Good evening. A lot of things characteristic of preseason football. A lot of things that we could get better at, things we could have done better tonight, that's what preseason and the remainder of the preseason is about. We intend to work on a lot of things in those areas. There's certain things that we will not tolerate even in the preseason, like post-snap penalties; that's Steelers beating Steelers. We're smarter than that, we have to be smarter than that. We're a good team, we desire to be a good team so those things are unacceptable twelve months a year and they are. That was very disappointing, but a lot of things were encouraging. We'll take a look at the tape, a lot of individual efforts, some things that you and I talked about. Nice job kicking off, Antonio Brown did nice job in returning both punts and kicks there initially. You saw that it got to a point in the game where we saw enough of him that we gave him back to Logan. Some encouraging things in a lot of areas and some things where we fall short. In the first half in particular we needed to be sound on our perimeter defensively. We gave up some edges and gave them some explosion plays, simple fits, and leveraging the ball. It created a productive half for them running the football, one that we don't think is acceptable in terms of how we perform offensively. We have some concept plays that blew up on us that were negative plays; those are going to happen at times. I think we could have done some things better to minimize those, we had a reverse play that got blown up, we had a sprint draw that got blown up, we had a crack toss that got blown up, that were all negative plays that potentially derailed drives or put us behind the chains. We gave up a big punt return and we had a couple unblocked guys at the point that could've kept it to a minimal gain. All things that are correctable and must be corrected and we intend to correct. Again, there were some things out there that were disturbing. We'll address those as well.
Q: Are you happy with Roethlisberger in his first game back?
A: You know it was the first time out for him, I thought he did some nice things. He moved good, it was a good start.
Q: What did you say to him before the game? Did you all talk at all?
A: Nothing out of the ordinary. We shake hands and we go to work.
Q: Did he get enough work?
A: For the first time out, he got what he would have gotten had it been last week under normal circumstances and the starters going out and playing for the first time out. That was our intention, we probably got a little bit more than that. He got a decent amount of work, good for him. We'll see where we go from here.
Q: Do you have an idea of how you're going to play him in the third game?
A: I do. But I'm going to look at the tape and analyze it and all the performances of the guys and give the group what we think the group needs. Staying inside the framework that we have all been discussing since we checked in. We want to have a productive training camp and preseason and get the other guys ready to play.
Q: Younger guys like Redman and Brown continuing to pressure you, what do you like about those two guys?
A: That their performances in stadiums are similar to their performances in practices. That's what you look for in the young guys, that the stadiums aren't too big for them and they're starting to prove that. That's what you look for.
Q: Mike, talk about the running game and the improvement from the first game to this one.
A: You know, I did see improvement from a production standpoint, just raw numbers. But raw numbers never tell the story. We had linebackers running through us pretty good in the second half, so we still have some work to do. That's ball, but we have some work to do, in all areas.
Q: Can you talk about the overall quarterback play?A: We moved the ball, we produced some splash plays, we made some mistakes in game management things and things of that nature that are characteristic of preseason. We'll continue to work, I like where are, but by no means are we satisfied.
Q: What did you see from Jason Worilds?
A: Don't know. I asked him how he felt, he said good with the play finally. We gave him an extensive amount of work. He didn't stand out in any way negatively that got our attention. We'll look at the tape and comb through the minor details and I'm sure we'll find fault in something he did.
Q: You talked about game management problems at the end of the first half.
A: You know we wanted to kill that ball when we got that ball down there to the one, but we ended up stinking it. We had to burn our last timeout, and at that point with fifteen seconds left, you've got issues. Thankfully it's the preseason.
Q: With so much disruption for Ben in the offseason, what do you think is his progression on the field to get to this point tonight?
A: I don't care about the disruption, quite frankly, when it comes to his performance. He's a professional. His job is to play and lead us, and he's done that. He'll continue to do that and we'll deal with all the other things that we have to deal with in the appropriate manner.
Q: What do you think about some of the pressure on him?
A: Done.
Q: Coach on a scale of 1-10, how do you rate tonight's game?
A: You know it is that dry rehearsal if you will, at least in our mentality. Hopefully it is in their mentality, so we can get the work that we desire. It's a road game, it's a night game, it's a lot of things that create adversity that helps you learn about your football team. We look forward to going to Denver and playing under those circumstances and conditions.
Q: Is there anything on the injury front?
A: I didn't get it, let me just rolodex what happened in the game. A lot of minor things of course. Isaac Redman had a rib injury, a cartilage injury of some kind. He came back in the game and played. Maurkice Pouncey got hit on the thigh with probably a thigh bruise, he came back and played. Keenan Lewis had a concussion of some kind, he did not come back in the game. We'll get him tested and see where he is in terms of next week. There were bumps and bruises. I'm sure there will be the normal things that kind of come up after I get out of here and get a laundry list of things. Those are the ones that kind of stand out to me. I think we've been pretty fortunate from that standpoint.
Q: How do you think Pouncey did? I know he got rotated back in.
A: He did some nice things. Again, like in the response to Worilds, some of those line play guys got caught up in the scrum if you will so we'll hesitate to evaluate their performance.
