The Steelers showed up to play against the Bengals
That's probably the best and most succinct way I can put it. The Steelers showed up to play. What I mean by that is this: After three consecutive losses in which neither side of the ball played particularly well, we entered the stadium against the Bengals determined to secure a victory.
I'm sure that is our mindset for every game, but, as we know and as we witnessed in the previous three games, having a mindset doesn't necessarily translate into a successful outcome. Fortunately for us, it did against the Bengals.
While it's great that we were able to get a win in our final home game, as I stated earlier in our discussion, as we sit here right now, we are on the outside, looking in as far as playoff seeding is concerned. Hopefully, teams ahead of us in the playoff race will lose, but hope is not a plan.
What is a plan is just that, a plan. I give Mike Tomlin credit for starting Rudolph over Trubisky, but it's probably too little, too late at this point in the season. Maybe if Rudolph had started against the Colts, we would have been able to score more than thirteen points or we would have been able to play better on defense.
Had we won the Colts game coupled with the win against the Bengals, we would be talking about an almost mathematical certainty that we would at least grab the last playoff spot. Of course, we could still lose our next two games, which would make the playoffs a moot point.
I guess my point is this: Tomlin was reticent to make any sweeping changes, but because our backs were and still are against the wall, so to speak, change was necessary. Tomlin had no choice but to turn to Rudolph. It turned out to be the right choice, but I question the timing of that choice.
Again, one more win, particularly one more conference win, would make all the difference right now. I just hope for our sake that any personnel decisions that are made for the last two games of the season are the right decisions, meaning that the decisions are ones that bring about a playoff berth as opposed to bringing about a berth on the couch where we would watch the playoffs from afar.