Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers suffered a left wrist injury late in the first half of their Week 11 win against the Cincinnati Bengals. Backup Mason Rudolph took over and helped secure a 34-12 victory. Rodgers is set for further evaluation on Monday.
In the Steelers' 34-12 win over the Bengals in Week 11, Aaron Rodgers exited after sustaining a left wrist injury on the team's final offensive play of the first half. He was hit by multiple Bengals defenders and was seen holding his wrist. Initially listed as questionable to return, Rodgers did not come back for the second half.
Steelers coach Mike Tomlin addressed the injury postgame, stating that Rodgers will have his wrist evaluated further on Monday. At halftime, Tomlin told CBS Sports' Melanie Collins that Rodgers was being assessed and they hoped he would return.
Rodgers, 41, had led Pittsburgh to a 10-6 halftime lead, including an 11-yard touchdown pass to running back Kenneth Gainwell on the opening drive. The Bengals had previously beaten the Steelers in Week 7.
Mason Rudolph replaced Rodgers and completed 12 of 16 passes for 127 yards and a touchdown, directing two scoring drives. His career record as an NFL starter is 9-8-1, with an 8-4-1 mark for Pittsburgh. He is the only quarterback to start a playoff game for the Steelers since Ben Roethlisberger.
"He's always delivered when called upon in the past," Tomlin said. "That's why we value him. His performance was consistent with what he's done in the past for us. Not that we take it for granted. We don't. We appreciate it."
Key moments in the second half included a Chris Boswell field goal on Rudolph's first drive, followed by safety Kyle Dugger's 73-yard interception return for a touchdown off Bengals quarterback Joe Flacco, making it 20-9. After a Bengals field goal narrowed it to 20-12, Rudolph threw a 5-yard touchdown to Gainwell with 3:40 left. Defensive back James Pierre then returned a fumble 34 yards for another Steelers touchdown.
Rudolph commented on his performance: "We won, and that's the only objective. I thought I settled down a little bit. I had a couple errant ones early, but just tried to get it to our guys. [The Bengals] played a lot of soft, one-high zone, and so we were letting a whole lot of stuff go over the middle... I was really proud of the way the guys. We had a couple bad penalties that backed us up, and we overcame it and got some points on the board."
The win improved Pittsburgh to 6-4, maintaining their lead in the AFC North over second-place Baltimore.