What did QB Mason Rudolph do to lead Tennessee Titans to 1st win? Not a whole lot, he admits
MIAMI — Mason Rudolph knows what he did.
"I didn't do a whole lot, that's for sure," he said after leading the Tennessee Titans to a 31-12 win Monday over the Miami Dolphins in relief of starting quarterback Will Levis . It was Brian Callahan's first win as Titans coach and the team's first of the 2024 season.
Levis exited the game in the first quarter with a shoulder injury and did not return. So in trotted Rudolph, the seven-year pro who the Titans added in March as an experienced arm behind Levis on the depth chart.
Rudolph's performance didn't do anything to ignite the fire of competition in Callahan's eyes. In his postgame news conference, Callahan re-committed to Levis as the team's starting quarterback when healthy. Callahan said the choice to keep Rudolph in the game was more about not putting Levis unnecessarily in harm's way than on anything Rudolph was doing.
But Rudolph did do what it took for the Titans (1-3) to finally notch one in the win column. He completed nine of his 17 pass attempts for just 85 yards, tying a career-low for passing yards in a non-mop-up-duty appearance. Only two quarterbacks this season have won appearances with as many attempts as Rudolph had and as low of a passer rating (67.0). One of them was Chicago Bears rookie Caleb Williams, who made his NFL debut against these very Titans.
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Nevertheless, under Rudolph's supervision, the Titans' offense did more than enough to win. In fact, it snapped a 38-game streak of not being able to score 30 or more points in a game . The Titans did so in less of a Callahan-style air-it-out pass brigade and more with a vintage Titans ball control philosophy.
"I knew the style of game we'd have to play to win this game," Callahan said. "I knew they were going to have some trouble offensively. I knew that we were going to be able to run the ball effectively and lean on that and make it a physical game and make sure that we possess the ball as long as possible as part of the initial plan of this game. It wouldn't have looked that much different (if Levis was healthy)."
Rudolph isn't much of a rah-rah guy. He says he didn't give some big, motivational speech ahead of his first drive. He pretty much told his teammates, "Let's move the ball and let's celebrate in the end zone."
That happened, eventually. But Rudolph's first six drives went field goal, field goal, punt, punt, field goal, punt. His first drive, which iced 4:58 off the clock, was the Titans' longest of the day by time of possession. Rudolph led 11 drives, and only one of them spanned more than 30 yards.
But he didn't turn the ball over, he wasn't pressured very often and he didn't give the Dolphins' defense chances to create for the offense. After three weeks where the Titans confidently asserted they'd have won games if they were able to get out of their own way with self-inflicted mistakes, they showed proof.
Rudolph quarterbacked an offense where no one caught more than two passes, no one had more than 31 receiving yards, no one gained more than 4 yards per carry and only two plays gained more than 20 yards all night. And the Titans won. Pretty decisively.
"Especially in the second half when it's a two-touchdown game, it's protect the ball," Rudolph said. "(The coaches said), 'Listen, we're not going to put you in a lot of dropback situations.' There's no reason to when you've got a two-score lead. You run the ball and you chug the clock."
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Nick Suss is the Titans beat writer for The Tennessean. Contact Nick at . Follow Nick on X, the platform formerly called Twitter,
