Johnson taking the ball upfield and housing it 71 yards to give Pittsburgh a 14-7 lead.
In his three starts to close out the year, Rudolph threw three touchdowns and no interceptions. Twice, Pittsburgh put up at least 30 points and the 17 in Saturday’s finale is a solid number by seasonal standards, though the Steelers fell short of averaging more points on the year than the 2019 team, the last time Rudolph saw extensive playing time. But he’s far better now than he was then, and should Pittsburgh make the postseason, he’ll make another start as the Steelers search for their first postseason win since 2016.
