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First Call: Mason Rudolph starts; Kenny Pickett plays; a story behind Beanie Bishop's picks; Brandon Aiyuk's injury | TribLIVE.com
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First Call: Mason Rudolph starts; Kenny Pickett plays; a story behind Beanie Bishop's picks; Brandon Aiyuk's injury

Tim Benz
Tim Benz

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Titans quarterback Mason Rudolph looks to throw in the first half of Sunday’s game against the Buffalo Bills in Orchard Park, N.Y.

Monday’s “First Call” has an interesting angle to Beanie Bishop’s big night for the Pittsburgh Steelers. We recap Mason Rudolph’s first start with the Tennessee Titans. Kenny Pickett saw some game action with the Philadelphia Eagles. Brandon Aiyuk suffered what is expected to be a serious knee injury.

And a pair of former Steelers greats dropped the opening puck at Robert Morris’ first home hockey game of the year for the Colonials’ men’s team.

Practice, practice, practice

Steelers linebacker Patrick Queen is not surprised that Beanie Bishop intercepted future Hall of Fame quarterback Aaron Rodgers twice on Sunday during Pittsburgh’s 37-15 win over the New York Jets.

That’s because, according to Queen, Bishop made those same interceptions, on those same looks, during the practice week leading up to the Jets game.

“He actually made those two plays in practice,” Queen insisted. “I couldn’t be more proud of him. Everybody has been so hard on him. Being a rookie, the position he is in. He has the hardest position on the field, playing nickel. It’s a long way to come at the position. He has handled it well.”

For Bishop, those are his first two career interceptions.

Mason makes a start

Mason Rudolph made his first start at quarterback for the Tennessee Titans on Sunday against the Buffalo Bills.

It started off well enough for the former Steeler. He and the Titans got off to a 10-0 lead in the second quarter after he hit Nick Westbrook-Ikhine for a touchdown.

But the Bills rolled over the last 40 minutes, scoring 34 unanswered points, winning by a final score of 34-10. Rudolph ended up 25 of 40 for 215 yards with a touchdown and an interception. He averaged just 5.4 yards per pass attempt.

“We just got behind the chains a lot (in the second half),” Rudolph said via the Titans website. “We had penalties on first and second down, negative runs, I missed a couple of throws. Against a good team at home, you can’t do that. We have to get it cleaned up. I don’t think it’s a lack of preparation. We just have to go execute. It’s back to the drawing board.”

Titans’ starter Will Levis was inactive. The Penn State/Kentucky product is dealing with a sore shoulder. He practiced early this week but his arm was impacted by the injury which was suffered two weeks ago.

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Pickett’s debut

Another former Steeler, Kenny Pickett, made his debut with the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday.

It wasn’t much.

Pickett’s only pass attempt was incomplete, and he was sacked once. Pickett entered the team’s game to relieve starter Jalen Hurts for the final three drives of the day while beating the New York Giants, 28-3.

Penn State alum Saquon Barkley popped off against his former team. The Eagles running back scorched the Giants for 176 yards on 17 carries, including a touchdown.

The Giants come to Acrisure Stadium next Monday night. They are 2-5 and have only scored 10 total points over the past two weeks. Drew Lock took over for Daniel Jones at quarterback in the second half after Jones was sacked seven times and accumulated just 99 yards on 21 attempts.

Aiyuk injured

Brandon Aiyuk, coveted by the Steelers in a potential trade this offseason, appears to have suffered a significant knee injury.

The San Francisco 49ers wide receiver was hit low by Chamarri Conner while also being grasped from behind. His knee seems to have collapsed inward in a gruesome fashion.

Head coach Kyle Shanahan said the team is fearing that Aiyuk tore his ACL.

“That’s what it looks like, but we don’t know for sure,” Shanahan said, according to 49erswebzone.com. “Just doing the test and everything with our hands, and with the trainers and stuff, all that. That’s what we fear.”

The team was already down Deebo Samuel (illness) and Jauan Jennings (hip) at wide receiver.

Before the start of the regular season, Aiyuk signed a four-year, $120 million contract with the 49ers to stay in San Francisco.

Big Ben, Brett and Bobby Mo

A pair of Steelers legends dropped a ceremonial puck before the home opener of Robert Morris’ hockey season Saturday night.

The Colonials were playing Miami (Ohio). That’s the alma mater of Ben Roethlisberger. The former quarterback joined fellow Super Bowl champion Brett Keisel to do the honors in advance of the game.

Keisel is a supporter of the Colonials and was part of the effort to get the Robert Morris program back on the ice after it was cut from the athletics budget after the 2020-21 season. This is the team’s second year back.

The Colonials went on to win the game 4-1. Walter Zacher had a hat trick.

RMU also won the first game of the series against the RedHawks in Oxford, 5-1, on Thursday night.

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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