PITTSBURGH -- Mason Rudolph scrambled left, extending the play by escaping a collapsed pocket and rifling a pass downfield to his favorite college receiver.

But the cheers for the Pittsburgh Steelers' 26-yard completion quickly subsided and the focus shifted away from James Washington to the motionless quarterback some 30 yards behind the play.

With a hard hit to Rudolph's chin with 7:29 remaining in the third quarter of the Steelers' 26-23 overtime loss, Baltimore Ravens safety Earl Thomas II placed the quarterback in the concussion protocol and forced the Steelers to play their third signal caller in four weeks.

"I didn't intentionally try to hurt him," Thomas said, insisting he didn't hit Rudolph too high. "I'm worried about him. I heard he's at the hospital. My prayers go out to him and his family. I've never tried to hurt anybody. At the end of the day, guys have families."

Running over to Rudolph after the hit, left tackle Alejandro Villanueva put his hands on the unconscious quarterback's chest in a cursory check for vital signs and frantically motioned to the athletic trainers on the sideline.

"When he was on the ground, it looked like it was a lot more serious than just a simple hit," Villanueva said. "I don't like to get into details of his medical condition. You could tell he had been hit to the head and the only thing I could do was to wave the trainers down to the location."

As team medical personnel rushed out, Rudolph's teammates came closer to their injured quarterback. Wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster crumpled backward upon seeing Rudolph laying on the ground. Overcome with emotion, Smith-Schuster crawled forward on all fours as he prayed for his teammate.

"I've heard of situations where the person's not moving at all and they don't get up," Smith-Schuster said. "And I was just praying to God that he gets up and he's our quarterback and he's our guy. I'm praying for a speedy recovery."

While trainers surrounded Rudolph, the cart came out on the field and the stretcher was brought out. Though mostly still, Rudolph's legs moved intermittently as trainers worked on him, unsnapping his facemask from the front of his helmet.

As Rudolph stood up after about four minutes on the ground, the officials announced a roughing the passer call against Thomas for the hit, and the crowd responded with loud chants of "Take him out."

Afterward, though, Thomas maintained his hit on Rudolph was legal.

"It's a football play," Thomas said "It wasn't dirty. He actually got sandwiched. B-Carr [Brandon Carr] came from behind and I hit him from the side in the strike zone. I didn't even see a flag initially. I think once they saw how serious it was, they were like, 'Oh, let me throw this flag,' which was understandable."

Rudolph didn't exit on the cart as it failed to work correctly due to operator error, a team spokesman confirmed, and instead, linemen Zach Banner and B.J. Finney came on from the sideline to assist their quarterback. Rudolph looped an arm around each of their necks, and together, the trio advanced slowly toward the sideline.

The pair talked to Rudolph a bit, asking him what -- if anything -- he remembered, and they got a smile and a small laugh out of him.

"By the time I was carrying him, he was responsive and talking and everything," Finney said. "It's a scary moment, but we're glad he's all right and that he'll come back to us."

Once on the sideline, Rudolph was helped into the tunnel by more team personnel and he was taken to a hospital for precautionary tests. A source told ESPN's Jeremy Fowler that Rudolph will be "OK" and "so far, signs are good" as they relate to his responsiveness and spirits. He's now home from the hospital, according to the source.

With Rudolph's concussion, the Steelers are on the verge of a third starting quarterback in six weeks. Rudolph took over for Ben Roethlisberger at halftime of the Week 2 loss after Roethlisberger's season-ending elbow injury.

After Rudolph's injury Sunday, the spotlight turned to former Samford quarterback Devlin Hodges, who was elevated to the 53-man roster from the practice squad after Roethlisberger's injury.

Hodges completed 7-of-9 attempts for 68 yards in relief of Rudolph, and he recorded the Steelers' longest run of the game with a 21-yard scramble in the fourth quarter.

"Mason is my guy," Hodges said. "I would say he is one of my closer friends on the team. He has really taken me in. You might see me on the sideline kind of just standing there, it wasn't because I was freaking out about me going in, I was just thinking about Mason and what's up with him and is he OK. After a minute, he was just lying there, he wasn't even moving. That is just tough to look at."