The Pittsburgh Steelers will let Ben Roethlisberger rest for the playoffs.
Coach Mike Tomlin said on Tuesday that Roethlisberger will not play when AFC champion North Steelers (12-3) visits rival Cleveland (10-5) in the regular season final on Sunday.
Pittsburgh cannot finish worse than third in the AFC and are out of the competition for playing at home after Super Bowl champion Kansas City ended the race last weekend.
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So instead of putting 38-year-old Roethlisberger at risk, reserve Mason Rudolph will return to the scene of the ugly fight that marked the end of Pittsburgh’s previous visit to FirstEnergy Stadium.
The Browns pierced Steelers 21-7 on November 14, 2019, a game in which Rudolph threw four interceptions. Worse yet, he and Cleveland’s defensive side, Myles Garrett, got into a fight in the final minutes that ended with Garrett ripping off Rudolph’s helmet and hitting Rudolph with him before being eliminated by Steelers center Maurkice Pouncey.
The consequences included Garrett – who claimed to have exploded after being called racial slander by Rudolph, an accusation the league failed to substantiate and which Rudolph denied – being suspended for the remainder of the 2019 season.
Rudolph, thrown to the starting position thanks to an injury to Roethlisberger’s right elbow at the end of the season in Week 2, fought the following week against Cincinnati before being suspended. Tomlin said he was not concerned that last year’s incident was a factor for Rudolph.
“I haven’t had a chance to talk to him about it, but I’m sure he is excited about the opportunity to start,” said Tomlin.
Garrett changed after being reinstated during the off-season and, in addition to having a year of prominence, he was also nominated by the team for the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year award, an honor bestowed on players for their work on and off the field. field.
Garrett’s first game against the Steelers this season was a smooth one, a 38-7 victory in Pittsburgh on October 18, in which Rudolph took the field to clear Roethlisberger in the fourth period.
The Browns can end the 18-year playoff drought with a win. They are confident that the motivation alone will overcome any lingering bad feelings about facing Rudolph.
“I understand emotions and all that sort of thing, but I feel that Myles’s level of maturity and the team’s level of maturity as a whole is that we understand that this is bigger than an incident and bigger than a situation,” said Cleveland linebacker Larry Ogunjobi said.
“Right now, it’s about doing something that hasn’t been done for a long time and playing for each of us, our brothers, and finding a way to win. That’s the most important. That is my opinion on this. “
The stakes are considerably lower for Pittsburgh, who won their seventh AFC North title in Tomlin’s 14 seasons by overtaking Indianapolis by 28-24, a game in which Roethlisberger got rid of the fear of a month to launch three touchdowns in the second half .
The best the Steelers could hope for this weekend is a victory over Cleveland and a loss to Buffalo, a combination that would take Pittsburgh to the second seed of the AFC and secure their home field in each of the first two rounds, should the Steelers got this far.
In any case, the Steelers successfully avoided a possible encounter with the Chiefs until the AFC championship game, as long as they go so far.
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There is a chance that a handful of other top Pittsburgh players will get the day off in Cleveland, as long as there is enough depth available.
“I prefer to preserve and protect players with a rotating mentality than to remove one player and expose the rest of the group to an abnormal number of clicks,” said Tomlin.
“It is a blessing to be in these circumstances and to make these kinds of decisions. Make no mistake, it does not change our intentions. Football is our game. Our job is to win. We intend to do our job.”