You wanted Mason Rudolph, right?
Well, you got him.
I hope you are happy.
Be careful what you wish for.
If Rudolph is what the Steelers have to look to in 2022, they are going to be in big trouble.
I have no doubt Ben Roethlisberger would have pulled out a win against the woeful Detroit Lions on Sunday at Heinz Field.
I know, it’s a bit unfair to put too much of the blame for the Steelers’ hideous 16-16 tie with the still-winless Lions on Rudolph. Their defense was awful. It allowed the Lions to run for 229 yards and a 5.9 yards-per-carry average. It allowed them to escape with a tie on a day when $134 million quarterback Jared Goff threw for just 114 yards.
“We didn’t tackle well throughout the game,” Mike Tomlin said. The Steelers hardly tackled at all, actually.
Rudolph also had a few things working against him:
— The weather conditions were dreadful, so wet, windy and raw that Kendrick Green often had trouble getting the ball to Rudolph in the shotgun. In overtime, he snapped the ball over Rudolph’s head for a 19-yard loss on second-and-6 from the Steelers 42. “The conditions were the same for both teams so we don’t seek comfort there,” Tomlin said.
— The Steelers’ offensive line was rebuilt on the fly. J.C. Hassenauer and Joe Haeg had to play guard after Kevin Dotson and Trai Turner left with injuries.
— The Steelers’ receivers were down injured Chase Claypool as well as JuJu Smith-Schuster. Ray-Ray McCloud was targeted 12 times. On one play, Cody White and Steven Sims were the wideouts. Swann and Stallworth, they most certainly are not.
— The Steelers’ best receiver, Diontae Johnson, lost a fumble in overtime after a 39-yard catch-and-run to the Lions 42. “I didn’t see the guy coming behind me,” he said. “I was just trying to make a play.”
But the bottom line for Rudolph, who found out Saturday night that he was starting after Roethlisberger had chills and a fever earlier in the day and tested positive?
He just wasn’t good enough.
“He did what we expected him to do,” Tomlin said. “We thought he gave us a chance to win.”
Is it just me or is that setting the ball pretty low for Rudolph, now in his fourth season with the Steelers?
Rudolph started pretty quickly, completing 4 of 5 passes for 30 yards on the opening drive and benefiting from a 29-yard pass interference call on cornerback Amani Oruwariye against James Washington. He finished it with a 9-yard touchdown pass to Washington, his old Oklahoma State teammate.
But after that?
There wasn’t much from Rudolph.
There was a high pass for Johnson on a third-and-4 from the Steelers 46. There was a bad interception when Rudolph’s pass for Kalen Ballage was high and behind him. There was a low pass that skipped to an open McCloud in the end zone on third-and-goal from the Lions 5. There was another high, hard pass for Johnson on a third-and-3 from the Steelers 48.
“Those are throws I’ve got to make despite the weather conditions,” Rudolph said.
Rudolph’s two best plays were scrambles. He gained 26 yards on one and survived a brutal collision with safety Tracy Walker on the other for an 11-yard gain. Walker struggled to get up and left the game with a concussion. Rudolph jumped up and pumped his first in the air. Clearly, he won that smash-up.
I’ll say this about Rudolph:
The one thing – maybe the only thing – he has over Roethlisberger is his mobility.
“Trying to extend the play with my legs,” Rudolph said. “I enjoy that. I just always try to think about ball security and two hands on the ball and don’t try to be a hero and then lose the football. I enjoy that stuff.”
Rudolph is now 5-5 as an NFL starting quarterback. He was 5-3 in 2019 when he split time with Duck Hodges after Roethlisberger’s season-ending elbow injury and 0-1 last season when Roethlisberger sat out the final regular-season game in Cleveland.
“I’m so much more comfortable out there,” Rudolph said. “Experience is the best teacher. These opportunities don’t come around often so, obviously, I was excited to get it. We’ve got to make more plays to get in the win column.”
The quarterback needs to make a few more plays, that’s for sure.
Coincidentally, Sunday was the two-year anniversary of the Myles Garrett game in Cleveland, the night when Garrett ripped off Rudolph’s helmet and clubbed him over the head with it.
I would suggest Rudolph hasn’t been the same player since.
Rudolph and the Steelers lost that game, 21-7.
This tie seemed just as bad.
