Amid a three-game losing streak, the Pittsburgh Steelers benched Mitchell Trubisky in favor of Mason Rudolph. The Steelers lost all three games since Kenny Pickett was injured, and was ultimately benched as Pittsburgh endured a 30-13 loss to the Indianapolis Colts.

The decision paid off big time, as Rudolph led the Steelers to a much-needed 34-11 win over the Cincinnati Bengals. In the win, Rudolph went 17-27 for 290 yards and two touchdowns with no interceptions. The performance was particularly impressive since Rudolph has not started a game since 2021, and has just 10 career starts.

After the game, coach Mike Tomlin credited Rudolph's aggressive play for helping lead the Steelers to a win. Rudolph was willing to challenge the Bengals secondary and give his receivers a shot when they faced one-on-one matchups, leading to multiple scores.

“He was Mason,” Tomlin told reporters. “We talked about it earlier in the week, he's got a belief in himself. He's aggressive in his play style. I thought he did a really good job of not displaying a lot of rust for a guy who had not played a lot,” via the Steelers on X.

Mason Rudolph of course got some help from his teammates, particularly wide receiver George Pickens. Pickens put up four receptions for 195 yards and two touchdowns, including an 86-yard touchdown in which he escaped multiple Bengals defenders to run down the field for the score. On defense, the Steelers pressured Browning and came up with three interceptions, which helped put the game out of reach early.

Now the Steelers will have a quarterback decision to make after their offense had it's best game of the season with Rudolph. If Kenny Pickett is ready to play, Pittsburgh will have to choose between him and Rudolph.