The Pittsburgh Steelers captain addressed members of the media about his future and the team’s disappointing loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars in Sunday’s Divisional Round playoff game. Here’s what Ben Roethlisberger had to say.

If you had been told that you were going to get 42 points, would you have thought that was going to be enough against Jacksonville this afternoon?

It doesn’t matter when you give them 14 more. That’s on me. I’ll take full blame for those points and that loss because you can’t put your defense in that situation.

It looked like there were plenty of times that they were putting up their safeties and then jumping the back to help on the outside receivers. Is there anything that they were doing that caught you off guard or forced you to go through more progressions?

Nope. They just were their usual, good selves.

Why twice today with no quarterback sneak?

I don’t know. It’s been awhile since we’ve run a quarterback sneak. I’m for it. I don’t know – that’s kind of over my head when it comes to why we don’t do it. I’m not going to sit here and second-guess, ‘why don’t we quarterback sneak?’ I don’t know how many years it has been since we ran a quarterback sneak. It’s not like it’s just this year. So, I don’t know.

Do you have a signal with Maurkice Pouncey where you guys can just do that on your own?

Um, yes and no. It kind of can be risky if it’s just you and Pouncey [who are] the only two that know it. Because, obviously, your guards wouldn’t be going and everything like that. I’m not going to sit here and second-guess and say we lost that game because of those calls.

You know how precious these opportunities are. [You went] 13-3 during the regular season with an opportunity today that slips away. With all this talent on this team that you’ve been around for the past few years, do you feel like it is underachieving in the post season?

Yeah, obviously, if you don’t win the Super Bowl, you’ve underachieved, right? Because that is always our goal. It wasn’t our day. It wasn’t our year. I will give praise to the man upstairs, to God, not only in victory, but in defeat, because what an awesome season it has been. We fell short, obviously, because we don’t win it all. It’s been a lot of fun with these guys.

You’ve had a lot of last-minute victories this season and a lot of single-digit victories. How hard was it to throw a touchdown pass on the last play of the game and it not be enough?

You know, the way I look at that is that nobody quit. And literally until the last second of the game, nobody stopped, nobody quit, nobody gave up. That’s what makes me proud of this team. And young guys and the lineman. Having to block over and over and over and working down the field knowing that if you score a touchdown there at the end, it’s basically irrelevant. But nobody quit. I think that speaks volumes for who this team is.

Was it a hollow feeling at that moment?

Of course, because you know it was not enough. We wanted an opportunity to go win the game. That’s what we all crave and want and want that opportunity. It just didn’t happen today.

Was there ever a feeling of urgency associated with this season based on who might be back or who might not be back?

You know, we never really thought about it. I never thought about that. I don’t know what’s going on with people’s contracts. I don’t know how many years guys have left, other than the guys up front. I know those guys are all under contract and that’s a good feeling. Obviously, a lot’s make of Le’Veon, so you know that. But the urgency is always there when you feel like you’ve got a good team. When you feel like you’ve got a team that has a lot of potential and a lot of things go their way. It stinks that you fall short.

Do you still feel that this is a good team?

Absolutely.

As the leader, the veteran, when your head coach makes a major decision like let’s onside kick it, or let’s not, do you listen in on that? Are you a part of that in any way?

I’m not a part of it.

Do you just have an interest in what happens, or are you just like that’s above my pay grade?

I mean, what am I going to do, tell coach to onside or kick it deep? I didn’t even know that an onside was coming. When the series is over, I’m over there working with Randy [Fichter] and Landry [Jones] and Todd [Haley] and other offensive guys. We’re talking about what just happened and what we need to do moving forward. And then, you just kind of look out and see the onside. So, that’s nothing that I can control any way.

Did you feel like you didn’t have an opportunity to win the game because you’re down 10 instead of 7 with the onsite kick there?

We still had 1:40-something. We had to score quick. We got down the field, it just wasn’t quick enough.

There was a lot of talk about the Patriots this season and even this week before the Jaguars game. Do you feel like some of your guys maybe looked ahead or spoke out of turn?

I don’t think so. Everybody I talked to, I mean, we were dialed in. I think a lot of – as it was all season in my opinion – a lot of the distractions, if you will, were outside. They were created by us, but they kind of were magnified outside our locker room. And inside the locker room, it never really was an issue. I know I wasn’t looking forward. I know a lot of the guys I talked to weren’t. I don’t really think that that was as a big of a deal as it was probably made to be.

Do you have belief that this core group of players is capable of winning a Super Bowl?

Yes, I do. I absolutely do.

I know you are just 15 minutes removed from taking off your uniform. But already some of your teammates are saying, “He’ll definitely be back, he’ll definitely be back.” Can you even think about that in this moment? Do you still have a desire to play?

I definitely have a desire to play football. I love this game. I love these guys. Like I said, it’s tough. It stings. You hate to lose it. You hate to lose at home. I feel bad because I feel like I let the fans down, my teammates down. You know, the fans, we gave them so much to enjoy and cheer for this year. But to lose this at home, I know there will be some that say we had a great season. Thanks for the ride. But a lot of them are disappointed like we are. It wasn’t enough. And I feel bad for that. I feel like I let a lot of people down. And I’ll take it all on myself. That’s fine. I have no problem with that. And I will be – like I said, I don’t know about contracts and who’s coming back, but I know the guys up front are. That makes it good for me. So, I look forward to next year with those guys.

So, we don’t need to ask you about this again? So that was it?

Like you are doing now?

I’m just making sure that we don’t have to ask you for the next five months.

My answer was good enough. I think you guys can take that.