Coach Tomlin Press Conference (Week 8 vs Green Bay Packers) | Pittsburgh Steelers

Coach Tomlin Press Conference (Week 8 vs Green Bay Packers) | Pittsburgh Steelers

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to UPMC Rooney Sports Complex here on the south side of Pittsburgh. Bob Pompiani here. Missy Matthews joins shortly. But this is a Tomlin Tuesday as the Steelers get ready for a game against the Green Bay Packers on Sunday night. It’s a throwback weekend for the Steelers coming off a disappointing loss. Green Bay coming off a tight win in Arizona. So they’re 4-1 and one, the Steelers 4-2. Should be a tremendous atmosphere at Acer Stadium. Mike Tomlin is ready to address the media. So let’s go to him now. Good afternoon. Boy, really excited about Sunday night football in Aashure versus Green Bay. Um but as as always, I’ll start with a quick review of our last performance. Although it feels a little stale. I hadn’t had an opportunity to visit with you guys since. Um, as I mentioned after the game, um, a couple, you know, building blocks of of the engineering of victory, man, that that we didn’t take care of, and I think that’s why the game unfolded the way that it did. Um, for us, um, we got to stop the run more effectively. Uh, we buil we feel like that’s a building block for us to play good defense. um to get offenses in more one-dimensional passing circumstances, to get people in more advantageous possession down circumstances for us. Um our inability to to stop the run I think created that um and that was an issue for us. It really started kind of in the second quarter um when Brown popped a couple of runs and it kind of went on from there. Never felt like we had an opportunity to stabilize that component of the game. uh we had been trending the right way in that space for a number of weeks, but certainly last week was a setback in that area and I really think it it created an environment where we weren’t controlling the game from that perspective. I think the same could be said um on the offensive side. Uh we turned the ball over twice um and really that hadn’t been us. Uh we’ve been really good at protecting and preserving the football. Uh but if you get a couple turnovers and you’re not stopping a run, that’s just not a good posture to play from. We certainly didn’t take the ball away. And so to be minus two in a in a hostile place um while not stopping a run, man, is kind of a catalyst uh for losing. Um you couple that with the fact that we were highly penalized and had some significant penalties. I thought the false start on fourth and one when we were in the red area was a four-point like penalty. Um and in games like that, man, you just can’t afford to have them. um the ability to execute in that space in the in the red zone is significant whether it’s defensively in terms of getting stops or offensively uh finishing um and I think in the midst of that when we got that false start and had to settle for a field goal that was significant as well and so you know my perspective is things were going well until they weren’t we played about a good quarter of football and then um we didn’t do a good enough job stopping the run of preserving and protecting the ball we got highly penalized guys and it made it um an uphill battle from there. I will say um I was really appreciative of the effort. I thought the guys fought their tails off. Man, we made some plays certainly um on offense. Um thought we had a necessary stop on defense there um with about five or six minutes to go in the game to give us another shot at it. And so, you know, just as a collective, man, um I thought they fought uh particularly in less than ideal circumstances, but certainly we came up short. Um and there’s some lessons to be learned from that. Uh as we move into this week, I’ll quickly talk about some um injury things. Um Calvin Austin is scheduled to work this week. uh we’ll let his participation and the quality of that participation be our guide in terms of his availability uh as we stand here today. We’re optimistic and I know certainly he’s optimistic about his ability to be included. We had some bumps and bruises associated with play um but after a long weekend of rehabilitation um I doubt any of those are are significant in terms of uh limiting someone’s availability. It may limit the availability at the top of the week. We’ll have some veteran players and things of that nature that we’ll minimize a little bit tomorrow. Uh but as we lean in on this game, I don’t expect uh any of those things to kind of be an issue. Now, let’s talk Green Bay. Uh first, I’ll start with their defense. Um got a lot of respect for Jeff Hafley and the work he’s doing over there with those guys. Um they’re fundamentally sound. Um they don’t give up big plays. I think they’re third in the league in explosion run plays and first in the league in explosion pass plays. And so largely collectively with both they’re certainly number one. Um they keep the ball inside and in front. Uh they set good edges. Uh they reduce the amount of grass that they have to play in. And in doing so, man, they make offenses operate uh in an effort to score on them. And so um you know, you got to you got to be clean. You got to execute for for blocks of plays at a time. You got to execute situational plays. Uh you got to play penalty-free. I think when you don’t give up big plays, man, it creates all of those obstacles for an offensive unit, and they’re certainly doing that and doing it uh at a high level. They’ve invested