As we all anticipated at the start of September, the Pittsburgh Steelers’ season will lie on the shoulders of QB Mason Rudolph. He entered the year as the third-string quarterback but is for now the starter in a healthy quarterback room.
Now, the Steelers don’t automatically get into the playoffs if they beat the Baltimore Ravens on Saturday. They also don’t automatically get eliminated if they lose. But it would be a lot easier if they do win, so it’s fortunate that Baltimore locked up the top spot and is predictably opting to rest some starters.
That doesn’t mean they’re not motivated to win or that they are overlooking the factor that Rudolph has been in recent weeks. Asked if he’s seen the sixth-year veteran give the Steelers’ offense a jolt the past two weeks, head coach John Harbaugh concurred.
“Yeah, I would say that. I mean, he has given them a jolt”, he said, via the team’s website. “He’s playing really well, he’s standing in there, he’s making throws. He’s delivering the ball down the field, outside, inside, moving around the pocket well. Obviously, their numbers are way up in the game since he’s been in there. So yeah, he’s made a difference for them”.
Since taking over a starting role the past two games, Rudolph has gone 35-for-51 passing for 564 yards and two touchdowns, averaging over 11 yards per attempt. He has not thrown an interception or hardly even put a pass in harm’s way, giving him a 118.4 quarterback rating. Additionally, he’s only taken two sacks.
That is in stark contrast to what the team saw out of Mitch Trubisky in the two games prior while starting for an injured Kenny Pickett. In his two starts, he went 38-for-58 passing for 359 yards with two touchdown passes and three interceptions, taking five sacks while averaging under 6.2 yards per attempt. He had two rushing touchdowns as well but largely in games in which they were not significantly competitive for long.
Of course, we ought not to forget Pickett himself, whose best quality was his ball security. He should finish the season going 201-for-324 passing for 2,070 yards with just six touchdown passes but also just four interceptions. His last interception came in Week Four—though his last touchdown came in Week Nine, as well. He was nearing 100 consecutive pass attempts without a touchdown at the time of his injury.
Still, he managed to win. In the games in which he played at least half of the snaps, the Steelers did go 7-3. There is something to be said for that, but there’s also something to be said for what Rudolph has done the past two weeks.
One can certainly make the case that the offense as a whole has been better during this stretch—the Steelers rushed for over 200 yards last time out with three rushing scores—but nobody disputes that Rudolph has offered the best and most consistent play that the Steelers have gotten at the quarterback position over the past two seasons. The question is if he can keep it up against arguably the best defense in the league, even one resting starters.
