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

Opening statement

Man, (it) was a really, really awesome fight. The bottom line is our business is winning and we took care of business. Style points were quite ugly or few, but we got the job done. You just grow when you’re faced with adversity like this in a hostile environment and you’re not playing great, but you find ways to get it done. From that standpoint, I’m really excited. Obviously, we have some lessons to learn that can potentially be duplicated.

You have to tip your cap to that group (the Jacksonville Jaguars), particularly their defense, because they controlled the day for the better part of the day. We got a big play and it got us back into it.  Also, I tip the cap to our defense. They were put into some tough situations because they were out there for a lot of snaps and they didn’t blink. They held the fort until our offense got going. Obviously with 7 (Ben Roethlisberger), you have a chance. Really proud of the group.  Man, hopefully we can learn some lessons as we proceed, but it’s good to learn those lessons with a victory.

Probably we have bumps and bruises. The only other I got right now is Anthony Chickillo with an ankle late on a special teams play. I don’t know the status or duration right now but just thankful to get out of there with a win because I have a lot of respect for this organization and football game. They are a rough and tumble group.

On the defensive adjustments for the second half

We didn’t make any adjustment, seriously.

On Jordan Dangerfield playing in a different spot as the adjustment

Yeah, but that wasn’t an adjustment. We played him at corner when they had only one wideout in the game. We were making the same calls.

On the defense keeping Jacksonville to 3-and-out in five straight possessions

No. Like I said, when you’re on the field that much it tends to erode away at you. The pile starts to fall forward, or people start to miss tackles. I just thought increasingly as the game went on, there was less of that and it speaks to the character of the group. There were less piles falling forward. There were less missed tackles as it went on. It let you know that the group came to play today regardless of circumstances and I’m thankful for that.

On how big it was the team responded with big plays or their mistakes into big plays

That’s just football, man. That’s the team. Like I said, we were not perfect today, but we did the job. Doing the job is rising up and supporting your brother. There was a lot of that today because there was a lot of failure. But that failure has something to do with the Jacksonville Jaguars and their plan, their coaching and their playing. I would be remiss if I didn’t say that.

On what the defense did to keep the score close

Like I said, when you’re absorbing the types of snaps they were absorbing, usually, you erode as the game goes on. They didn’t, so that’s a sign of the makeup of the group. We’ll see.

On when was the offenses’ turning point in the game

I don’t know if there ever was a turning point. They have a really good defense. We hit some plays. I don’t know if we ever moved it fluidly and that’s just the reality of it.

On if he had the confidence in the offense would rally like they did

I found my comfort in the fact that we were stopping them. There was nothing happening on the other side of the ball that led me to be optimistic. Like I said, they were getting after us.

 

Transcript provided by the Pittsburgh Steelers.