a lot in their edge people up front. Um and I think they’ve reaped the rewards of it, man. They play behind uh that rush. Uh Michael Parsons. I can’t say enough about him and his talents. You saw just the other day what what he’s capable of doing. And I think that’s really indicative of the impact that a guy like him has. Uh you better stay out of one-dimensional circumstances. You better stay on schedule. Um and in doing so, man, you really limit situations where he has an opportunity to take over. Arizona was in that game, but they had to take some risk there toward the end in an effort to pursue victory. They got somewhated one-dimensional. And guys like him, when you get in onedimensional passing circumstances, they got an opportunity to really control the game. and he shut the game down with two really big sacks. And so we got a hands full. But not only with him, with Gary, with Vaness, um they got a lot of talent. They’ve invested a lot of talent um and resources uh in that position up front, man. And um they got a real good secondary. Um as I mentioned, man, they play well as a collective. They communicate well. They minimize big plays. Um Quay in the inside up front as a hub of communication. and he’s been in the league now for a number of years. Um he’s in all situations linebacker. Um he’s good versus the run, he’s good versus the pass. He’s a good blitzer. Um his blitz skills were on display last week against Arizona. I think he had two sacks in that game. Uh the running back pickup component, excuse me, of blitz is going to be really significant if we want to, you know, win those situational moments. Um, looking at Green Bay’s offense, um, you know, it starts with Josh Jacobs. Um, and not only because of the circumstances that we’re in coming off of a subpar performance in terms of stopping a run, but he’s just a catalyst for a lot that goes on with them. He’s a nuts and bolts player, man. He’s really good. He’s got a great run demeanor. His pile almost always falls the right way from his perspective. U, we’ve been familiar with him. We played against him recently when he was in Vegas. um he has just been a big-time acquisition for them. I think he’s got 23 rushing touchdowns um since they acquired him last year and that’s just a a staggering number, but it speaks to um you know his involvement in what it is that they do. Um he’s obviously the central component of their run game. U but I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention his passing game exploits as well. um his screen game, his ability to turn short to to long in the checkdown game uh is really impressive. And so uh he certainly has our attention. Uh Jordan Love and his talents and the way that he spreads the ball around to a variety of people, his ability to extend plays, his mobility, all the things that that certainly has our attention. We played him in 23 and so we’re somewhat physically familiar with that skill set. Um but we still got to make plays. Um his talents really really thin you out schematically. His willingness and his ability to spread the ball around to a lot of people. Um Tucker at tight end is really significant. Um he gets down the field. They throw him tight end screens. He’s big in their misdirection passing game. Um he’s just a force within their offensive system. They got a young rookie Golden out of Texas um that’s that’s increasing his participation with each passing week and his talents are starting to show. Um I think Watson’s been practicing and so they may get Watson back this week. They got Dobs. Um they got a complete repertoire of people to spread the ball around to and they got a solid running game and so certainly man we got a big week ahead of us from a prep standpoint. We got to be really good in situations. Uh when you play people that as wellrounded as this group, uh you got to get off the field when given an opportunity, you got to preserve points when when given an opportunity to do so. Um the special teams component of the game is going to be a big component of the game. We got two old Warhorse coordinators, man, and and Danny Smith and Rich Baceia. I would imagine they’ve gone against each other uh quite a bit over the years. Uh I work with Rich got a lot of respect for his schematics and how he distributes the labor in that space and so um expect that to be a hot hotly contested component of the game as well. Um it’s Sunday night ball. Uh we respect and appreciate an opportunity to play at prime time particularly in Aashure and excited about it but but we show our excitement by being wired in and prep and I’m looking forward to a good week of of that. I’ll pause and open up for questions. Mike, when you look at the number of plays that the opponent’s running, especially like the last four games, it’s nearly 20 plays more per game, does something like that have your attention and and how is that explainable when you’re at least having success despite? Um, you know, it’s it’s a lot of layers to that discussion. Sometimes it’s the pace of play of others and, you know, how they’re going about their business. Um particularly when you have quick strikes, if you have big plays and we’ve had big plays in some of those games, uh the big play to Moose last week, the big play to DK in Dublin. And so, you know, when you get those one play drives and things of that nature, there’s a lot of, you know, lot of variables in that discussion and it’s not always good, it’s not always bad, particularly if you’re looking at a a small block of of time. Not