PITTSBURGH — Sitting at the dais in the Steelers’ news conference room inside Acrisure Stadium, Pittsburgh quarterback Mason Rudolph admitted he had let his mind wander into the what-ifs. What if Saturday was one of his final opportunities to prove he could make it as an NFL quarterback? After six roller-coaster seasons with only 18 starts — and just two in the past three years — did he truly belong in the league? With 290 passing yards and two touchdowns with no interceptions in the Steelers’ resounding 34-11 victory over the Cincinnati Bengals — Pittsburgh’s first win by more than one score all year — Rudolph proved to himself and a stadium of more than 66,000 fans that he can play winning football in the NFL.
“You got confidence in yourself as a player,” Rudolph said, “but you’re kind of thinking, ‘Am I going to jump into the commercial real estate realm next year or am I going to be playing quarterback?'” Rudolph, who has been inactive for all but three games this season, made the most of his first start since Week 10 of the 2021 season from the jump. On the Steelers’ second play of the game, Rudolph connected with George Pickens on a short throw, and the wide receiver took it 86 yards to the house for the Steelers’ longest touchdown since Ben Roethlisberger hit JuJu Smith-Schuster for a 97-yard score in Week 12 of the 2018 season.
“A fast start no matter whether you’re in high school, college or pro, it makes a difference, and especially when we’re at this venue at home, gets the crowd into it, to get a guy like George going early and his run-after-catch ability, it’s just second to none,” Rudolph said. “So it was a pretty cool view as I tried to chase him down from behind.” Aided by that long scoring play, Rudolph threw for 130 yards in the first quarter, the most by a Steelers quarterback in any quarter since Kenny Pickett threw for 138 yards in the fourth quarter at the Los Angeles Rams in Week 7.
Rudolph orchestrated two more touchdown drives in the first half and helped the Steelers cap the second quarter with a field goal when he hit Pickens for a 44-yard completion on third-and-long. Pickens made a toe-tapping grab to keep the drive going, preventing the Bengals from getting the ball with time to work with before halftime. The pass traveled 44 air yards, making it the longest throw of the season by a Steelers quarterback — and the longest throw by a Steelers signal-caller since Rudolph connected with Diontae Johnson on a pass that traveled 47 air yards in Week 17 of the 2020 campaign.
