A legendary quarterback is rising in Pittsburgh by the nanosecond. The man known as Duck Hodges can become a national hero on Sunday Night Football.
It’s not easy being a starting quarterback in Pittsburgh if you’re not named Terry Bradshaw or Ben Roethlisberger.
Yet, the Pittsburgh Steelers organization is so well-run that every once in awhile a signal-caller will come along and take us on a beautiful ride. Captaining the Steelers’ ship on Sunday Night Football (again) will be Devlin “Duck” Hodges. The Legend of Duck Hodges will grow.
Hodges, who gets his nickname from being a junior duck calling champion in his native Alabama, will be making his fourth career start in the black and yellow. Undrafted out of Samford University in Birmingham, Hodges has gone 3-0 in his five games at quarterback for the Steelers. He’s played so well that Mason Rudolph was benched in favor of him.
It’s hard to get one’s head around this, but the Steelers, without Roethlisberger, Le’Veon Bell and Antonio Brown are poised to make the playoffs as a wild card team this season. We knew last year wasfrom hell for Pittsburgh, but this team should be tanking, not lobbying for a playoff spot in the competitive AFC. They’ll face a huge test in primetime against the Buffalo Bills.
Though the game will be at Heinz Field, this will be the first time the Bills will have played on Sunday Night Football in the television spectacular’s current format on NBC. It’s been a while since the Bills were consistently good, but Sean McDermott’s Buffalo team is poised to make the AFC playoffs for the second time in three seasons. The Bills are in control of the No. 5 seed at 9-4.
Pittsburgh is only a game back of Buffalo in the AFC standings at 8-5. Should the Steelers hold off a strong defensive-minded Buffalo team, they will move ahead of the Bills in the playoff race. They will be the new No. 5 seed by virtue of having the head-to-head tiebreaker over the Bills. Guess who will be a big reason for the Steelers’ success?
You guessed it: Duck Hodges.
In five games this year, Hodges has completed 71.3 percent of his passes for 682 yards, four touchdowns and two interceptions. He is averaging a solid 8.5 yards per passing attempt and has a quarterback rating of 103.2. Most importantly, the Steelers have won all three games he’s started, albeit against less-than-stellar competition.
In Hodges, three career NFL starts to date, he beat the Los Angeles Chargers in their soccer stadium on Sunday Night Football in Week 6. His last two starts were victories over the Cleveland Browns and the Arizona Cardinals in Weeks 13 and 14, respectively. The only team of that bunch that could make the playoffs are the Steelers. But Buffalo, now that’s a totally different beast.
This will be the best team Hodges will have gone up against since filling in for the concussed Rudolph in Week 5’s narrow victory to the division-leading Baltimore Ravens. Despite coming off the bench in an emergency for Rudolph, Hodges played pretty well vs. Baltimore. He completed 77.8 percent of his passes for 68 yards and Pittsburgh only lost by three points.
Yes, it’s still a small six-game sample size, but maybe the Steelers have something special in Hodges. His team has won five of the six games he’s played in, including the game against the Cincinnati Bengals where he came in over an ineffective Rudolph and led the Steelers to a victory. That was the only time he’s been below a 50-percent passer in a game, but Pittsburgh still won.
So how can the Legend of Duck Hodges grow on Sunday? He can effectively game-manage the Steelers offense like many Pittsburgh signal-callers have done before him. He has a resurgent Steelers defense to lean on. This is how the Steelers won when Bradshaw and Roethlisberger won during the early part of their Pro Football Hall of Fame careers. It’ll work for him.
We don’t need to see Hodges carry the Steelers on his back in this game. He just needs to play within himself, not make any huge mistakes and occasionally let it rip when he sees a Pittsburgh receiver wide open after a busted coverage.
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The Steelers have one of the three biggest fanbases in the NFL, so this primetime game will get a huge number. Let’s not overlook the importance of this game to Bills Mafia either. This is a stage that Buffalo was allowed to be on for over a decade. All Hodges has to do is be the cool, calm and poised quarterback we’ve seen thus far and he’ll be an Appalachian legend. Ducks fly together!