anything terribly alarming. Not not as I stand here today. No, Mike. You guys only used Nick Kurvig for 29 snaps uh Thursday night. Was that when you guys reviewed the game, was that deemed as like a personnel deployment like mistake or was that part of the plan in this game to limit him for some reason? You know, certainly um our inability to control the run um and limiting um one-dimensional passing circumstances probably affected his participation some. Um but again, we got a lot of good players. As I mentioned often when you guys talk about playing time, just keep watching. Um, we’re going to utilize all our good players. Um, sometimes games unfold, whether schematics or matchups or or just how things unfold. Um, you guys were asking me about Muth last week. I’d imagine you’re not going to ask me about Muth this week. And that’s just an example of it. Aaron Aeron’s been extending the play a little bit more, been more mobile. What do you think is behind that? Is he just getting more comfortable in the offense or does his body look like maybe he’s turning back the clock looking like a vintage? I I think he’s probably getting more comfortable um with with not only, you know, the people, the timing component, the personnel component, but but the the spacing, the strategic component, where people are. Um he’s always done that. That’s always been a component of his game. And from my perspective, the more it shows up, it just indicates comfort to me. Mike, how how can you evaluate the performance of your secondary thus far? And has it met your vision for what it was supposed to look like this? It certainly hasn’t met my vision to this point. Um, but I’m not discouraged. Uh, we got good people there, good players, um, good people, guys. They got good relationships with the game. Um, and so we’re just going to keep working. What What caused the issues stopping the run? And are they similar to what we saw the first couple of weeks of the season? Um, you know, in some ways, yes, in some ways, no. Um, you know, it’s really simple when you’re not stopping and run. Uh, usually, man, people are out of their gaps, um, if you’re not being schemed. And they won some of those instances. And, um, that’s just a component of it, though. Um, somebody can break the line of scrimmage and have an eight or nine yard run, you live to play another down. Um, they had a 25 yard run, a 37 yard run. And so, that speaks to multi-layers of of dysfunction. you know, people out of their gap and us not keeping the ball in a confined space once it gets to the second and third level. And so those are two things that has our attention. There’s a gap integrity component of it and that’s up front. Um and often times that’s you know reflected by you know um yards per um but the explosion play component of it um is about netting and and keeping the ball in a constricted space and we didn’t do a good enough job of either. How do you bridge that gap then, Mike, between identifying talking about what’s wrong and making it better given the resources you have poured into the defense in recent years? It it’s it’s really simple, guys. Um, you know, you can have a couple of plays and and and create a catastrophic day. They had a 25 yard run and a 37 yard run. Um, but that’s all that’s required. Um, you get those big runs, they flip the field, uh, they put them in scoring position. uh they change the trajectory of your strategy um etc. And and so you know it’s not 60 snaps we’re talking about here but in in our business at this level uh one or two plays are the difference between having a good day and a catastrophic day. Mike, we talk a lot about how teams game plan for TJ and you guys game plan for Miles. Do you put uh Michael Parsons in that same camp? A guy you have to really game plan around? Most certainly. I think his paycheck indicates. So, Mike, Flaco is getting rid of the ball very quickly. Is there anything from a coverage standpoint you can do to make quarterbacks hold on to the ball longer to let your pass rush get home? No doubt. Um, disguises the the, you know, the coverage concepts themselves, the tightness or the looseness of the coverage um, is a component of it, but again, minimizing the run game game is a component of that. when you’re on schedule, you can run rhythmic passing. Um, and so like none of these things happen in a vacuum. Um, getting them behind the sticks will make the quarterback hold on to the ball longer, particularly as it pertains to the line the game. Um, when it’s third down and two and three, um, those balls generally come out pretty quickly. That tightness and looseness, does that speak to more press man potentially that could aid you guys? um or up posture zones. Um tight end looseness doesn’t necessarily speak to man or zone. Um it just speaks to the contour or the structure pre- snap. Like every game in the NFL is a big game, but do you have a sense of the magnitude of this matchup for Aaron Rogers facing another former team this season? You know, um I don’t. Um Aaron’s been at it a long time. Um, you know, he’s got an awesome relationship with this game. I haven’t been with him for a long time. Um, but he’s been fired up every single week. I’d imagine it’s going to be the same. I’d imagine some external things are going to make more out of it than it is for him. Um, he’s playing and playing to win. That’s what he does. Um, and that’s kind of my perspective on it. Now that you’ve gotten to work with him throughout this off seasonason and into the season right now up to this