Mason Rudolph again recovers from slow start to lead Steelers to win

For the third consecutive game he started and finished, Mason Rudolph guided the Pittsburgh Steelers to a victory.

For a second-year quarterback with no NFL regular-season experience before seven weeks ago, that’s been good enough.

“I think, as me being at the helm, we’ve gotten better and have shown growth,” Rudolph said after the Steelers’ 26-24 win against the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday. “We’re still not where we want to be, obviously.”

Rudolph threw an interception on the Steelers’ first possession, although it was tipped by intended receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster, but settled into another conservative gameplan.

#Steelers Mason Rudolph throws an INT but it was really on JuJu for not catching the ball. Went through his hands. pic.twitter.com/bIfHpaN8Hu

— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) November 3, 2019

He completed 15 of his final 16 passes in the first half, gaining only 90 yards. He finished with a career-high 26 completions on 35 attempts for 191 yards, a touchdown and an interception for a passer rating of 84.3.

Rudolph also took a sack in the end zone for a safety during the third quarter.

The poor pocket awareness of the week goes to #Steelers Mason Rudolph.pic.twitter.com/Rm9J917biI

— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) November 3, 2019

“He is a young guy. He’s a guy who has missed some time due to injury and coming off of a bye week,” coach Mike Tomlin said. “We are just trying to find our rhythm and traction, and we can’t have a lot of self-inflicted wounds along the way. We have had some. Thankfully, they haven’t prevented us from winning. We need to get better. And not only him, but us, the units collectively. We need to start the games faster than we have. It is as simple as that.”

Rudolph has not been bad. He has thrown at least one touchdown pass during each of the six games he’s played and has 10 touchdowns to four interceptions (two of them tipped by receivers).

Mason Rudolph finds Vance Mcdonald for the TD #HereWeGO pic.twitter.com/6Mm8rm9Ax1

— Roto Street Journal (@RotoStJournal) November 3, 2019

Though 27 of Rudolph’s 35 passes traveled fewer than 10 yards downfield (11 were behind the line of scrimmage), he completed a 40-yard pass to former college teammate James Washington.

Rudolph’s season passer rating is 94.7. He’s been at 81.4 or better in each of the six games he’s played. He missed 1½ games after suffering a concussion during a loss to the Baltimore Ravens on Oct. 6.

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