Mike Tomlin’s postgame comments following win over the Titans

by Joe Kuzma (joe_kuzma) on November 17, 2017

It was a long night for Coach Tomlin, who took to the podium after midnight following his team’s triumphant victory over the Tennesee Titans on Thursday Night Football. Here are some of coach’s comments on the game.

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Opening Statement

One fine salute to our service men and women who served us so well. It was an honor to play for them and everyone one nationally televised audience here tonight at Heinz Field.

Guys made necessary plays. It’s great to be in the clubhouse early for the weekend with a necessary win for the week. We respect the Tennessee Titans. They are a division leading capable team. I thought we answered a bell tonight and really got better as the game wore on. Like the fight in the guys. We stayed together and made plays really kind of in all three phases, produced turnovers, took advantage of the turnovers, took care of the ball on the other side, all the necessary things that developing good teams need to do.

Hopefully it’s a catalyst for us moving forward. We’ll enjoy this down time of this mini bye if you will and get back to work for our next challenge. Had a couple of injuries in game but none of them appeared to be serious. I think most of them went back. Cam Heyward went back. I think maybe [Anthony] Chickillo went back as well. He had an ankle. The rest bumps and bruises associated with plays.

How important was your defensive depth for you in this game?

Depth is important particularly on a short week. We came in with the mentality that we were going to play a lot of people. We highlighted that by the play of people on defense. We wanted to play a lot of people on defense. We wanted to play James Conner a lot tonight in acknowledgement of that and guys delivered.

Re: The secondary and interceptions.

The guys made the necessary plays and as the game wore on you just felt the momentum, and often times those splash plays are created by game circumstances or an accumulation of blows if you will, so it was good for us.

Re: Why so much passing tonight?

We are just trying to do what it takes to be successful. We talk all the time about all the time about big picture. We need to be a team that is well balanced, a team that is capable of running it on anyone, a team that is capable is running on anyone. At different points here in recent weeks, I’ve seen us run it and run it extremely successful. Tonight you saw us throw it. We were very thoughtful about our approach in terms of being able to attach people in different ways because we realized the challenges that lie ahead we have to be able to do a lot of things. So the potential for that balance is big for us. Tonight we threw it a lot.

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Re: Ben [Roethlisberger] had one of his biggest performances this year. Why was that?

He played well.

Re: Comparing this point to last year.

I’m just living week to week. I’m definitely not comparing anything to what happened last year to what transpired in 2007 in that matter. It’s all irrelevant. We got the job done this week, and we are thankful for that. We get a couple day, we’ll take them and we’ll get ready to rock and roll for the next one.

Was the chemistry of the receivers the best tonight all year?

You can say anything based on the results of games. It was good today because we won. If you lose and you don’t play well you can say it’s negative. The big thing is we did the job tonight.

Why does your team seem comfortable in primetime games?

They have respect for the opportunity. It’s an honor to play on primetime television. It’s an honor to play in front of our football fans internationally, and I think our guys take it as such. The stars come out when the lights are on and I know our guys are excited about having an opportunity. Not only for football fans but for their peers because I think everyone in this business watches primetime football.