NFL Week 11 reactions and overreactions

My weekly take on the Pittsburgh Steelers and the NFL.

Now for my weekly look at the Pittsburgh Steelers and the NFL as a whole. This week the topics include the Steelers quarterback situation for their game at the Chicago Bears, Darnell Washington, Shedeur Sanders coverage and who is actually good in the NFL right now? Plus more!

1. I have no strong opinion on who should be the Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback on Sunday, mostly because I do not think it makes any real difference. If Aaron Rodgers is able to take snaps from under center and will not make his wrist injury worse, he will play. If he can not play, Mason Rudolph will step in and probably do just fine. Not great. Not awful. Just fine. Which pretty much defines the Steelers’ quarterback play this season.

The game will ultimately come down to the defense continuing to play better and the Steelers doing what they should be doing more of on offense — running the ball. They had better balance on Sunday in their 34-12 win over the Cincinnati Bengals with their play-calling, their running backs were effective in terms of runs and pass-catching and it helped produce a big and much-needed win.

2. The main reason I am so indifferent on the quarterback situation comes down to a couple of factors.

• It seems increasingly clear as the season has gone on that Rodgers is closer to cooked than he or the Steelers want to admit. These past few games have not been great.

• Mason Rudolph only played two series on Sunday, and against the worst defense in the NFL, but those two series were two of their best and most efficient series of the day. Both produced points. Both were extensive drives that consistently moved the ball down the field.

• Rudolph is a fine backup. I do not understand the narrative that exists with him that says the Steelers have treated him poorly over the years or set him up to fail. They have treated him like a backup. Which is what he is. And that is fine. He will give you acceptable play in small doses and allow you to win some games (as they generally do when he plays). He is probably just not somebody you want to tie your wagon to for a 17-game season. A good backup is important. He is a good backup. That is enough.

• I think the one difference I noticed on Sunday between the first half (with Rodgers) and the second half (with Rudolph) was that Rudolph was not bailing on pockets or drifting himself into pressure that did not originally exist. Rodgers is a Hall of Fame player and one of the best quarterbacks of all time. But as the season has progressed he seems to have an allergy to getting hit and seems determined to avoid that at all costs, even when he does not necessarily need to avoid it. Hey, look, I am roughly his age. I get it. I do not want to get hit, either. But that is a problem for an NFL quarterback.

If both players are fully healthy Rodgers has a higher potential ceiling for this season, so for that reason alone he is going to play when he can. And he should play. No issue with that. I am not going to call for Mason Rudolph to start. But even with that being the case, this is not prime era Aaron Rodgers. If he is not 100 percent, you are not going to lose a lot if Rudolph has to play for a game. He might even be better in a one-game sample size than a limited Rodgers.

I just do not think this is going to really impact Sunday’s game much one way or another.

3. Speaking of, I see one of two potential outcomes in this game: The Steelers either lose a close, frustrating game, or they do what they did to the Indianapolis Colts and convincingly beat a team with a good record that everybody expects to beat them. The Bears have a lot of talent, but their defense is bad, they have a negative point differential and they have played one of the NFL’s softest schedules. They have played two teams this season against teams that are currently .500 or better: Detroit and Baltimore. They lost those games by a combined margin of 82-37. Their overall strength of schedule is .348. That is the lowest in the NFL and leaves them as one of only two teams with a strength of schedule under .400 (the New England Patriots are the other team). Their strength of victory? It is only .285. That is 31st in the NFL. Only the Dallas Cowboys have a lower mark. In other words, this is definitely a winnable game for the Steelers. The Steelers, however, have a tendency to lose winnable games and they have an even greater tendency to lose games in Chicago, as they have done in every game they have played there since the 1995 season.

4. Not only does the Steelers offense need to run more through the running backs, the time has come for Darnell Washington to keep taking on a bigger role. The offense is just better when he is on the field, and he was a game-changer on Sunday against the Bengals. His 31-yard catch-and-run where he left a trail of Bengals defenders in his dust was the moment where I said, “okay, they are winning this game.” Just about every catch he had featured him doing something crazy athletic or strong, and he also had some absolutely massive blocks in both the running and passing game. He helped spring Gainwell on a huge play in the fourth quarter that really helped put the game away when he knocked over two Bengals defenders in one motion. Put him on the field. Use him in the passing game. Let him grind people down in the running game. The tight end room is a big strength of the offense and there is room for all of them to play. Washington just needs to play more than all of them.

5. Major props to safety Kyle Dugger. That dude showed up three weeks ago, has played almost every defensive snap since then, and really the only time I have noticed him or heard his name called was when he returned an interception for a touchdown. That is about all you can ask of a safety.

6. Had kind of a weird experience at the game on Sunday. I did not start the game in our normal seats because my brother was at the game with a friend. I found a great — and really favorably priced seat — a couple of sections over in the third row of the upper deck in the end zone. Great seat. Loved it. But the people around me just seemed … stand-offish? There was nobody willing to talk. Nobody said anything. Usually when you are at a game it is pretty common to have conversations with the people around you. Somebody says something. Something happens in the game. You high-five the person after a big play. “Hey, that was awesome! Did you see that?” These people on both sides offered …. nothing. Almost like they were bothered to be there. Never experienced anything like it at a game. The vibes in that section were awful. Just awful vibes. My brother’s friend had to leave the game early which allowed me to move back up into my normal seats where the vibe was a complete 180 in every way. Everybody was talking. Everybody was involved with each other. Everybody was involved in the game and into it. Everybody was having fun. Even if nobody actually knew each other.

Anyway, on to the rest of the thoughts from the NFL including Shedeur Sanders, J.J. McCarthy, officiating and which teams are actually good.

Let’s talk about it.