Tag: mason rudolph

Tunnel Vision of Week 12

Tunnel Vision – a look back at Sunday for fantasy free agents, injuries and notable performances.

SUNDAY SALUTES
Quarterbacks Yards TD
Ryan Tannehill 259 – 40 4
Jameis Winston 313 – 38 3
Sam Darnold 315 – 16 3
Ryan Fitzpatrick 214 – 45 3
Baker Mayfield 327 – 5 3
Running Backs Yards TD
Derrick Henry 165 2
Leonard Fournette 159 2
Christian McCaffrey 135 2
Nick Chubb 164 1
Rashaad Penny 129 1
Wide Receivers Yards TD
Chris Godwin 184 2
Jarvis Landry 148 2
D.J. Moore 126 2
DeAndre Hopkins 94 2
A.J. Brown 135 1
Tight Ends Yards TD
Jared Cook 99 1
Zach Ertz 91 1
Mike Gesicki 28 1
Logan Thomas 24 1
George Kittle 129 1
Placekickers XP FG
Dustin Hopkins 1 4
Austin Siebert 5 2
Will Lutz 4 2
Chase McLaughlin 4 3
Younghoe Koo 1 3
Defense Sck-TO TD
Jets 1 – 2 1
Redskins 6 – 4 1
Seahawks 3 – 5 0
Buccaneers  6 – 2 1
Steelers 4 – 2 0

Bumps, Bruises and Bowouts

WR Julio Jones – Shoulder
WR Hunter Renfrow – Ribs
QB Mason Rudolph – Splinters
QB Dwayne Haskins – Wrist
WR Paul Richardson – Hamstring

Chasing Ambulances

Week 12 was the most injury-free slate of games that I can remember. Julio Jones hurt his shoulder but went back into the game. Dwayne Haskin’s wrist may be an issue, but he’s already a terrible fantasy play anyway and the Skins would likely benefit reverting to Case Keenum.

Mason Rudolph was benched and Devlin Hodges played better, but the Steelers already struggle when they pass and Hodges is no late-season savior.

There wasn’t an injury that would spawn any meaningful depth chart changes. And that’s likely to repeat until the end of the season because those who were going to get injured, already have. And everyone else is already banged up by now anyway.

Free Agents, Flops and Other Notables

RB Jonathan Williams – The Colts will still miss Marlon Mack for a few more weeks and Williams followed up his surprise 147-yard Week 11 performance with 121 yards and a touchdown last Thursday in Houston. This week at home against the Titans holds a lot of promise.

WR Will Fuller – Missed five games but his first Sunday back and he posted seven catches for 140 yards against the Colts. The next two games go against the Patriots and Titans, so he’s likely to crawl back under the rock.

WR Russell Gage – Hasn’t scored this year but turned in a season-best eight catches for 76 yards in the loss to the Falcons. Notable is that while his two previous games were mediocre and on the road, his only previous homestand since  Muhammad Sanu left was when he caught seven passes for 58 yards. The Falcons play at home versus the Saints and Panthers for the next two weeks.

RB Qadree Ollison – The Falcons rookie power back totaled only 13 touches over the last two games but they were the first with him playing and he scored a touchdown in each.

QB Brian Allen – The Broncos quarterback was held to only 10-of-25 completions for 82 yards and one interception in the loss to the Bills. The Broncos 2.10 draft pick of Drew Lock is practicing again after spending the season on injured reserve because of a wrist injury. He’ll be starting sooner than later and the next three opponents are LAC, @HOU, and @KC. The Broncos will lose, but it could be a good experience for Lock who is bound to throw for more than 82 yards.

WR Sterling Shepard – Returned from his serious concussion and ended with five receptions for 15 yards in the loss to the Bears. This week hosting the Packers isn’t a great matchup, but the Giants will face the Eagles, Dolphins, and Redskins after that.

WR Allen Robinson – Just posted six catches for 131 yards and a score against the Giants. He’s done well only when facing weaker defenses and usually at home. With an ending schedule of @DET, DAL, @GB, KAN, and @MIN he’s going to be very hard to rely on again.

RB Benny Snell – With James Conner sidelined, Snell was given another start and he ran for 98 yards on 21 carries at the Bengals. His only other start was Week 6 when he posted 89 total yards at the Chargers. Keep an eye on the Conner situation because the Steelers face the Browns and Cardinals next. Jaylen Samuels wasn’t a factor and he comes into play only as a receiver when the Steelers are facing a tough defense and need to dump the pass off to a running back. Conner (shoulder) never practiced last week so he may miss a second game.

