Here’s an excerpt from my latest TribLive.com column. To read the entire piece, click HERE.
When Mason Rudolph takes over behind center next season, he will do OK. It wouldn’t be shocking to see his stats in 2022 be similar to Ben Roethlisberger’s in 2021. (Roethlisberger’s yards per attempt this year is 6.2. Dead people fall forward further.)
But when the game is up for grabs in the fourth quarter and Rudolph trots onto the field, the belief won’t be there. Not with his teammates, not with the fans, and not intangibly.
Roethlisberger has that aura. Rudolph will not.
The Steelers had little right to win Sunday, and no right to make the playoffs.
But Roethlisberger did it.
I’m not sure how. But he did it.
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