He's got to take care of the football

Devlin Hodges will start the regular-season finale for the Steelers with a playoff berth on the line. It will be Hodges’ fifth consecutive start, but he likely wouldn’t be in the lineup if not for a shoulder injury that ended Mason Rudolph‘s season.

The Steelers benched Hodges on Sunday.

Hodges has thrown interceptions on four of his past five possessions over two games, according to Chris Adamski of triblive.com. Six of Hodges’ eight interceptions this season have come over the past six quarters he’s played.

“Does it matter?” Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said, via Adamski, when asked whether the interceptions were poor decisions or bad throws. ““You know, seriously, we’ve got to take care of the football. You can make a bad decision – but [with] a ridiculous, awesome throw, it’s irrelevant. You know what I mean? So I mean that in all sincerity – we’ve got take care of the football, and some of that minutiae is less important about intentions relative to performance.”

Hodges has one touchdown, six interceptions and a 41.7 passer rating in his past two games. He threw only two interceptions in his first five NFL appearances, including three starts.

“There’s nothing wrong with his preparation; there’s nothing wrong with his approach and his attitude and things of that nature,” Tomlin said. “But [whether he’ll perform better] won’t get answered until we get into the stadium. I can trick myself in terms of seeking comfort and looking for clues and things of that nature, [but] we are not in that world.”