PITTSBURGH — Sitting at the dais in the Pittsburgh Steelers’ press conference room inside Acrisure Stadium, quarterback Mason Rudolph admitted that he’d 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 rollercoaster seasons with only 18 starts — and just two in the last 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 against the Cincinnati Bengals — the team’s first win by more than one score all year — Rudolph proved to himself and a stadium of more than 66,000 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’s 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 wide receiver George Pickens on a short throw, and Pickens took it 86 yards to the house for the Steelers’ longest touchdown since Ben Roethlisberger hit JuJu Smith-Schuster for a 97-yard touchdown in Week 12 of the 2018 season.
