Mason Rudolph glows in Steelers blowout vs. Bengals

Tears welling up in his eyes and his voice starting to crack with emotion, Mason Rudolph spoke of the game ball he received Saturday night from defensive captain Cameron Heyward.

It was a reward for what transpired in the Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback’s first start in more than two years. Rudolph not only helped the Steelers snap a three-game losing streak, he engineered a season high in points with an emphatic 34-11 victory against the Cincinnati Bengals at Acrisure Stadium.

Not a bad way to celebrate Christmas for a quarterback who spent most of the past two seasons mired in third place on the depth chart unsure if he would take another snap with the team that has employed him for six years.

“I got a treehouse when I was 12,” Rudolph said. “That was pretty cool, but this is definitely up there.”

Rudolph threw for 290 yards, didn’t commit a turnover and helped the Steelers build a 24-0 lead, but he wasn’t the only player who showed he was deserving of a start with the Steelers fighting for their playoff lives. Wide receiver George Pickens wrote his own redemption story with a pair of touchdown catches and a career-high 195 receiving yards in the victory.

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A week earlier, in a 30-13 loss at Indianapolis, Pickens didn’t finish a block on a Jaylen Warren run and then said he did so because he feared getting injured. Coach Mike Tomlin never considered benching Pickens, and he was rewarded with touchdown catches covering 86 and 66 yards.

“I was just playing the best I could,” said Pickens, who surpassed 1,000 yards receiving on the season. “I know I’m true to myself. I have highlights. I know who I am personally and as a player.”

The contributions of Rudolph and Pickens ensure the Steelers will take an 8-7 record into their New Year’s Eve game at Seattle. After losing to the Steelers for the second time in five weeks, the Bengals fell to 8-7.

With Kenny Pickett recovering from ankle surgery and Mitch Trubisky benched after two starts, Rudolph completed his first five passes, took a perfect passer rating into the second quarter and won the first game that he started and finished for the first time since November 2019.

But after leading the Steelers to their most points in a win since 2020, Rudolph will have to wait to see whether he will get a 13th career start. Tomlin said he will take his time before announcing the starter for the Seahawks.

“You’re asking the wrong person,” Rudolph said. “I play this game to play. I love to play. That’s out of my hands.”

Fans showed their appreciation by chanting “Ma-son Ru-dolph” in the fourth quarter with the Steelers holding a 20-point lead.

Rudolph, who returned to the Steelers as the No. 3 quarterback when no significant offers materialized elsewhere in free agency, entered the game with nothing to lose. And he played that way, taking risks downfield that resulted in three completions that were longer than 40 yards.

Rudolph smiled when asked if he knew this likely was his last shot to make a statement with the Steelers and perhaps the NFL.

“Absolutely,” he said. “You never know. You have confidence in yourself as a player, but you’re thinking, ‘Am I going to jump into the commercial real estate realm next year, or am I going to be playing quarterback?’ ”

The 24-point first half represented more points than the Steelers had scored in 12 full games this season.

Rudolph threw an 86-yard touchdown pass to Pickens on the second offensive snap. Najee Harris and Calvin Austin had touchdown runs, and Chris Boswell kicked a 50-yard field goal to end the half.

Tomlin said the Steelers came into the game with an aggressive mindset.

“All week we talked about scared money not making money,” he said. “That’s kind of the mentality we had going.”

That was evident after the Bengals ended the shutout with 11 minutes, 11 seconds left in the third quarter when Tee Higgins raced 80 yards with a catch, and Joe Mixon caught the 2-point conversion pass to make it 24-8.

Less than two minutes later, Rudolph came back and found Pickens for a 66-yard score on a third-and-1 toss down the left sideline.

“He’s been working hard, and it showed,” said outside linebacker Alex Highsmith, who had one of the Steelers’ three sacks. “We all rallied around him, and he did his thing today.”

So did a patchwork defense that lost another starter — inside linebacker Elandon Roberts — to injury. Roberts left in the first half with a pectoral injury and did not return.

The makeshift safety tandem of Patrick Peterson and newcomer Eric Rowe had interceptions that the Steelers converted into touchdowns. Jake Browning, the backup quarterback who had led the Bengals to three consecutive wins, threw another interception to Highsmith that led to a field goal.

Browning passed for 335 yards, but he was sacked by T.J. Watt, Highsmith and Myles Jack and couldn’t convert a pair of fourth downs.

“We believe we’ve got a big-play defense, but sometimes we’re not in game circumstances that allow that to be revealed,” Tomlin said. “When you get up on people, we’re not surprised by the splash.”

There was a heavy dose of it on both sides of the ball, with Rudolph playing a starring role.

“It’s earning my paycheck and not feeling like being a freeloader,” Rudolph said.