point, what has impressed you about what you’ve learned from him that maybe you didn’t know previously? I just think, you know, I’ve been in this thing long enough to know that you don’t stumble into 20 plus years of service in this business and there probably some unique habits um a unique relationship with with work uh with the game of football. And so I anticipated that, but it still doesn’t make it less impressive. um his dayto-day um what he’s willing to do. Um he’s been in the building all day today. He loves it. Um it’s who he is. Um he loves the process. Um he loves to talk ball. Um he loves to educate his teammates to to get on the same page. He doesn’t tire in terms of seeking resolution to issues. Um, it’s just a lot of good things about him other than obviously his physical talents and skills uh that have been really impressive and and again as I mentioned uh not that I’m not shocked not that I’m shocked by it but it’s still highly appreciated. Mike, after the game um Ramsey would stood up and took a lot of blame for what happened. Um is he being overly critical? Was that a fair assessment? No, man. Like he’s got big shoulders. Um that’s how he felt. That’s how he felt. Uh you guys rank in the bottom half of the league in uh a third down stopping the third down and stopping third and long and now you’re facing the offense that’s been the best at third down and third and long. What do you guys have to do to be better? What are the things you notice that you guys can be sharper in those moments? We got to put together a good plan. We have a good week. Um we got have detailed execution um as a collective. Um that’s that’s the ingredients. How much self-reflection, self-criticism did you guys do during this like mini buy? You guys have usually come out of these pretty successfully. How much do you dedicate to something? You know, it’s it’s business as usual for us. Uh we get some additional days. We’re going to look within. Um we’re also going to look at things trending in the league. It just wasn’t a lot of time between this mini break and the one that we just had and and so it’s business as usual for us. Mike, it seems like Aaron’s really endeared himself to the locker room pretty quickly since he got here. Did you anticipate his ability to kind of assimilate to the culture so quickly? I did. I just knew know too many people that have worked with him in other locations and you know um and I knew how his teammates felt felt about him in other places and so um not shocked by that at all. Mike, your secondary has a lot of experience but not in this system playing together. Is that maybe attributed to why there was some problems against the Bengals? I’m sure it’s a component of it but we don’t seek comfort or find comfort in that. Um we got to be better. Mike, you guys have been averaging decent yardage on the ground behind uh in the gaps with McCormick and and Falano. What have they done to become a better duo as run blockers? It it’s not those guys individually. It’s about the collective. Um I think largely our our run game has been trending and trending in the right direction for for about a month or so now. Um but that’s a reasonable um thing to happen. uh we got a young group uh they’re gaining maturity individually and collectively. Uh we’re gaining the type of cohesion that is going to allow that to happen. Um and I just think it’s a a global trajectory thing and it’s not about two people within the collective. You’ve used a lot of different guys in different combinations at safety. Some of that’s been injury related, some of it otherwise. Would you ideally like to get to two guys or are you comfortable continuing to mix and match? you know what what you’d like to do in and the reality in this business often times is different particularly as it pertains to player availability. Um that’s why it’s very important that you that you have a deep and talented group uh that you do a good job of coaching all parties involved because everybody gets an opportunity to annie up and kick in at some point. And so I’ve just trained myself over the years to to never wait for for the scenario that you mentioned. Um that you better coach everybody all the time. Uh because generally there’s always going to be some challenges from a player availability standpoint, man. And the and the expectation is the expectation. Mike, it looked like Brick got a little too enthusiastic after the touchdown tackled Aaron. What was your reaction to that? Broader side apologized to I never saw it. Um I didn’t see it live. I didn’t see it in replay. I heard about it. So, I really don’t have a reaction. Is Cory Tric close to coming back to practice at all? He is. Is Miles out for the season or could he potentially come back? Uh, Miles is out for the season. Um, Miles had uh knee surgery um that was deemed a success, but certainly he’s he’s facing rehabilitation at this juncture. And so, um, our heart aches for Miles. um obviously he’s a significant component of what we do particularly in the special team space. Um it’s never one man um it’s probably a collection of men um that have to step up when you when you’re faced with a challenge like that. Um Pep did a nice job as a personal protector on our punt team last week, but there’ll be no exhale there. That’s something that’s got to be earned over a long period of time. Um we’ve we’ve played a lot of football with Miles in that spot. that’s the quarterback of the punt team, if you will. And so, uh, that certainly has our attention as we as we