T.J. Watt & Mason Rudolph Postgame Press Conference (Week 12 at Chicago Bears) | Pittsburgh Steelers

T.J. Watt & Mason Rudolph Postgame Press Conference (Week 12 at Chicago Bears) | Pittsburgh Steelers

shorts and were converted or either converted from second and long. So, same story, man. Got to get off the field. What kind of adjustments did they make in the second half? I just thought they were able to move the ball efficiently. Obviously, the the one drive that sticks out is the one where they ran the ball significantly the whole drive all the way down. Um, punched it in, I think, at the one or two yardd line. So, um, drives like that can’t happen, especially in moments where you know they’re going to run the football. They’re loading up in big personnel groupings and continuing to run the football and then pull the bang eight. Um, need to get pressure to help those guys in the back end. TJ, you guys pride yourself on making those stops after turnovers, but they got 14 points off that today. Is that kind of the difference of what you’ve seen? Absolutely. That’s definitely a point of emphasis to be able to help our offense um, and create those limit them to three points or no points or create turnovers. And anytime you’re not able to do that, you’re not able to support your offense. Um, it’s not a good recipe. Was a game with a lot of big shifts in momentum. Uh, talked about those quick changes. Do you feel like you guys handled that emotionally in the moment well enough? I mean, it didn’t result in good enough play, so I don’t know about the emotions, but we need to play better. You guys go up 214, they get a field goal before the half. Just seem like you guys are a little bit off in those situations this year where not a lot of time left on the clock, but teams are able to take the ball down the field on you guys. I agree completely. It’s not not acceptable. TJ, what did you see on that play when you sacked Caleb in the end zone? Just trying to make a play. Um, we knew that he was going to try to escape to the B gaps. Um, really tough quarterback to get down. Just trying to make a play. I know there’s obviously a lot of frustration about how the game ended, but that play in particular, pass your brother. What did that mean to you? Does that mean to you? I’ll I’ll think about it later, TJ. With, you know, the Ravens winning today, the division is getting pretty tight. Does it feel like your margin for error is starting to get slimmer? The margin for error is slim every week. It’s a National Football League. We have a lot of things that need to be fixed, fixed quickly, and we need to be playing our best football at this stretch of the season and we need to get better and get better quick. Anything else? All right. Thanks. Thanks, man. Good everybody. All right. You saw several momentum flows in that game. You guys had it early in the first half. They had one in the second, but you get the ball back in a minute and a half. What was your thought process then? Yeah, I think at that point you just got to put all the es and flows of the game behind you and and u look ahead and credit to our to our defense for getting us the ball back um time of the clock and uh giving us a chance to win it. Mason, when did you find out that you’d be starting today? Yesterday. What have the last I mean 24 48 hours been like for you preparing to to step into this job? Yeah, I think you know I’ve I’ve got plenty of experience in this role um finding out at the beginning of the week, at the end of the week, in the middle of the week uh when you’re playing and so um I felt uh you know that’s that’s the role of the backup quarterback. You got to be ready whenever your numbers numbers called and um I felt ready today. Mason, where did you guys need to get to here for Bos and and what did you have in mind to get there? Yeah, I think um you know, I don’t know, anywhere around the 40 yard line, he’s he’s pretty darn good. So, even north of the 40, but uh yeah, I think um started out with a couple nice completions and and u credit to them. They they made some nice plays. They um played some played some tight man coverage and um you know heated us up there at the end and was able to bat the pass away. So u they played a good game and give credit to the defense. Bas is that included with a couple of those tip passes. Do you just credit them or do you look at it like I should have done this and that? Um no I think um you got to credit them. I think that’s something that’s, you know, I know we teach it with, you know, Cam’s made a career out of obviously a lot of other things, but he’s one of the best at tipping the ball and it’s it’s a game changer if you can do that and give your guys in the back end a breather. You did some good things today, but how do you feel like the turnovers maybe shape the outcome? Yeah, I think um well, I think, you know, just trying to give DK a 50-50 shot there that to start the game. I I will do that every time I get the the opportunity because he’s such a great player and comes down with a lot of those. So, um and then the um you know, I think on the uh play action at the boundary on the sack fumble, they did a good job of, you know, peeling peeling off the left tackle to go and rob that check down which I was about to throw. And I saw that and kind of recocked it and that’s when that’s when I got hit. So, uh, they they covered the play well and I I just got to do a better job of, um, protecting the ball. How do you feel like you settled in after that interception? I mean, what what can you say about the way that you win the offense rebounding for that second drive? Yeah, I think I think I think the second drive was 20 plays or so. So, um, super proud of the way, uh, we all responded and and, uh, it’s never how you want to start a game. Uh, but, uh, to to go put set on the board there after that was, uh, was, uh, was good to see. Mason, what did they do or what didn’t you guys do for most of the third, especially coming out of half? Yeah. Um, you know, I think I think they they stopped the run pretty well um in that third quarter and I don’t know, we just for whatever reason we couldn’t we couldn’t get it get it rolling the way we were in the first half, especially into the second quarter and um but that happens at times and and um you know, you got to fight back and I was proud of the way we came and put the ball in the end zone there to to give us a chance to cut it to a three-point game in the fourth. What kind of feedback or resource was Baron on the sideline during the game? Uh he you know he he didn’t um I think he you know he knows this in in my first first time doing this so he wasn’t blowing up my he wasn’t talking my ear off but he but he provided some some uh support and uh some extra set of veteran awesome eyes to from the sidelines. you’re obviously close to being in the same quarterback room, but just what was his demeanor like once he found out that you know he wasn’t going to be playing today. Uh supportive of me and um supportive of the offense. So M continue to get a lot of big plays from Kenny Gone. And was that 54 yd line? Was that kind of a bread and butter play? Is it something you use much or no? Uh it was uh just a wrinkle a wrinkle that we added and and he did a great job of man executing it and then uh one play later put it put it in the end zone. You guys used a lot of wrinkles. You used Kenny out of the Wildcat. Was that thing you just put in for this game or is that something you’ve been building for a while? Um, I don’t know if it was, you know, I think we’ve done that a couple times this year, but, uh, he’s good at it and he’s got good feel for, you know, his own read and and, um, just it kind of fit this week’s game plan. Mason, you guys once had a pretty big lead in the division and now tied. What What’s the talk or mindset with this group now heading down the stretch? Yeah, I think there’s there’s never been panic here. We we’ve been Pittsburgh Steeler long enough to know we’ve we’ve been behind down in the division and and up and there’s it just a it’s a natural eb and flow of the season and I’m uh very confident of our guys to you know keep fighting and and uh end up on top. So is this the time of the season when you kind of draw on your past experience being in just about every different position being down and out whatever it is to make this final push? Yeah, I think we got we got a lot of a lot of great leaders in the locker room on on both sides and um you know I know I know I know we got the right the right stuff to steady the ship and and bounce back uh next week. Good. Yes. Thanks, M.

T.J. Watt and Mason Rudolph speak to the media about the Steelers matchup against the Chicago Bears in Week 12 of the 2025 season.

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