QB Baker Mayfield – Comes off a season-high 327 yards and three touchdowns in the win over the Dolphins. Mayfield has been a major disappointment to many, but the Browns slogged through a murderous schedule. Mayfield threw for two or more scores in the last three weeks (all at home).  He plays at the Steelers this week but then faces the Bengals and Cardinals.

WR D.J. Moore – The Saints were without CB Marson Lattimore in Week 11 but still held Mike Evans to only 69 yards on four catches and that was in Tampa Bay. But this week in New Orleans, Moore turned in six receptions for 126 yards and two scores for a career-best performance. Moore’s first score was on a 51-yard catch and run.

RB Josh Jacobs – was held to only 34 yards on ten carries and only caught one pass for two yards. The rookie merely went through his first NFL trash game and Derek Carr only threw for 127 yards and no scores. They were also likely thinking ahead to this week in Kansas City.

QB Sam Darnold – He passed for 315 yards and two scores and even ran in a touchdown. That came on the heels of 293 yards and four touchdowns last week at the Redskins. Granted, the Skins and Raiders didn’t feature top secondaries, but neither will the  Bengals and Dolphins the next two weeks. Even Robby Anderson (4-86, TD) came to life.

RB Rashaad Penny – Chris Carson is the starter, but he only gained 26 yards on eight runs while Penny became the “hot hand” at the Eagles and ran for 129 yards on 14 carries. Penny never had a catch while Carson ended with four receptions for 31 yards. There’s no changing of the depth chart and this is the same back that only gained two yards last week while Carson turned in 101 yards and a score at the 49ers.

RB Bo Scarbrough – The Week 11 surprise took his second start and ran for 98 yards on 18 carries. He still has not caught a pass and realize that he’ll be facing the Bears, Vikings, and Buccaneers next. That won’t be nearly so accommodating.

RB Derrius Guice – The Skins 2018 draft pick only managed ten runs for 32 yards at home versus the Lions who brought the No. 32 defense against running backs. With Dwayne Haskins as the starter, this offense has lost all punch. The out schedule is worse but there is a chance that Haskin’s wrist is bad enough to bring back Case Keenum.

RB Leonard Fournette – He ran for 97 yards and two scores plus caught nine passes for 62 yards in the loss in Tennessee. It was his only score since Week 5 and these last two weeks with Nick Foles as the starting quarterback resulted in season-high seven and nine catches, respectively.

Huddle player of the week

Chris Godwin  –  The only safe fantasy play is to start both Mike Evans and Chris Godwin if you could somehow draft both because you’re probably going to receive a monster game from one of them every week. Never both. And a tough call as to which one will go off. But this week, Godwin led all fantasy scorers with seven receptions for 184 yards and two touchdowns. He was already one of the best sleeper types and now helped win many fantasy games this week.

Salute!

Drama 101 – Somebody has to laugh, somebody has to cry

Comedy Yards TDs Tragedy Yards TDs
QB Ryan Tannehill 299 4 QB Dak Prescott 216 0
RB Rashaad Penny 129 1 RB Jaylen Samuels 32 0
RB Benny Snell 103 0 RB Josh Jacobs 36 0
WR Robby Anderson 86 1 WR Amari Cooper nope 0
WR Will Fuller 140 0 WR T.Y. Hilton 18 0
WR Allen Hurns 42 1 WR Mike Evans 50 0
TE Mike Gesicki 28 1 TE Darren Waller 41 0
PK Dustin Hopkins 1 XP 4 FG PK Jake Elliott 1 FG
Huddle Fantasy Points = 122 Huddle Fantasy Points =  27

Now get back to work…

Browns defender takes not-so-subtle shot at Mason Rudolph

Will Mason Rudolph play against the Browns this week?

In just a week the Pittsburgh Steelers and Cleveland Browns will square off for the second time in three weeks and you can bet this one is going to get weird. The first time around the Browns beat the Steelers 21-7 and Pittsburgh quarterback Mason Rudolph was made a fool by the Browns defense.

Rudolph was benched in this week’s game and Cleveland defensive tackle Sheldon Richardson was asked about it after his game. He fired back quick he didn’t care but then answered back he hopes he plays against the Browns.

