It’s the best Christmas story that one could have possibly wrote.
On Christmas Eve Eve, Mason Rudolph comes in and leads the Pittsburgh Steelers to victory over their divisional rival, the Cincinnati Bengals.
Rudolph thee red-nosed quarterback has the best performance of any Steelers quarterback since Ben Roethlisberger retired.
He became the first Steelers QB to throw for 250+ yards and 2+ touchdowns in the post-Ben era.
It was Mason’s legacy game, and it started from the very first pass he threw.
After winning the coin toss, the Steelers defer, and get a good early stop to get Pittsburgh the ball.
And then, the unbelievable happens:
Mason Rudolph and George Pickens both silence the negativity in one play, on a catch and run pass that Pickens takes 86 yards into that beautiful yellow endzone.
In response, Bengals backup quarterback Jake Browning leads a Cincinnati drive that gets all the way down to the Steelers’ 16-yard line, but Browning is picked in the endzone.
Pittsburgh’s D-line provides excellent pressure, flushing Browning out of the pocket. As he is running out of room between the oncoming defenders and the sideline, he throws a rather careless pass into the endzone, where Patrick Peterson snags it and takes a knee in the yellow.
That’s safety Patrick Peterson by the way, starting in that role due to the complete lack of safeties available to the Steelers today (they were missing their top four safeties), but more on that later.
Rudolph and the Steelers make Browning pay for that bad pass, putting another drive together that ends in 7 points. On this drive, Rudolph found Allen Robinson, who has been relatively invisible this season.
In the end, the drive is capped off by a jet sweep play by the speedy Calvin Austin.
Matt Canada, that one was for you!
Not long after, the Steelers force another turnover, this time courtesy of fellow new safety Eric Rowe.
Rowe, a practice squad elevation and lengthy NFL veteran, picks off Browning and runs it back for 25 yards.
Mason Rudolph was excellent in the first half, far and away looking like the best quarterback on the roster. He was not afraid to throw the ball, and he threw it largely with accuracy.
He also had much better pocket awareness than we all previously thought about him, like on this play.
With protection breaking down quickly, Rudolph bails from the pocket. He starts to run ton his left, but pumps the brakes and instead cuts right, putting his body on the line to pick up the first down.
Najee Harris would power his way into the endzone (albeit, barely) to make it a shocking 21-0 lead for Pittsburgh.
But the good times don’t stop there. The Steelers force a turnover on downs and get the ball back with just over two minutes to go.
Although this drive started rather slow, and many probably just wanted to see the Steelers simply run out the clock and and run the ball, Pittsburgh remained aggressive, and on a 3rd and 1, Mason Rudolph lets it fly deep down the sideline for George Pickens.
That drive ends in a field goal, for a 24-0 lead at the half for Pittsburgh.
Cincinnati was stunned. Despite the fact that they were missing some key players (including wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase), they were a 2.5 point favorite heading into this game.
They were facing a reeling Steelers team that had lost three straight and had watched their playoff position crumble down to the ground.
And they were facing a quarterback that had not started in a game in over two full years.
And yet, the Bengals were down 24-0.
Coming out of halftime, the Bengals show their only real sense of life in this game.
A complete defensive breakdown by everyone allows Browning and Tee Higgins to take advantage of the mishap and cash it in for a score (and a subsequent two point conversion).
But it doesn’t take long for Rudolph to crush the Bengals’ souls.
Rudolph lobs a beautiful deep ball to guess who…George Pickens, who does the rest.
Alright, I’ve posted a ton of highlights, mostly because I haven’t had nearly this many to post in a long, long time.
The last one I’ll embed is the Alex Highsmith pick, which is a beauty.
Alright, now some more substance on the game itself.
Before the game, Rudolph made it clear he knew the implications of this game. “It’s only inspirational if we win,” he said to the media.
Well, it was certainly inspirational, and it certainly was a win.
This was Mason Rudolph’s finest hour. Against all odds, he breaks through and does the impossible. It was his legacy game. His Game Of His Life outing.
How can you not be anything but absolutely thrilled for him?
He finished the day 17/27 for 290 yards and 2 touchdowns. Fans were literally chanting his name inside Acrisure Stadium, something that was on no one’s Bingo cards to start the year.
Was he perfect? No. But he did a lot more than enough for the Steelers to win. He didn’t put the ball in danger, but he still took shots. He didn’t force anything, when the pass wasn’t there he threw it away. And aside from one bad sack, he had excellent pocket presence and awareness.
With Rudolph at QB, George Pickens had a career high 195 receiving yards AND the first multi touchdown game of his NFL career.
But above all else, Rudolph did things both Mitch Trubisky, nor Kenny Pickett have done this year.
Rudolph was better at throwing deep down the field than Pickett. I know it’s a small sample size, but Rudolph has often been praised for his ability to throw a good deep ball. The biggest beneficiary of that, by far, was George Pickens.
But he also took better care of the ball than Trubisky did. Rudolph took shots, but he did not throw into double coverage. He did not throw into extremely risky areas. And he did not turn the ball over, a crucial part of Steelers football.
There’s going to be so much discussion in the coming days about the future of the quarterback position for the Steelers. And it’s all reasonable to ask.
But for right now, right before Christmas, allow yourself to simply enjoy the Mason Rudolph story.
Tonight was a Disney movie style game for Rudolph, who kept the Steelers’ playoff hopes alive, even if they are still a faint glow in the snowy distance.
You really can’t write a story any better than that.
In fact, sources are telling me that Rudolph will go down in history.
More thoughts down below:
-The running game did a great job of sustaining drives for the Steelers. The best friend of any backup/third string QB are the running backs. Both Najee Harris and Jaylen Warren had good games on the ground, which I believe allowed Mason to get more comfortable and ease into the game.
-Nothing could have eased him in more than his first pass, however. I still cannot believe that first pass went 86 yards for a score. Just unreal stuff.
-I know it’s one game, but after watching this game, it’s a rather damning statement about the Steelers coaching staff. They did not go to Rudolph out of choice, but rather desperation. Trubisky had become so bad, they had to go to the QB3. And the QB3 played lights out. So why was he banished for so long?
-Additionally, what did the coaching staff see in Trubisky that they didn’t see in Rudolph in practice over the last few weeks?
-The latest chapter in the relationship between Rudolph, the Steelers, and their fans, has certainly changed things. It really makes you wonder about his future here.
-Speaking of his future, prepare yourselves for a week of questions about whether Mason or Kenny should get the start next week. But while it will be asked too many times, it is a valid question.
-As for me, I would stick with the hot hand. Make Kenny Pickett the backup and keep him ready just in case, but roll with Rudolph until he gives you a reason not to.
–Odd stat of the game: Despite looking absolutely awful, Jake Browning had 335 passing yards in this game. You would have never of guessed.
(Featured photo by Joe Sargent/Getty Images)
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