Feats of Strength: Mason Rudolph, Diontae Johnson help Steelers outlast Ravens

Who predicted this for the Steelers coming into 2023-24?

After beating a skeleton crew from the Baltimore Ravens, 17-10, in Saturday’s regular-season finale, the Steelers ended the year 5-1 in the AFC North.

If the Cincinnati Bengals beat the Cleveland Browns on Sunday, all four AFC North teams will finish above. 500.

So the Steelers (10-7) were dominant within the NFL’s best division. However, they don’t have a playoff spot secured yet. They’ll need help from the Miami Dolphins (to beat the Buffalo Bills) or the Tennessee Titans (to beat the Jacksonville Jaguars) on Sunday to make that happen.

Why? Because they lost to the last-place team in the NFC West (the 4-12 Arizona Cardinals) and the last-place team in the AFC East (the 4-12 New England Patriots) in back-to-back games last month.

There’s a grievance to air throughout the entire offseason. Feel free to air a few more about the Dolphins and Titans if they both lose Sunday.

In the meantime, let’s focus on a few “Feats of Strength” from the Steelers in their win over the AFC North-winning Ravens.

Well, at least a win over the Ravens players who weren’t rested in advance of the playoffs.

Feats of strength

D.J.’s play: The biggest play of the game was a 71-yard touchdown strike from Mason Rudolph to Diontae Johnson.

With the score tied 7-7 on the first snap of the fourth quarter, Rudolph found Johnson on a deep in-breaking route. He made a good throw to split two defenders, and Johnson did the rest, blowing past Rock Ya-Sin into the end zone.

DIONTAE JOHNSON. 71 YARDS. FOR THE LEAD.

: #PITvsBAL on ESPN/ABC
: Stream on #NFLPlus https://t.co/WxnOXJY8R6 pic.twitter.com/BjXNi3SPGM

— NFL (@NFL) January 6, 2024

The offense had been stalled for six straight drives — four punts and two fumbles. The unit needed a break. Rudolph’s throw made it happen, and Johnson took it the rest of the way.

He ended up with 89 yards receiving for the day.

“We had great protection all day. I took a couple bad sacks. They were on me, not the offensive line. But Diontae is a great playmaker, and he split them right there. It was quite a view of them chasing him down the field,” Rudolph told the ESPN broadcast after the game.

That was the third TD pass of over 60 yards for Rudolph in just three games. Via Bovada, only Tua Tagovailoa (4) has more.

Rudolph’s roll: Even with some star players sitting out, the Ravens proved to be the toughest defensive challenge for Rudolph and the Steelers offense over his three starts.

Despite guys such as Roquan Smith, Kyle Hamilton and Marlon Humphrey not participating, that’s still the top unit in the NFL in terms of points allowed (16.4) and ranks fourth in total yards allowed (302.1).

Rudolph only had 152 yards passing, 71 on that completion to Johnson. Rudolph didn’t target George Pickens at all. But he was 18 of 20 with no interceptions on a terrible weather day against a defense with 31 takeaways (most in the NFL).

We all barf praise all over Kenny Pickett for taking care of the ball and never throwing interceptions. Well, Rudolph still hasn’t thrown one this year.

“I mentioned several weeks ago, when we put him in the lineup, he has an unshakable confidence in himself. And it is real,” Tomlin said of Rudolph.

Regardless of Pickett’s health, Rudolph needs to start the playoff game next week if the Steelers qualify. And if there is no playoff game, he deserves a chance at having a legitimate opportunity to battle for the starting quarterback job.

I don’t think that will happen, though. My guess is Pickett will get the job to prove he is a worthy first-round pick under a new coordinator.

And I’m not even sure Rudolph will stay. After what he has displayed over the last few weeks, he may go somewhere else next year for more money and a better shot at starting.

Could you blame him?

