Steady Mason Rudolph Leads Steelers to Blowout Win vs. Andy Dalton, Bengals

The Pittsburgh Steelers have won a regular-season game for the first time since Dec. 30.

Pittsburgh improved to 1-3 in 2019 with a 27-3 victory over the Cincinnati Bengals in Monday's AFC North showdown at Heinz Field. James Conner, Jaylen Samuels and Mason Rudolph spearheaded the attack, helping put the Steelers just a game behind the 2-2 Baltimore Ravens and Cleveland Browns in the division despite an abysmal start to the season that included losing Ben Roethlisberger for the year.

Cincinnati is still just two games back in the mediocre division but fell to 0-4 and hasn't found its footing without the sidelined A.J. Green.

Notable Fantasy Stats

• Mason Rudolph: 24-of-28 passing for 229 yards, two touchdowns and zero interceptions
• James Conner: 10 carries for 42 yards and zero touchdowns; eight catches for 83 yards and one touchdown
• Jaylen Samuels: 10 carries for 26 yards and one touchdown; eight catches for 57 yards; 3-of-3 passing for 31 yards
• Diontae Johnson: six catches for 77 yards and one touchdown
• Andy Dalton: 21-of-37 passing for 171 yards, zero touchdowns and one interception
• Joe Mixon: 15 carries for 62 yards and zero touchdowns; four catches for one yard
• Auden Tate: four catches for 50 yards and zero touchdowns
• John Ross III: three catches for 36 yards and zero touchdowns

Mason Rudolph's Simple Approach Equals First NFL Win

Rudolph may have a bright future as a gunslinger who torches opposing defenses downfield one day, but all he had to do was keep things simple against the Bengals.

The Oklahoma State product used running backs Conner and Samuels as his primary receivers, rarely even tested Cincinnati's secondary more than 10 yards from the line of scrimmage and relied on yards after the catch on short rollout passes to dink-and-dunk the defense until it broke.

Pittsburgh even mixed in direct snaps to Samuels, who didn't hesitate to flip it to Conner in space to bring even more defenders into the box.

That's when Rudolph finally hit Diontae Johnson over the top for a 43-yard touchdown in the third quarter to put the game away.

The Steelers will play better opponents than Cincinnati essentially every time they take the field, but there is reason for optimism after Monday's performance. They showed signs of turning things around in close losses to the Seattle Seahawks and San Francisco 49ers after they were embarrassed by the New England Patriots, and the simple approach with two running backs gives them a way to overcome Roethlisberger's injury.

It may be all it takes if the defense on display against Cincinnati is a sign of things to come.

Bengals Officially Heading Down the Road to Another Lost Season

Andy Dalton is now 3-13 against the rival Steelers in his career, and there is nothing but more hopelessness ahead for the 2019 Bengals.

They didn't look that far away during close losses to the Seahawks and Buffalo Bills, but the teamwide failure in blowout losses to the 49ers and Steelers underscores just how far away this team is from being competitive.

The linebackers couldn't tackle in space, which allowed Pittsburgh to use its dink-and-dunk approach, and an offensive line featuring Andre Smith and Bobby Hart had no chance while trying to block the combination of T.J. Watt, Cameron Heyward, Devin Bush and Bud Dupree.

The result was eight sacks for the home team, including a strip-sack from Dupree that helped set the tone in the early going.

Things figure to get worse before they get better for Cincinnati with remaining games against playoff contenders in the Patriots, Ravens, Los Angeles Rams, Browns and Jacksonville Jaguars, and it is fair to wonder about a future that could include trading Green and moving on from Dalton.

For now, the Bengals are clearly the worst team in the AFC North. A full-on rebuild may be what's ahead.

What's Next?

Both teams are at home in Week 5, when the Bengals will host the Arizona Cardinals and the Steelers will face the archrival Ravens.