Steelers winners and losers from win against Colts

Losers:

Mason Rudolph

I’ll be completely honest: I don’t love what I have been seeing from Mason Rudolph following the bye. Though he has two straight wins under his belt, he has struggled with accuracy and ball placement. Rudolph also did most of his work, dinking and dunking the ball down the field to Jaylen Samuels. I know Fichtner’s gameplan may have limited him, but Rudolph didn’t have a great game against the Colts.

Randy Fichtner

While the Steelers came away with the win, I’m not sure how much credit offensive coordinator Randy Fichtner deserves (if any). Pittsburgh’s offense was both predictable and inefficient in this contest. Just 12 of 35 passes were intended for receivers, and nearly everything Fichtner called seemed to be within a few yards of the line of scrimmage. The Steelers offense continually stalled in the red zone, and Fichtner hardly allowed his quarterback to take a shot in the endzone. He needs to loosen the reigns on Mason Rudolph if the Steelers offense is to improve.

JuJu Smith-Schuster

I know I am in the minority here, but I think there is reasonable cause for concern when it comes to JuJu Smith-Schuster. Yes, JuJu is playing without his star quarterback, but he has really struggled to create much separation in and out of his breaks this season. When he was targeted, JuJu didn’t capitalize, and he managed just 16 yards on his 5 targets. He was a complete non-factor in this game.

The Steelers got the final result they were looking for, but it may not have been how they wanted it to happen. Most of the defensive players had games worth noting, but the offense still has a long way to go if the Steelers want to make a serious run at the playoffs this year. We will see what adjustments they make as they get set to take on the Los Angeles Rams next week.