“I know Coach (Mike) Tomlin, and he’s standing in front of his guys like, ‘We going to run the ball; run at the Bengals defense,’ especially without D.J.,” Hilton said. “So, I want guys to be prepared to get physical, turn that running back early and make them one-dimensional.”
Pittsburgh (7-7) has a dynamic running tandem with Najee Harris and Jaylen Warren combining for 1,375 yards rushing and seven touchdowns.
This week, the Steelers also are going with another new quarterback, as Tomlin announced Mason Rudolph would be starting instead of Mitch Trubisky, who has started the last two games since Kenny Pickett suffered a high ankle sprain in a Dec. 3 loss to Arizona. That injury marked the start of a three-game skid Pittsburgh carries into Saturday.
In five appearances and two starts, Trubisky threw for 632 yards and four touchdowns with five interceptions. Rudolph completed 2 of his 3 pass attempts for three yards in last week’s blowout loss at Indianapolis, his only action this season. He will be making his first start since 2021.
Selected in the third round of the 2018 NFL draft, Rudolph started his first career game in Week 3 of the 2019 season after Ben Roethlisberger suffered a season-ending elbow injury, then went on to start eight games that campaign. Included in that were two wins against the Bengals, but he was benched at halftime of the second matchup in Cincinnati that year and replaced by former practice squad quarterback Devlin “Duck” Hodges.
Rudolph was sidelined the next three games before returning to replace Hodges against the Jets in Week 16 but injured his shoulder in the loss. He’s started two games since then, without a loss.
“We’ve just got to prepare for whoever,” Hilton said Tuesday when it was still unclear if Pickett might be back. “Obviously, they aren’t going to do too much different, their system is the system. They are going to get the ball to their playmakers, but no matter who’s at quarterback we’ve got to defend the run, make them one-dimensional and we’ll have our chances to make plays no matter who’s on the field.”
Cincinnati’s run defense, even with Reader the first 14 games, has allowed 128.3 rushing yards per game — the fifth worst in the league. Without their big run stopper in the middle, the Bengals face a huge challenge trying to plug the gaps on the defensive line.
Jay Tufele and Zach Carter are two of the players the Bengals will lean on to step up, while defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo added practice squad player Dominique Davis as another potential option. On Wednesday, Cincinnati acquired defensive tackle Travis Bell off waivers from Atlanta and he was practicing with the team Thursday.
Bell, a rookie out of Kennesaw State University, was a seventh-round pick of the Chicago Bears in this year’s draft. He spent eight regular-season games on the Bears’ practice squad before being signed to Atlanta’s active roster on Nov. 1. Bell played in two games for the Falcons, totaling two solo tackles, but was waived on Tuesday.
“It’s kind of hard,” defensive tackle B.J. Hill said of how the defensive line would move forward. “That was a big shot to our team, to our defensive line, but next-man-up mentality. Some guys are going to have to step up in some big roles for us, and I believe in those guys and I’m excited to watch them play.”
Hill said the defense did build confidence in overtime against the Vikings last week when the Bengals got back-to-back stops on third-and-1 and fourth-and-inches to put the ball back in the hands of the offense for the winning drive. Reader went down in the first quarter, and Minnesota took advantage of that to build a 14-point lead in the second half, but the Bengals got stops when the game was on the line.
Cincinnati will need to channel some of that overtime effort Saturday, but the Steelers, coming off three straight losses with their playoff hopes on the line, won’t make it easy.
“There’s no quit in that team, and obviously it starts with the head coach, Coach Tomlin,” Hilton said. “His whole career he’s just been a winner and he puts that throughout the whole team. We know they are going to come prepared, their playoff lives are on the line, so they are going to give everything they’ve got and we’ve got to match that.”
SATURDAY’S GAME
Bengals at Steelers, 4:30 p.m., NBC, 700, 1530, 102.7, 104.7
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