When asked why he made it clear. “You see him against us?”

That stings but he isn’t wrong. Rudolph threw four ugly interceptions against the Browns and probably should have been benched well before then. Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin has a serious decision to make about which quarterback to start this week. Does he go back to the quarterback with the hot hand in Devlin Hodges or does Tomlin hope Rudolph can bounce back?

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Things we learned from Sunday of Week 12 of NFL season

Touchdown Wire’s Pat Yasinskas shares 9 things we learned from Sunday’s Week 12 NFL games.

The NFL results from Week 12 were supposed to set up two huge matchups for Week 13. Umm, looks like that may not happen.

The big games were supposed to be Mason Rudolph and the Pittsburgh Steelers and Cleveland Browns in a rematch after the Week 11 game in which Cleveland defensive end Myles Garrett clobbered Rudolph over the head with a helmet in a melee that caused Garrett to be suspended indefinitely and 33 players to be fined for their roles in the incident. Cleveland fans set the stage by hitting a Rudolph pinata with a helmet. That seemed to set up a monster rematch for next week.

The other huge game that seemed to be looming was an AFC West showdown between Kansas City and Oakland. The Chiefs, 7-4, were on bye Sunday. The Raiders entered the day at 6-4 and all they had to do was beat the lowly New York Jets to enter next week’s game in a tie with the Chiefs.

But, suddenly, some of the luster was taken off both games by what happened Sunday. Let’s take a closer look at that we examine nine things we learned from Sunday’s games of Week 12.

9. The Raiders aren’t as good as we thought

Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

The Raiders had seemed to turn the corner and had a shot at winning the division or at least making the playoffs. People were talking about Jon Gruden as Coach of the Year. Those things still could happen, but they’re not nearly as likely after a 34-3 loss to the Jets. Gruden, who seemed to have the perfect relationship with Derek Carr, benched his quarterback in the third quarter. Carr had thrown for just 127 passes and an interception. There’s no question Carr will be back as the starter against Kansas City. But things aren’t looking as rosy for the Raiders as they would have been with a victory over the Jets.

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Steelers HC Mike Tomlin on the QB change: ‘Mason wasn’t doing enough’

Mike Tomlin talks about benching Mason Rudolph.

During his postgame press conference, Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin had to answer for why he chose to bench quarterback Mason Rudolph early in the second half against the Cincinnati Bengals.

And in usual Tomlin style, he didn’t want anyone to read too much into bringing Devlin Hodges in. For Tomlin, swapping the quarterback was all about getting a spark out of him to get the offense going. Something Rudolph obviously wasn’t doing.

“I just felt like our offense needed a spark,” Tomlin said. “Mason wasn’t doing enough. Duck came in and gave us a spark.” The spark Hodges gave Pittsburgh lasted all of one drive. But it was the only touchdown the Steelers scored.

Hodges is going to get way too much credit for Sunday’s win but this is what happens. His throw to James Washington for the touchdown was great and a throw I’m not convinced Rudolph could have made today. But after throwing for 90 yards on that first drive, Hodges mustered 28 in the rest of the second half.

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Steelers QB Mason Rudolph again denies Myles Garrett’s allegation

Reporters are not letting up on Mason Rudolph despite his awful day.

Let’s hope at some point the Pittsburgh media can stop asking Steelers quarterback Mason Rudolph about what he did or didn’t say after the Cleveland Browns game. But it won’t start today.

As if Rudolph’s day wasn’t bad enough, he once again had to answer questions about whether or not he used a racial slur toward Browns defensive end Myles Garrett.

Rudolph maintained he said nothing racial toward Garrett and nothing that could be construed as such. “Absolutely not,” Garrett said. “There is nothing, not even close.” It seems more and more likely Garrett fabricated his allegation in order to lighten his suspension and deflect negative attention away from himself.

Rudolph got himself benched early in the second half against the Bengals after a first-half that only netted 85 passing yards, an interception and no touchdowns.

Pittsburgh will welcome Cleveland to Heinz Field next week for a huge rematch. Let’s hope there’s no replay of the brawl at the end of the last game.