work to fortify the spaces or the voided spaces where where he’s usually an asset to us. In terms of, uh, play style and approach of how they like to rush Parsons, is there at all a comp you can draw to how you guys successfully, uh, contain Garrett a couple weeks ago, or is that an an apples to apples thing? It it it can be um but certainly they’re two different people in terms of what makes them great and and how they get to the quarterback, but how they’re deployed, the the distribution of rushers, number of rushers, both groups play behind their fourman rush. Both guys are edge players. Both guys are capable of moving around to either side. And so, but the same could be said about any of the elite rushers. Max Crosby uh in Vegas, for example, they play behind their fourman rush. He moves around some. I just think that’s what you do when you have elite players like those guys. Mike, what’s the what’s the line that you have to walk um when you play a team like Cincinnati and you want to maybe start or use a lot of sub package and then they start to run the ball on you and then you have to switch back. I mean, how that juggling active, how do how do you progress? I just think that’s a strategic part of the game that’s never going anywhere. Um that’s what we do all week, you know. Um, and certainly going into games, teams have personalities, but your ability to adapt and adjust. Ingame is a major component of engineering success. And you know, those type of things go down in a myriad of ways every week. You you make plans, you fortify those plans with reps and work. Um, but at the same time, you’re light on your feet because you understand what you’re looking at in stadium oftent times requires adaptation. Mike, uh, Arthur Smith has worked with three very different quarterbacks in his brief time here and had success through the top 10 right now in scoring offensively. What stands out about the way he’s continued to evolve or modify his offense to fit the skill sets of the of the quarterback? I think that’s one of the things that was attractive um, to me about him. Um, the same could be said for for his time spent in Tennessee and Atlanta. Um, quarterbacks of varying skill sets. Matt Matt Ryan was a p pocket passer. Mary was a mover. Tandy Hill could move and was a Grizzly veteran. Um he’s been around a variety of guys, but he’s always been adaptable. Um and that adapt adaptability is a major component of coaching. Um and he’s very good at it. Um he certainly has a mode of operation, things that he values. Um, but he’s pliable enough to to to bring the ball not only to his quarterback and their skill set, um, but to the talent within the collective as well. Like, you guys had a lot of success throwing to tight ends against the Bengals. How much is just their usage kind of alleviate alleviates the lack of depth in the wide receiver room, especially with Calvin’s injury? I think we’ve been talking about that since the beginning of team development. Um, you know, we got a deep and talented group in that space and they’re all eligibles. Uh, they’re positionless receivers, RECC. Um, and that’s kind of been the spirit in which we we’ve operated all season. Joey had a couple of penalties in that game. Is is just something that part of that matchup? Is there something you’re seeing that that just needs to be corrected? I’d imagine those two receivers got something to do with it. Anyone else? Mike, are there any lingering concerns about the playing service? Aggraure. Are you guys not concerned? Is that something you’re paying attention to going into this game? Not from my perspective, man. I am I am not a grass expert. Um, I hadn’t cut my grass in a long long time. Uh, I coach football. I’m going to stay in my lane. Mike is u I don’t even know who cuts my grass. Okay. Malik Harrison close to being activated. Where might he help you either defensively or special? Um, he’s working. um you know, he’s at that stage. He’s in that 21day window where he’s working and we’re just going to watch his work and let the quality of his work kind of be our guide. Um whether or not we consider him. Mike, you talk about the excitement of playing on Sunday Night Football, but what can be said about a matchup like this featuring two very story, very historic franchises. Man, it’s just life in the National Football League. It’s what I probably enjoy most about it. Um each week, man, there’s something to get really fired up about. got a lot of respect for that organization historically. I got a lot of respect for that organization present day, uh, with their collection of leadership and players and so forth. And so, um, we’ve been in some big games with them. Um, I’d imagine this was not going to be any different. Um, it’s exciting. It’s the NFL. Talking about things that get you excited, the alternate uniforms, the helmets, that’s something that elevates this game even more. I you know I that’s like the grass for me. Um um I got I got some other priorities. Um I probably wouldn’t have known about that had you not inform me. Mike, you guys right now are the best at third and shorter. Third and three and shorter. What have you guys done to win those short situations more consistent? Um you know I don’t know. You know, the difference between being number one and not being number one is is minute. And so, we’re just trying to be our very best, particularly in situations. And where we are, particularly at this stage of the journey is where we are. We’re not over analyzing it. Anyone else? You talked