Don’t pin this loss on Rudolph, although he does blame himself
SANTA CLARA, Calif. — All over the lawn of Levi’s Stadium in the sunswept Silicon Valley, they tried so valiantly to give Mason Rudolph a victory in his first Steelers start, his first NFL start, to hand the 24-year-old quarterback a precious keepsake he would remember forever.
Too bad all they were all wearing red jerseys.
The San Francisco 49ers turned the ball over five times, four on their first five possessions, committed one critical penalty after the next down the stretch, blew coverages, ran into their own shotgun snap, surrendered their lead twice, the second time in the fourth quarter, and still clipped the still winless Steelers, 24-20.
Among this sport’s most enduring axioms — the one that goes “You can’t turn the ball over five times against a good football team,” there was no plausible application Sunday because neither team was anywhere close to good.
San Francisco was a hair closer, that’s all, and their quarterback, Jimmy Garoppolo, now is 11-2 as an NFL starter. The Steeelers’ is 01, but Rudolph’s share of the blame was marginal at most. He threw for more yards and more touchdowns than Ben Roethlisberger did in his first career start on this same weekend 15 years ago, but he couldn’t overcome his own non-existent running game and a defense that wasn’t terribly responsible on plays when the 49ers were not handing it the ball.
“For a young guy to come and start his first game in an away game on the West Coast, I think he handled himself well,” said JuJu Smith -Schuster, who finally broke loose with a 76-yard touchdown in the third quarter when it appeared this terrible Steelers offense could play until Thursday without entering an end zone. “There were situations where we messed up, didn’t execute, or turned the ball over, but he stayed positive and kept us going.”
Rudolph wasn’t good, but he was notably good at not letting that bother him, and with 10:22 to go in the game, he put the Steelers ahead with 39-yard strike to rookie wideout Diontae Johnson. Had it not been for another critical fumble by James Conner on the next Steelers possession, Rudolph might have joined Roethlisberger (2004), Steve Bono (1987), Mike Kruczek (1976) and Ted Marchibroda (1953) as the only Steelers quarterbacks to win in their first NFL start. As it is, the Steelers now are 4-20-1 in this situation, one of the most difficult circumstances in sports.
Asked about Conner’s play in the postgame interview room where Rudolph’s adrenalin had him still trying to rush things a bit, the new leader on offense had his best moments of the day.
“I made plenty of mistakes all day; no one is pointing the finger in this offense — we love each other and we’re going to rally together,” he said. “We still had a chance. I said [to James], ‘Let’s stay positive because we have another chance to get the ball back and go score. You’re going to run the game-winning touchdown.’”
That’s how a quarterback is supposed to talk.
In the fourth quarter, Rudolph had a stretch where he was 3 for 4 for 50 yards and a touchdown, a rhythm that might prove to be more easily achievable in a second NFL start.
“Absolutely he hung in there; I’ve seen a lot of growth in him,” said veteran guard Ramon Foster, now the oldest player on the field since Roethlisberger’s elbow has taken him to the sideline until next season. “We’re going from a 16-year franchise quarterback to a second-year guy, so of course there’s gonna be growth and that’s what we’re doing right now.
“I thought he did exactly what he needed to do today. They’ve got a buzzing [defense] and they know we’ve got a young quarterback so they’re going to do some things to try to disrupt him. That seemed like their plan today and once he settled down, he played just as good as anybody.”
The Steelers won’t be able to provide sufficient growth opportunities for Rudolph until they can figure out a way to keep the football. Their time of possession is getting worse by the week — 27:27, 24:14, 23:43 — and worse still, it’s wearing out a defense that hasn’t yet learned how to play together. Even as they gave the ball away five times, the 49ers rang up 436 yards.
Rudolph was having none of that finger-pointing.
“That game is on us,” he said of his offense. “We had so many opportunities with turnovers in the first half and the momentum swings because of our defense. We have to put more points on the board.
“I made a lot of mistakes — we can’t be that slow-starting in the first half. I have to give our team and our defense more of a chance to put up some points early and get ahead.”
From the 49ers 33 after a T.J. Watt fumble recovery and from their 24 after a Minkah Fitzpatrick interception, the Steelers totaled just six points, a proven formula for losing regardless of the quarterback’s identity. With Ben and without, the Steelers are 9 for 35 on third down.
“It’s super challenging,” said All-Pro guard David DeCastro. “The defense gave us a great opportunity and we just kind of threw it by the wayside.”
As a wise-old football coach once said when asked what he would tell a quarterback making his first start, “Try not to stink.”
Mason Rudolph did not stink Sunday. Too many of his teammates did.