Tomlin postgame: “We are what our record says it is”

Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin held a press conference immediately following the Steelers game. Here’s a breakdown of the coach’s comments about their performance.

Opening statement

I am appreciative of the efforts. We were able to control the things that were within our control today. We got our fourth AFC North win, I am appreciative of that. Can’t say enough about the efforts of the guys particularly like Matt [McCrane] coming in getting on a moving train and kicking the way he did today.

We accept the outcome, obviously we had 17 weeks to state a case for ourselves. We stand by our work, you have to in this business, but I am appreciative of the efforts today. It is what it is. We’ll assess tomorrow and obviously move forward but hard-fought game today, appreciative of the efforts, it’s tough, the end result of it all, as it always is.

Not a lot to mention regarding injuries. I think everyone that went down in the game was able to come back.

Did this team under achieve this season?

I am not getting into that. We are what our record says it is.

When did you know Antonio Brown couldn’t go?

We just decided not to. We wanted to go with the healthiest of guys, and guys that worked during the week. He didn’t play, Sean Davis didn’t play, James Conner was able to convince us here at the site. I just thought under the circumstances that we were in, the healthiest most prepared guys would give us good quality play and I thought they did. I can’t say enough about Danger [Jordan Dangerfield] for example. Can’t say enough about what L.J. Fort did in the place of Vince Williams. Appreciate the efforts of James Conner.

How hard is it to swallow that you’re not in the playoffs?

Again, I’m not getting into that. I was talking about what happened in the stadium today, the assessment of this game and so forth. You know, we can paint with a broader brush on Tuesday.

Transcript provided by the Pittsburgh Steelers.