On Dec. 16, I sat among the contingent of fans twirling their yellow Terrible Towels in Indianapolis’ Lucas Oil Stadium as the Steelers battled the Colts in a pivotal late-season AFC showdown. With Pittsburgh leading 13-0 after one frame, it felt like the team had finally turned a corner; instead, what followed was three quarters of hideous football. Calling things bleak was a euphemism after three straight losses to the Cardinals, Patriots and Colts.

Now in early January, though, the Steelers have suddenly gained new life. Against all odds, Mike Tomlin’s team has beaten both the Bengals and the Seahawks — in Seattle, no less — to climb to 9-7 and on the cusp of a playoff berth.

You could attribute more aggressive coaching or a stronger rushing attack as to why Pittsburgh has reawakened. But, most of the turnaround can be attributed to a change at quarterback.

Indeed, following Mason Rudolph being named the Steelers’ man under center, Tomlin’s group has produced consecutive games over 30 points — something that hadn’t happened in over three years — not to mention two of its three best games by total yardage, and zero collective turnovers.

In those two games, Rudolph has passed for 564 yards and two touchdowns, which may seem a little pedestrian. However, the advanced stats indicate that he’s been thriving, including leading the league in completion percentage over expected since Week 16 and ranking sixth in adjusted EPA/play. Further, Rudolph’s 86.9 PFF passing grade in Seattle was the second-best by a Pittsburgh QB all season.

Both the metrics and a rewatch of the tape indicate that Rudolph has been far from perfect, including missing open receivers and occasionally hanging too long in the pocket. At the same time, he’s offered the Steelers promise in dimensions that they’ve seriously lacked all year, which has gone hand-in-hand with an offensive reclamation of sorts.

For one, Rudolph is aggressive, but an appropriate amount. His 8.9-yard average depth of target this year is higher than Kenny Pickett’s by 1.4 yards; among quarterbacks with at least 50 attempts this year, that’s tied for 11th in the NFL. Effectively, Rudolph is more open to Pickett at throwing deeper down the field: 14.8% of Rudolph’s heaves have traveled 20+ yards, while just 8.6% of Pickett’s throws were of that distance.

At the same time, Rudolph isn’t playing with the reckless abandon that doomed Mitch Trubisky, who posted a gaudy 9.1 ADoT. Trubisky racked up a ridiculous 5.3% turnover-worthy play percentage, while Rudolph sits at 1.6%. In other words, Rudolph is shrewder when he takes shots, such as when he sees single coverage and not forcing the ball into unnecessarily tight windows.

In turn, this has directly overlapped with the blossoming of George Pickens as a bonafide star. The two best games of Pickens’ career in terms of receiving yards have come with Rudolph under center, words which I certainly never anticipated ever writing. It’s not just an innate chemistry and trust between the two, which fizzled out with Trubisky taking snaps; it’s also Rudolph’s more vertical playstyle aligning with Pickens’ talents at winning one-on-one and in man coverage — a scheme against which he ranks eighth in PFF grade, minimum 90 targets.

It behooves whoever’s playing quarterback for the Steelers to feed Pickens a shot, and to let him make game-altering plays. Pittsburgh is 5-0 this year when the second-year wideout has amassed over 100 receiving yards, compared to 4-7 when under the century mark. Likewise, the Steelers are 4-0 when Pickens gets at least eight targets. Of course, those stats can be somewhat misleading, because almost any team will have favorable outcomes when its playmakers perform at that high of a level. Then again, it’s pretty evident that Pickens’ individual success tends to align with his team’s.

Additionally, Rudolph’s pocket presence has been refreshing relative to Pickett. The fact that the second-year QB frequently bails out of pockets prematurely certainly harms his ability to detect open receivers deep down the field, forcing scramble drills and adjustments on the fly instead. Meanwhile, Rudolph seems calm and composed waiting longer, even with rushers in his face. We’ve seen in years past that Rudolph’s stoicism in the pocket can be a downfall by not stepping up or evading rushers, but simply staying put has allowed him to scan the field and maximize opportunistic plays more fully.

As I noted earlier, it’s not like Rudolph is the Steelers’ unequivocal savior or the sole reason for this latest run. Against the Bengals, Tomlin’s defense gave Browning fits, forcing three bad interceptions. In Lumen Field, Najee Harris and Jaylen Warren were downright unstoppable, amassing 172 yards after contact and forcing 17 missed tackles. I still have plenty of concerns about Rudolph over a longer sample size; after all, he was unquestionably poor when given the chance to start in 2019.

What matters for now, though, is that Rudolph is affording the Steelers the best chance to win critical football games because of his astute shot-taking, pocket habits and feeding the team’s top playmaker. If Rudolph continues to avoid bad decisions/sacks and do slightly more than managing the game, Pittsburgh could become a dangerous team should it sneak into the playoffs.