On the game: “Really it is quite simple; I take responsibility for that performance. I have to have this football team better prepared to play and, ultimately, we have to play better than what we played today in that stadium. We are capable of much more than that. You have to tip your hat to the Chiefs because they played well enough to win, but that is not what we are capable of and that is not us, it won’t be us. It was us today and as a guy that stands out front, I accept responsibility for that. We were highly penalized and we turned the ball over in the red area. We gave up big plays and we gave up a kick return. When you do those things, regardless of time of possession, yards or what have you, you open yourself up to defeat and that is what happened in that football game.”
What happened to QB Ben Roethlisberger and is he okay? “I don’t know that. He took a blow. Needless to say, it was a concussion-oriented thing so I doubt he was going to come back into the football game. I don’t have a lot of information in terms of where he is or his level of availability, we will have more information as we proceed. DE Chris (Kemoeatu) had an MCL sprain, I don’t know the extent of his injury but we will see when we get back. The rest of the things appear to be minor.”
What happened on the kick return touchdown? “It just appeared that we missed two to three tackles on the play. You guys saw it the way I saw it. We missed two or three tackles and when you do that, a guy has a chance to go yard on you. It continues to be below the line and we will continue to work.”
Did you sense that your team was not prepared? “Actually, I did not, but the execution would indicate the case. That is where I judge the preparedness, ultimately, on how we perform. The performance was below the line so the preparation must have been.”
Is it your opinion that this game should have been won in regulation? “There were many opportunities to secure the outcome of that football game. Overtime or in regulation, we didn’t do it, they did.”
Where was field goal range in overtime? “We were at the outer edge of field goal range. We were at about the 36-yard line and we were only comfortable from about the 33 roughly to the 35. We tried to get a perimeter run to get down inside that range and we got dropped for a loss. Ultimately we had to punt the football.”
You don’t usually give up big plays, what caused it today? “It was characteristic of the day. We were below the line in a lot of areas. I accept responsibility for that. What we won’t do is point fingers, what we won’t do is come apart. What we will do is get back in the lab and prepare for our next challenge and stand in the face of this adversity. These are the kind of men we have in our locker room. I assure you that.”
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jay
November 23, 2009 at 8:00 pm
This team is sad, Tomlin….And to take full responsibility is a cop out….To not point fingers is good most of the time but sometimes it lights fires under people. Sometimes hitting them emotionally and even, albeit, unprofessionally, makes sense because it pisses them off…We fans deserve better….XLIII was yesterday….Your offensive philosophy is not only a disgrace to Steeler football but to football in general….Football is and always will be, run the ball and play defense…This progressive, “faddy”, pass-happy nonsense is pseudo in nature and transparent…It eliminates toughness, negates character and ultimately buys into the immediacy of gratification which has usurped our Godless society these days….You’ve sold out to a $100 million dollar QB and his evil counterpart in Arians…I spent my hard-earned money to watch and attend my first Steelers game that was nothing short of lackluster, nothing larger than little….I can’t wait for Bill Cowher to get a job somewhere in the NFL and show YOU how it’s done…I could never root against the Steelers, not even if I tried but if Cowher came back, you’d be in the backseat.
Mugsy
November 30, 2009 at 11:53 am
You have to be kidding.. first off Arians (as you correctly state) runs the offense and calls plays. It can be argued that the pass has OPENED UP the running game this year. Argue against if you will, but evidence indicates could be true, cause we could not run the ball for crap last year and it is much better this year. Tomlin was, remains and will be a master coach. HE can not tackle on frickin returns (8 given up this year)..HE can not play God and heal Troy – (if in there Pitt probably only loses one of these 4, now 5 games), not to mention more INTs in red zone due to Ben’s infrequent bad decisions (I will take good Ben with bad Ben any day). So shut your hole, you sound a totally uneducated Steelers fan…who I dare barely call you if you ever could root against us for a Cowher coached team. Weak..very weak.
..one last tidbit..”run the ball more”?? a ramshackle line from last year, now with less than one full year together – I think is doing a pretty damn good job!