Back-to-back: For the second straight week Najee Harris carried the load. And for the second straight week, he posted a 100-yard afternoon. He had 112 yards on 26 attempts after popping off for 122 in Seattle last week. He also scored again after posting two touchdowns last week.

The former first-round pick ran hard, broke tackles and repeatedly pushed the pile as he did against the Seahawks. Plus, Jaylen Warren struggled holding onto the ball. So the Steelers had to lean on Harris even more than normal as the game went deep into the fourth quarter.

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This is the first time he has put up 100-yard days in back-to-back weeks. He also added five catches and 21 yards.

Harris had six carries for 27 yards and a TD on the team’s first touchdown drive — a 12-play, 72-yard jaunt that lasted more than seven minutes.

Cast of characters: Minkah Fitzpatrick didn’t play again. T.J. Watt left the game with a knee injury (reportedly an MCL sprain, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter).

But the role players for the Steelers defense came through with some really big plays. Watt’s backup, Markus Golden, had a game-sealing sack of Ravens quarterback Tyler Huntley. He also had an additional tackle for loss and fumble recovery.

Reserve inside linebacker Mark Robinson also forced a fumble that Larry Ogunjobi recovered. Eric Rowe impacted the game again with the forced fumble that Golden recovered.

Eric Rowe knocks it out for the fumble!

: Stream on NFL+ https://t.co/T87FSnfvVk pic.twitter.com/ms5GceJTp3

— Pittsburgh Steelers (@steelers) January 7, 2024

In all, the Steelers only yielded 224 total yards, 10 points and were successful on nine of 13 third-down conversions.

Airing of grievances

Second-quarter collapse: The Ravens’ first touchdown drive was a terrible effort by the Steelers defense.

After a 52-yard punt by Pressley Harvin, Baltimore started the drive at its 29-yard line. Yet Huntley led them to a 71-yard touchdown drive in under three minutes on six snaps.

He completed a third-and-9 pass to Laquon Treadwell. On the next play, Gus Edwards gashed the run defense for 29 yards.

That's the Gus Bus for ya.@GodsGiftGus13 | Tune in on ABC/ESPN pic.twitter.com/zlQgwMdM0T

— Baltimore Ravens (@Ravens) January 6, 2024

Two snaps later, Huntley hit tight end Isaiah Likely for a 27-yard score.

Rain or shine, he's Likely in the end zone@_SNOOP1 @DaGorilla4 | Tune in on ABC/ESPN! pic.twitter.com/xW0ioIPmuM

— Baltimore Ravens (@Ravens) January 6, 2024

Watch that again. A blitz didn’t get home. Likely got open and broke two tackles en route to the end zone. On the Edwards run, Watt got completely absorbed.

That was three chunk plays with little resistance from a defense that just looked outmatched, muddy and uninspired on that drive.

Rewind the tape: The offense didn’t exactly bathe itself in glory on the previous possession.

Harris caught a short pass that he could’ve turned upfield to pick up a first down on second-and-8. But he tried to turn it into a bigger gain, started running laterally and got tracked down. So they didn’t get a first down.

On the third-down snap, they tried a running play and Warren came up short, and the Steelers had to punt.

Baltimore turned that exchange into six points. Then the Ravens defense thwarted the Steelers’ last possession of the second half on the outskirts of field-goal range with two sacks, the second of which resulted in a strip of Rudolph by Kyle Van Noy. He also recovered the loose ball, and the Ravens kneeled out the clock.

Sloppy in the slop: The bad weather conditions clearly bothered the Steelers. Ball security was a problem all day.

Not only did Rudolph fumble on that sack, he also fumbled a third-down snap in the third quarter. Calvin Austin fumbled a punt that he managed to recover. Warren lost a fumble in the second quarter and put another one on the ground in the fourth.

To be fair, the Ravens weren’t exactly clean either. Melvin Gordon lost a fumble in the first half. Edwards lost one in the fourth quarter. And a number of Huntley’s passes slipped off the fingers of receivers.