about Pat said we’re not going to bring his playing time up this week. How have you seen that whole group adjust to there being four tight ends that all get playing time and and being having that attitude about it? It’s been great. It’s been great since since day zero um of team development that the collective welcome Jonno with open arms. Jonno’s worked hard to fit in and be a component of the group. He realizes that he’s the elder statesman in the group even though he is new and so he’s absorbed some big brother-like responsibilities in terms of being the Grizzly veteran. Um it’s a good collection of talent and a good collection of people and I think when you have that that’s what that’s what you’re looking for. we have an opportunity for it to work and it has and I see no reason why it won’t continue. All right. Thanks guys. Thank you. All right, that’s a Tomlin Tuesday. Bob Pompiani joined now by Missy Matthews and some things you find out you didn’t expect like Mike Tomlin doesn’t cut his grass, doesn’t know who does, and he leaves the fashion to Kia. Pretty much that all makes sense. That tracks his job is is to get this team ready for this game coming up and there is some good injury news potentially coming into this one. Yeah, coach Alland said the team and Calvin Austin are optimistic that he could return this week from that shoulder injury that he suffered in Dublin against the Vikings. Still working. Uh we saw some of that last week. So hopefully that continues. You have a little bit extra time because it is Sunday night. You’re coming off of a Thursday night. And coach Tomlin unfortunately did confirm that Miles Kilibru had a successful surgery on his knee is out for the rest of the season. Um special teams captain obviously meant a lot to this team, played a lot of snaps as well. So, uh, devastating news for him and the team, but it is unfortunately part of the game. It is, and he’s been such a key part of that special teams and just a good guy overall, and we wish him certainly a speedy recovery. When we come back, we’ll delve more into what Mike Tomlin had to say about Green Bay and also uh the leftover stuff concerning the Cincinnati Bengals and that disappointing loss on Thursday. All coming up as we continue right here on a Tomlin Tuesday. We’ll be back with more on KDK Plus and Steeler Digital platforms. Get all your Steelers gear direct from the team. Shop the Steelers Pro Shop in store or online for all things black and gold. You can get jerseys, hats, authentic memorabilia, custom gear, and exclusives you can’t find anywhere else. And of course, get the ultimate Steelers game day accessory, the Terrible Towel. Steelers Nation shops here. Get your gear in store or online at shop.steelers.com. I don’t know about that. I mean, felt like we ran the ball really well. Um, you know, I think we had a good couple first drives and then I made a poor decision on drive. Kind of changed momentum a little bit. Um, no, I don’t think I didn’t feel like we were mixing it up. They started to play a little more one high so we had some chances to take some shots down the field. You had some time earlier in the season. you guys were able to connect on some scramble drills. Was that something you were maybe expecting? Is that sort of adjustment? No, I mean they played a lot of a lot of uh you know two eye coverage. Um and we blocked it up pretty well. I felt uh good kind of moving in the pocket and out of the pocket and uh made some extended plays. Mike said patch time would be coming here soon. He stepped up for you guys tonight. you looking for him especially on that first touch? Uh well I mean on that one I’d actually told him on the sidelines, hey uh no I told him at halftime I said if we come back and I call this play um be ready because I saw something on the one of the cl one of the pictures on the sideline uh in the first half. So at halftime I pulled him aside and I didn’t think it’d be third and 18 from the 19th, but uh they clouded pretty hard to DK and Pat did a nice job down the middle and it was really the same play on the second touchdown. Our fans are here give them to cheer about them. The crowd at Acure is so loud. There’s nothing like game day in Pittsburgh. Oh my TJ, this defense is swarming. It is kicked off. What a catch. Wow. Guess who? Touchdown Pittsburgh Steelers. We’ll see you at Acer Stadium. Here we go. We got to stop the run more effectively. Uh we built we feel like that’s a building block for us to play good defense. Um to get offenses in more one-dimensional passing circumstances, to get people in more advantageous possession down circumstances for us. Um our inability to to stop the run, I think created that. Um and that was an issue for us. It really started kind of in the second quarter um when Brown popped a couple of runs and it kind of went on from there. I never felt like we had an opportunity to stabilize that component of the game. Uh we had been trending the right way in that space for a number of weeks, but certainly last week was a setback in that area. That’s Mike Tomlin talking about the run game against the Cincinnati Bengals, the run defense anyway. And Cincinnati had come into that game with no runs of 14 yards or more. And then all of a sudden in this game 27 and 37 uh and it led the way to a schematic change in how they approached that team because all of a sudden Chase Brown had to be accounted for. Yeah, I think you know just listening to the players after the game in the locker room even yesterday uh when they had