Feats of Strength: Stellar QBs, kicking game, depth playmakers lead Steelers to preseason win

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We all hoped that the Pittsburgh Steelers’ quarterback play would improve with Aaron Rodgers on the roster.

I don’t think any of us expected that would happen on a night when he didn’t even play.

That was the case, though, in the Steelers’ preseason opener in Jacksonville. They beat the Jaguars 31-25 on Saturday night, and they did so on an evening when Skylar Thompson and Mason Rudolph combined for a 135.5 passer rating.

Those two were the big stars, yet there were plenty of others worthy of praise. We’ll try to get to as many as we can — and point out where a few things went wrong — in our first “Feats of Strength/Airing of Grievances” of the 2025 season.

FEATS OF STRENGTH

Mason moves the team

Rudolph led an excellent scoring drive on the Steelers’ first offensive possession. He completed all seven of his passes, leading a nine-play, 75-yard touchdown march in 4 minutes, 45 seconds.

Rudolph capped things off with a TD pass to Darnell Washington. That play advanced what has been a strong spring and summer for the third-year tight end.

A lot went right on that drive. Six receivers caught passes. Roman Wilson, a necessary contributor this year, caught two, including a 19-yarder to open the sequence.

Broderick Jones held up well at left tackle. Rookie running back Kaleb Johnson twice picked up positive yardage when there was very little room to run. Most notably, he got 4 yards on a crowded third-and-4 rush to keep the drive alive.

The only things that went wrong were Troy Fautanu picking up an illegal hands-to-the-face penalty and Washington getting a flag for dunking the ball over the crossbar.

Leave it to the 6-foot-7 Washington to get a “technical foul” for “hanging on the rim.”

‘Sky’ is the limit

Thompson led an excellent two-minute drive at the end of the second quarter. He completed 7 of 8 passes, and the only incompletion was a drop by Max Hurleman.

However, the Notre Dame product made up for that mistake, catching a 26-yard pass from Thompson and a touchdown from 3 yards out.

The scoring drive lasted 11 plays, almost four minutes, covering 85 yards. Thompson also led a nine-play, 69-yard touchdown drive on the second offensive sequence of the third quarter.

The 28-year-old ended up 20 of 28 for 233 yards, a 132 passer rating and three touchdowns.

More applause

Running back Trey Sermon leads a list of other players who deserved some recognition. He had seven touches for 35 yards from scrimmage, a big hit on special teams and a touchdown.

• Scotty Miller and Ke’Shawn Williams combined to lead the team with 102 receiving yards on six catches. Williams had a touchdown from Thompson.

• First-round pick Derrick Harmon provided pressure that forced an interception by Cameron McCutcheon. However, the play was overturned by a roughing the passer call against Isaiahh Loudermilk. Jacksonville scored a touchdown three plays later.

• As coach Mike Tomlin pointed out, the team got out of the game with no turnovers, just one injury (McCutcheon, hamstring) and one pre-snap penalty.

• The Steelers only punted three times. Corliss Waitman’s first punt went 57 yards. Cameron Johnston’s second one went 52 yards. That’s still the best position battle on the roster this preseason.

Pitt’s Ben Sauls made all five of his place kicks (a 36-yard field goal and four extra points).

If we are talking kickers, though, how about an acknowledgement for Jacksonville’s Cam Little after his 70-yard field goal?

Wow! That might have been good from 75.

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AIRING OF GRIEVANCES

No encore

The second drive for the offensive starters (such as they were) wasn’t close to as good.

Rudolph hit Connor Heyward for 8 yards, and Johnson ran for 7 to start the sequence.

Unfortunately, Rudolph took a sack on the ensuing first down. No one got open downfield. It was a coverage sack. Rudolph held onto the ball in the pocket for a while. Jones passed off a pass rusher to Spencer Anderson, who was then beaten. Dawuane Smoot got the sack.

It appeared that Rudolph wanted Johnson to leak out of the backfield and he never did. Johnson then dropped a second-down pass, and the Steelers eventually had to punt.

Depth deficiencies

Once the starting offensive line went out, problems started on offense. During the third drive of the game, the second-teamers came in up front.

Following a first-down catch by Heyward, Johnson was blown up on second-and-1, losing 3 yards. On third down, Thompson was immediately flushed backward in the pocket. He escaped and nearly scrambled to the sticks. But he came up a yard short and Dylan Cook was penalized on the play anyway.

Johnson was also stuffed on a fourth-down attempt on the first drive of the second half when the O-line was blown up immediately after the snap.

To be fair, though, the backup offensive linemen were also part of that good two-minute drive operated by Thompson, and as Pittsburgh won the time-of-possession battle, most of which occurred in the second half.

Tough to tell

Before the bottom-of-the-depth-chart guys came in on defense, it was a lot of “bend but don’t break” for Teryl Austin’s unit.

The Jaguars only managed two field goals against Pittsburgh’s defensive players of consequence in the first half. That said, the Jags stayed on the field for 24 plays over their first two drives as the Steelers defense couldn’t create any sacks, turnovers or negative plays.

Not to mention, Jacksonville was hit for three accepted penalties on offense and special teams in the first half. I also counted two blatant drops and at least two more balls that could’ve been caught by the Jaguars before the end of the second quarter.

Beanie Bishop was targeted a bunch, gave up some completions, was run over once on a jet sweep and was the beneficiary of one of those drops. But he tackled the catch well, kept plays in front of him and managed to scramble back to make a really nice pass breakup after recovering from a pick play.

Cole Holcomb got caught zipping upfield on a screen on the first drive and was beaten in coverage once or twice. However, on one third-down play, he caught up to a receiver who had created separation and forced an incompletion. He only got credit for one tackle but seemed to be more active than that in his return to action after a horrific leg injury two years ago.

Tim Benz is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Tim at tbenz@triblive.com or via X. All tweets could be reposted. All emails are subject to publication unless specified otherwise.




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