Mason Rudolph gets another shot, as Steelers bench ineffective Devlin Hodges
It’s fairly amazing the Pittsburgh Steelers have stayed in playoff contention, given their quarterback situation.
Devlin Hodges was benched after an interception on Sunday, and Mason Rudolph was given another chance. Rudolph replaced Hodges with 9:20 left in the second quarter against the Jets, with the Steelers trailing 10-0. The Steelers ended up losing 16-10.
Rudolph was benched earlier this season. He was ineffective in replacing Ben Roethlisberger, who suffered a season-ending elbow injury in Week 2.
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Hodges was said to be on a short leash against the Jets, and that was the case. His pass to the end zone early in the second quarter was easily intercepted. It was his second interception of the game, and Steelers coach Mike Tomlin had seen enough from the undrafted rookie.
Rudolph gave the Steelers a quick spark. He threw a nice 29-yard touchdown to Diontae Johnson to tie the game 10-10 in the second quarter. But that was about it for the Steelers’ offense. Hodges finished the game after Rudolph got hurt, but couldn’t lead a game-winning score.
The Steelers came into Sunday’s game 8-6 and right in the mix for the final wild-card spot in the AFC. That’s remarkable, considering how they’ve struggled at quarterback all season. They now need to beat the Baltimore Ravens and have the Titans lose to the Houston Texans in the regular-season finale to reach the postseason.
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Frank Schwab is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at shutdown.corner@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @YahooSchwab
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