Losers:
Mason Rudolph
There’s a good, bad, and ugly happening to QB Mason Rudolph in the midst of this whole QB fiasco for the Steelers right now.
The good is that he still resides with the team as a supporter on the sideline earning a paycheck week-to-week, with possibly the easiest job in the NFL.
The bad is obvious. Yes, support is warranted being a teammate, but a starter no more with the gap increasing between him & Hodges is disheartening.
Then, the ugly is as Hodges is serviceable for the team right now, questions will raise if he’s the franchise QB post-Ben, that will push Rudolph even further back into the depth of this team and his future in this league.
Diontae Johnson
In a time period where the team their star players, the hopes and mentality forever in this league is that the next man will step up. What hasn’t been a crutch against him all year, this week was no beneficiary to his case for WR Diontae Johnson.
Though he ended the game with the most targets on the team (5), Johnson was able to only reel in one catch for 14 yards. Now three consecutive weeks where he has failed to total more than 30 receiving yards, it has been a rough going for the rookie that could be credited as to why Hodges had an interception as well.
Offensive Penalties
A pure reflection of practice and execution leading up to the game, this is a weekly issue with the Pittsburgh offense that has to be addressed. Although there were very skeptical calls that weren’t in the Steelers favor, 7 of the 10 penalties on the day for Pittsburgh occurred from the offense, with 6 of them being pre-snap.
Already criticized for his questionable playcalling, this ultimately falls on the shoulders of OC Randy Fichtner. According to teamrankings.com, this is a relative issue with this team being 20th in the NFL at 7.4 penalties per game, that has increased to 9.7 in the past three weeks. They have to bring this under control if they desire to continue a run to end the season, and it starts up top.