a bonus day of practice. Uh the inability to stop the run very frustrating and something that I think even Cam Hayward uh might have used a few choice words you know is just something that cannot happen. And as coach said at the end of that clip that we were just listening to, it is something that they were getting better at um as the season was going on and it was almost, you know, two steps backwards against the Cincinnati team who did not come in as a team that was running the ball well. And I think that’s maybe the more surprising thing that they weren’t able uh to do that and to contain Chase Brown. And it just felt like he could kind of do whatever he wanted. And Joe Flacco, as we know from last week, Coach Tomlin not happy that the Browns traded him to a division rival. Um, but he was able to slice and dice and get the ball out quickly and do what we have seen Aaron Rogers do to other opposing defenses. Yeah, no question. Open up the field all the way. Uh, Yoshi Voss even got involved in this. And when you start, you know, capitalizing, trying to turn down Higgins and Jamar Chase, other guys become prominent as evidenced right here. So, but the thing is, uh, those slant patterns really hurt, Missy, and and it seemed like, like Aaron Rogers, they want to get the ball out quickly, and when that happens, pinpoint accuracy is necessary. And Joe Flackle, the one thing he’ll do if you give him time is put it right on the money. Yeah. Still, you know, wasn’t able to practice a ton with those guys. Uh, got there late the week before, played in a game, they weren’t able to win, but then, you know, still a short week, so you have to give him credit there. But it is uh you know it’s a formidable challenge when you’re going against Jamar Chase and T. Higgins when they are healthy. That was only the fifth time. They both played at the same time against the Steelers. Um but definitely something that was not good as it felt like their offense was pretty much able to do whatever it wanted. Yeah. And they targeted Chase a tremendous amount time franchise record. Franchise record 16 receptions, but a lot of those seemed to be because the Steelers again had to account for a run game. So once that happened, it changed a lot of things. slant patterns had, you know, had a lot to do with it. And the Steelers, the one thing they have to really get better at is stopping these big plays. I think they’ve given up 19 plays of 20 yards or more in the air. Um, and that’s a pace that they don’t want to continue for sure. No doubt. And coach John Lynn was asked, you know, how do you um, you know, what do you think of your secondary currently as we sit here today? And it was, you know, not up to the vision that he had thought that it would be at. And I think especially because of all of the moves that they made this off season and you know even um Jaylen Ramsay had mentioned on a podcast you know going against Jamar Chase and guys like that I think we had some higher expectations in terms of what those guys would be able to do to shut them down and it was the exact opposite unfortunately. Well they are two of the elite receivers in the game and again they had struggled mostly because Jake Browning who’s been there for a long time just couldn’t put the ball where he needed to do it. plus their offensive line. Uh I didn’t expect it to be this good in this game either and because that’s one of the things that they’ve been trying to get better at and they certainly did in this game. So uh the Steelers get a chance to see the Bengals again in a few weeks here at Aquaure Stadium. We’ll see, you know, what changes there. Uh there were some good things offensively when you score 31 points in a game. You got to be happy with that and and sort of unlock Pat Fri. A lot of people have been wondering about strategically why he wasn’t getting the ball enough. Well, he loves playing with Cincinnati. If he had 17 of those on his resume, he’d be a Hall of Famer. Yeah, and especially in Cincinnati, it seems like it doesn’t matter who the quarterback is, he typically goes off and, you know, coach was talking about the the zone defense that they play and how they can take advantage. Um, but it was good to see, as you said, to get him involved for touchdowns, all the tight ends. Um, it was just one of those nights and it felt like they were doing a lot to take DK Metaf um, away from Aaron Rogers being an option for him. That’s one of the things you saw in that previous play. Aaron Rogers is moving around a lot more than I thought he could or would. Uh that play specifically when touchdown to John Smith before that. I mean, he just he covered the entire length of the field almost. He was running every which way. Uh and even on this one just to buy a little extra time, put on the money to Darnell Washington. Uh did you expect that much from him at age 41? Because I thought that’s one of the things just father time typically doesn’t lose. They win that game. Yeah, I think early on, you know, he was maybe taking more sacks than you would want a 41-year-old quarterback to take early in the season, but I do think, you know, it was even the one touchdown to Frier. He told him at halftime, hey, if I see this again, I I know this can work. Uh he’s just so smart above the neck in terms of what to see and whatnot. So, I don’t, you know, he’s not purposely running into sacks and things like that or doing something. He’ll get rid of the ball or call timeout before doing something like that. But, it’s great to see. But