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Mason Rudolph benched by the Steelers vs. winless Bengals

It will be interesting to see if Rudolph gets the start vs. the Browns in Week 13

Mason Rudolph escaped suspension for his role in the Week 11 brawl in Cleveland, but the Steelers QB suffered some karmic retribution. The Steelers benched Rudolph for truly awful play during Pittsburgh’s game against the winless Cincinnati Bengals.

Rudolph was 8-for-16 for 85 yards and an interception and his Steelers were losing 7-3 in the third quarter to the hapless Bengals. Pittsburgh coach Mike Tomlin decided he’d seen enough and yanked Rudolph, replacing him with undrafted rookie Devlin “Duck” Hodges.

Hodges promptly led the Steelers on a scoring drive to give them the lead. If Hodges leads the team to the win, it will set up a very interesting decision for Tomlin on who gets the starting nod in next Sunday’s matchup against the Browns in Pittsburgh.

Saints didn’t learn from Myles Garrett incident

A week after the Myles Garrett fiasco, NFL players are still breaking safety rules.

Apparently, last week’s violent incident between Cleveland’s Myles Garrett and Pittsburgh’s Mason Rudolph hasn’t made the rest of the league settle down this week. At least for one team’s defense.

The New Orleans Saints defense made two violent plays in the first half of Sunday’s game with the Carolina Panthers. New Orleans’ Cameron Jordan punched Carolina quarterback Kyle Allen in the facemask.

A bit later, New Orleans safety Von Bell did essentially the same thing to Carolina running back Christian McCaffery.

The league made a big issue out of last week’s fiasco and fined 33 players for their roles in the incident. Shouldn’t New Orleans defensive coordinator Dennis Allen have told his players to stay within the rules – especially this week? Apparently, Allen didn’t get the memo.

 

Pat Yasinskas has covered the NFL since 1993. He has worked for The Tampa Tribune, The Charlotte Observer and ESPN.com and writes for numerous national magazines and websites. He also has served as a voter for the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Browns fans clock Mason Rudolph pinata with a helmet

Give Cleveland Browns fans credit for ingenuity in taking out their anger at Mason Rudolph.

Fans in Cleveland are not going to let go of their anger toward Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Mason Rudolph anytime soon.

The Browns were back in action at home Sunday, their first game since the ugly incident between Rudolph and Cleveland star defensive lineman Myles Garrett.

And in the pregame festivities, some folks built a Mason Rudolph pinata, which, of course, they had people take shots at … with a helmet.

Fans were blindfolded and spun before swinging the Steelers helmet and attempting to hit the Rudolph piñata.

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=873923153010222

Garrett is currently sitting out an indefinite suspension. Rudolph was fined along with a number of other players and teams to the tune of more than $730,000.

Browns fans made a Mason Rudolph piñata so they could swing a helmet at it

Funny? Tasteless? Both?

A group of Cleveland Browns fans decided to make light of the incident which cost Myles Garrett the rest of his 2019 season.

Garrett infamously ripped off Steelers quarterback Mason Rudolph’s helmet and swung it at him during the closing moments of a matchup between Cleveland and Pittsburgh earlier this season. The NFL responded by suspending Garrett indefinitely, with his return looking likely to come in 2020. Rudolph, who will pay a $50,000 fine for the fight, was among the other players punished for the incident.

These Cleveland fans made a Rudolph piñata. A blindfolded fan swung a helmet at that piñata — and she seemed to make contact with the man holding the piñata. Even trolling Garrett is a dangerous act. Here’s a look at the activity, via a video from Cleveland.com.

I can’t stop watching, but I don’t want to keep watching.

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12 Browns fined for their roles in the Week 11 brawl with the Steelers

12 Browns fined for their roles in the Week 11 brawl with the Steelers

A total of 12 different Cleveland Browns players received fines for their actions in the brawl at the end of the team’s Week 11 game with the Pittsburgh Steelers.

That total includes Myles Garrett, who received a $45,623 fine for his role as one of the two primary combatants. Steelers QB Mason Rudolph received a $50,000 fine, the largest amount levied.

Larry Ogunjobi was initially fined as well, but his fine was rescinded upon his unsuccessful suspension appeal. The defensive tackle will miss Sunday’s game against the Miami Dolphins.

There were 33 total players fined, as well as $250,000 penalties assessed to both teams. All of the other Browns were fined $3,507 for entering the fighting area. The Steelers had 19 players fined for that same violation.

The full list, courtesy of Tom Pelissero on Twitter: