Steelers to start rookie Hodges against Browns
New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees (9) gestures after a touchdown by wide receiver Michael Thomas (13) on Sunday.
Coach Sean Payton’s New Orleans Saints have handled adversity all season, and their resilience was on display again in their latest triumph.
Their 34-31 victory over Carolina on Wil Lutz’s lastsecond, 33-yard field goal despite another significant injury, a slew of costly penalties and two fourth-quarter turnovers.
New Orleans (9-2) can clinch the NFC South with four games left by beating Atlanta on Thursday night, a significant achievement considering Drew Brees missed five games with a thumb injury earlier in the season.
“We can’t look past some of the things that need to be
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addressed so in a later game it doesn’t come back to bite us, but that all being said, that was a good grit win,” Payton said Monday. “I was proud we fought through it.”
Several setbacks easily could have pointed the game in the other direction.
Second-team All-pro offensive tackle Terron Armstead left with an ankle injury on the second series and did not return, forcing the Saints to play without two key linemen. Starting guard Andrus Peat has been out since breaking his arm against Atlanta on Nov. 10, but New Orleans still finished with 418 yards.
The Saints were penalized 12 times for 123 yards, and several were crucial. An unnecessary roughness flag on defensive end Cam Jordan
prolonged a Carolina possession that appeared to end with a second consecutive sack. It turned into a mammoth 17-play, 68-yard touchdown drive at the end of the first half.
A replay review of a challenge by Carolina coach Ron Rivera resulted in a pass interference call on rookie defensive back Chauncey Gardner-johnson, giving the Panthers a first-andgoal at the 3 with 2:21 left.
Instead of wilting at being on the wrong end of a rule change put in place because of the lack of an interference flag on the Los Angeles Rams against the Saints near the end of regulation in last season’s NFC championship game, the defense drove Carolina back 7 yards on the next three plays, leading to a missed field goal.
Brees, who had thrown an interception at midfield earlier in the quarter, then led an 11-play, 65-yard drive for the winning points.
It was not pretty until then, but the Saints will take it.
After going 5-0 while Brees was sidelined by a thumb injury earlier in the season, the Saints can earn the top seed in the NFC playoffs by winning their next five with him.
“If you give (Brees) the ball with the targets he has with that much time on the clock, we can go out there and be able to score on anybody,” tight end Jared Cook said. “That’s how good he is and that’s how good we are collectively as a team when a game’s on the line and we need those points.”
Devlin Hodges in. Mason Rudolph out.
At least for now. Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin tabbed Hodges as the starting quarterback for Sunday’s pivotal meeting with Cleveland at Heinz Field, though Tomlin cautioned against reading too much into the move.
“We’re singularly focused on winning this game, of putting ourselves in position to win this game,” Tomlin said Tuesday. “That’s where the decision lies. We’ll see where we are after this game. Really, we have no intended plans beyond this one.”
Given the chaotic nature of the position this season for the Steelers (6-5), that’s probably wise.
Hodges came on in relief of an ineffective Rudolph in the second half against Cincinnati, throwing for a momentum-shifting 79-yard touchdown pass to James Washington on his third snap that gave Pittsburgh the lead for good.
The undrafted rookie free agent who goes by the nickname “Duck” as a nod to his status as a champion duck caller back home in Alabama, was so-so otherwise — finishing 5 of 11 for 118 yards and the score — but he avoided mistakes and provided an emotional jolt that helped the Steelers stay in the thick of the AFC playoff race.
“He took care of the ball and provided a spark,” Tomlin said. “So we just thought it was reasonable as we prepare this week to allow him to continue to do that. It means nothing about our intended plans for the foreseeable future or the trajectory of Mason’s career or what have you.”
Rudolph took over in Week 2 when Ben Roethlisberger
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was lost for the season because of a right elbow injury and became just the eighth player since 1970 to throw at least one touchdown in his first eight career appearances but has stumbled in recent weeks. He threw four interceptions in an ugly loss to Cleveland on Nov. 14 — a game that ended with Rudolph getting into a now infamous fight with Browns defensive end Myles Garrett that ended with Garrett hitting Rudolph in the head with the quarterback’s own helmet — and tossed another pick at the goal line in Cincinnati in the first half that ended a scoring threat.
After the Steelers went three-and-out to start the third quarter against the Bengals, Tomlin had seen enough, though he doesn’t think the fallout from the brawl with the Browns — which included Rudolph refuting an allegation by Garrett that he used a racial slur — played a role in Rudolph’s shaky performance.
“I thought he was ready to go,” Tomlin said. “I thought he had a good week. I thought he was focused. But those are just my interpretations.”
Tomlin added the fact the Steelers were facing Cleveland instead of another opponent played no role in Rudolph’s benching.
“We’ve got enough issues of our own that we just need to focus on us,” Tomlin said. “I say that routinely. We respect the people that we play. We acknowledge who they are for matchup and situational purposes or personality purposes. But the bottom line, particularly when you start to get in this part of the journey, (is) they’re nameless gray faces.”
Maybe, but starting Hodges over Rudolph removes a potentially combustible element from a rivalry that no longer feels dormant or one-sided.