(opening Statement) “That’s pretty easy to assess, Ladies and Gentlemen. We got handled in all three phases today. We accept responsibility for the plays that we made and didn’t make. We compliment them at the same time for the way that they performed in all areas. Obviously, we have a lot of work to do. We didn’t stop those guys enough. We didn’t turn around enough ball carriers. We didn’t get off enough on third down. We didn’t create turnovers. We never found rhythm. When that happens versus a good team you’re going to get beat the way we got beat today. We don’t like it, but we accept it, and we’ll respond accordingly. No significant injuries to mention in the game. [LB] James Harrison went off, we’ll call it a knee contusion at this point. Until further review, but it doesn’t appear to be serious. All the others are bumps and bruises that go along with getting dominated the way we got beat today.”
(on LB James Farrior taken out) “We had made a commitment to play [LB] Larry Foote some. Larry had a good preseason. We respect both men. We know that both men are capable of standing in front of our defense to making calls, and we would like to play both men. So we made a commitment early on that both men were going to play, and we stood up to it. Same thing could be said in some other areas; D-line rotations and corner rotations and so forth.”
(on the defense looking slow) “You know, we just didn’t make enough plays. I’m not ready to judge it from a speed standpoint. We didn’t turn around enough ball carriers. We didn’t get off well enough on third down. We didn’t create turnovers. So…Usually speed is a part of that equation but I’m not ready to say that at this juncture.”
(on the Ravens’ unknowns) “I don’t’ think that was a major factor in the game, talking about the unknowns. I just didn’t think that we executed well enough to be competitive and they did.”
(on the start of the third quarter) “They got a couple quick turnovers and short field positions and took advantage of at least one of them. Of course, you can’t shoot yourself in the foot. It’s not hard to figure out. You turn the ball over the way we did today, and you don’t get turnovers, you’re going to get beat up pretty good. And that’s what happened”
(On QB Ben Roethlisberger’s interceptions) “You know, a couple of plays broke down, he’s trying to make something happen, and we’re down. One was tipped. I’m not going to try and make excuses for it. They are what they are, you have video evidence. We didn’t perform well today.”
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Jay
September 11, 2011 at 7:53 pm
(Tomlin on the Steelers) I’d like to make a commitment to playing all over the hill players on defense and then giving contract extensions to overrated, injury prone safeties so that we’re $20 million over the cap in 2012…We’ll take responsibility for that, we accept that…I’d also like to make note that we’re fully invested in not investing in our offensive line or covering slow receivers, we accept that too…I’d also like to note that as a coaching staff, we’re fully dedicated to not preparing our team for big games; first with last year’s super bowl and now with the season opener, we’ll take responsibility for that…I’d like ot give special thanks to Aaron Smith for getting blown up on that goal line play by a second rate guard in Marshall Yanda, we taught (Smith) that and coached him up on that ourselves, we gladly accept that, I’m sure it has nothing to do with the fact that Smith is 35 and washed up or that we, as an organization, are too afraid to play younger players and rather live off the recent past glory’s of super bowls that if not for number 7, we would not have anyway…we accept that too!
Nati_Man
September 12, 2011 at 9:56 am
Rothlesberger shows how much of schoolyard QB he is when he has little talent and no luck on his side. His running around attemting to make something out of nothing only works when the rest of the offense is good and the other team is bad.
How embarassing. the Bengals are in first place. I think you have their old Defense…. and Offense for that matter!
George H
September 12, 2011 at 11:36 am
No need to jump the gun just yet. Yes our Steelers came in ill-prepared and got out butts handed to us against our hated division rival, but its only game 1. Experience will make the o-line and our receivers better and help get a solid flow on offense going. However, it was inexcusable the way the o-line played. We all knew Baltimore would bring pressure, but simple assignments were simply missed and theres no excuse for that. I can excuse Ben for his interceptions due to the fact that he was running for his life and had to make a play down field to get any spark of offense going. Some days when it rains it pours, and our offense was caught in a flood on sunday.
I’m very concerned with our defense from yesterdays performance. I realize that they will settle down and be dominant again, however the secondary was putrid again. Ike Taylor was solid and was the only member of that defense that came to play. The defensive line got blown up time and time again and our linebackers brought little to no pressure the whole game. Troy P wasnt anywhere to be seen and the rest of the secondary was chasing down TEs all day. Some of the wide open receivers made me sick to my stomach.
Finally, I believe the coaching my have been the biggest reason for our loss yesterday. The whole team came out flat and uninspired. Tomlin was easily out-coached in that game and i suspect it may happen more often than not against the Ravens again unfortunately. Baltimore did nothing more than follow NE’s gameplan against us by working the TE’s crossing the field and spreading the defense out. If we cant get pressure, then the wholes are glaring. Tomlin has to wake up and know that you cant just get by on reputation anymore as Jay alluded to in a previous post, he has to make the proper changes and bring in some speed in the secondary and start the young guys. Unfortunately, the times they are a changing. He has to adapt or the season could be a big disappointment.
I do expect Tomlin to have the troops pumped and ready to go for our home opener sunday against Seattle. This has blowout written all over it and the Steelers need to start their season off with a statement now that we showed our cards in the opener.