CLEVELAND (93.7 The Fan) – “I thought Mason’s performance was gritty”, what Mike Tomlin said about back-up quarterback Mason Rudolph’s game in the 24-22 loss at the Browns on Sunday.
It was the first chance for Rudolph to play extended minutes since appearing in 10 games last year, starting eight and winning five.
The third year quarterback would throw for a career-high 315 yards, completing 22 of 39 passes with a pair of touchdowns and a big interception.
“I don’t know if I was surprised by it,” Tomlin said. “It was reasonable to expect improvement in his play. This guy has been working extremely hard really for 12 calendar months.”
“At the quarterback position there aren’t many opportunities. This was his first extended action of the 2020 football season and so we anticipated him being better. He was.”
“I will have to get back and watch the tape, but I felt we made enough plays to put ourselves in the game at the end, being down by a couple of scores,” Rudolph said.
The one play Rudolph immediately regretted was the incomplete two-point conversion that would have tied the game with 1:23 to go in the fourth quarter.
“I’m really proud of the way those guys played today for me,” Rudolph said. “For our offense. I gotta make a better throw on the two-point play to send us into OT.”
Rudolph did wonder if there may have been pass interference on the two-point try. It was one of 11 targets at Chase Claypool, the rookie caught five including a -28-yard touchdown on a 4th and 10 pass in the fourth. Claypool also caught one of three chunk plays of 40-plus yards.
“We tried to get as many shots as we could,” Rudolph said of the increased number of downfield passes. “We threw the ball a lot down the field.”
Rudolph would also lead the offense to a very respectable 47% on third down and did so without starters Maurkice Pouncey and Eric Ebron.
“I think it really came down to those four point swings and lack of touchdowns in the first half on those drives where we got field goals,” Rudolph said. “We have to come away with seven instead of three.”
Rudolph was grateful for the opportunity but said they needed to win the ballgame. He was also critical of himself for forcing a pass to JuJu Smith-Schuster instead of throwing it away late in the third quarter. That third and nine ball picked off by Cleveland and returned to the Steelers 20. The Browns would turn that into their final score four plays later.
So Tomlin believes there was improvement in his game. Rudolph also potentially got some closure to the incident last year in Cleveland with Myles Garrett after a quick handshake.
“Myles came over and said ‘good game’ postgame,” Rudolph said. “That’s all it was. I told him ‘good luck’. I have a lot of respect for him.”
Rudolph may not get another chance to play again this year. He said before the contest he knows game tape means more than practice tape, did he show enough to help his case going forward?
That’s a conversation the Steelers don’t want to have until February 8.