again, we’re only in what, week eight now. So, there’s still plenty more of the season left to go. And then he had one of his favorite plays, the Hail Mary, which he’s been successful at. He threw it 70 yards in the air. I mean, if you doubted his arm strength, all you have to do is look at this game specifically to know that he still got it in that department. All right, we’ll talk about the Green Bay Packers. That’s coming up next. They’re 4-1 and one coming to Aer Stadium on Sunday night. A big game for both teams. We’ll delve into Green Bay next when we continue right here on a Tomlin Tuesday. Our fans are here. Give us something to cheer about today. The crowd at Acure is so loud. There’s nothing like game day in Pittsburgh. Oh my TJ. This defense is swarming. It is kicked off. What a catch. Wow. Guess who? Touchdown Pittsburgh Steelers. We’ll see you at Acer Stadium. Here we go. TJ scored on seven big possessions to close out that game. What was going wrong for you guys today? Seemed like everything was an absolutely unacceptable performance from us on the defensive side of the ball. What were they able to do to minimize for the most part the pass rush? I think they were getting the ball out pretty quick all night. um good amount of max protection, but even even then it’s it seemed like the ball was coming out pretty quickly. Couple big plays in the running game in the second quarter that uh just not playing gap sound football. Obviously, we’ll have to look at the tape, but um we felt like this the the run scheme we had for this game was going to be effective and um I think it’s going to come down to when we look at the film is just guys getting out of gap. What’s the mindset when you’re in a game where you’re not getting stopped? So, what are you thinking? What are you saying to yourselves on Saturday? Well, trying to bow out. I mean, obviously, you’ve been in that situation before. I mean, you’re not always, it’s not always going to be your night. Um, but you like to think that through all of the training and practice and everything that we’ve put in that when we need a stop the most, we should be able to get a stop and wasn’t able to tonight. Is that some of the stuff you’ve seen before from Flaco over the years as far as getting the ball out quickly? Yeah, we saw it we saw it last year in Indie. Um I think it’s it’s something that um we knew he he was capable of obviously when you play that long um you’re able to get through your reads quick and um need to be able to stop him. TJ’s defense as a whole. What makes Chase so tough to stop on those slants? Uh I don’t know, man. I’m just trying to rush rush up front and stop the run and get after the quarterback. Get all your Steelers gear direct from the team. Shop the Steelers Pro Shop in store or online for all things black and gold. You can get jerseys, hats, authentic memorabilia, custom gear, and exclusives you can’t find anywhere else. And of course, get the ultimate Steelers game day accessory, the terrible towel. Steelers Nation shops here. Get your gear in store or online at shop.steelers.com. I just think, you know, I’ve been in this thing long enough to know that you don’t stumble into 20 plus years of service in this business. and there probably some unique habits um a unique relationship with with work uh with the game of football and so I anticipated that but it still doesn’t make it less impressive um his dayto-day um what he’s willing to do um he’s been in the building all day today he loves it um it’s who he is um he loves the process um he loves to talk ball um he loves to educate his teammates to to get on the same page he doesn’t tire in terms of seeking resolution to issues. Um, it’s just a lot of good things about him other than obviously his physical talents and skills uh that have been really impressive. That’s Mike Tomlin talking about his quarterback Aaron Rogers who really is involved in the process, loves it. That’s why he decided to keep playing and that’s why the Steelers uh brought him here. Uh he also has a unique opportunity this week, Missy, to beat the team he used to play for for 18 years and that’s the one team he hasn’t beaten cuz he hasn’t really played them. now he’s going to get a chance and that he may not talk about this pregame but you know down deep that’s got to be a little bit of a motivational edge I think so and even you know week one going back to the Jets the most recent team that he had played for he kind of downplayed that but said you know going against green pit it’s a little different when you spend 17 18 years that’s the team that drafted you where you you know got your first chance to start in the league even though he had to wait um I think this one does mean a little more and because of some of the people that are still there that he either you know was coaching buy or played with. So, it it’s slightly different. It’s Sunday night football. Again, the league knew what they were doing when they made the schedule, even though it was not confirmed just yet that Aaron Rogers was coming here to Pittsburgh. Well, let’s talk about what Aaron Rogers has to avoid on the Packers defense. It starts with uh Micah Parsons. They brought him here for a reason. They gave him a huge contract. And, you know, he’s one of those guys off the edge you really have to be accounted for. And you wonder, they do move him around a little bit. And I’m just going to be curious to see the matchups that evolve because of this. But we saw last week against Arizona that he had three sacks and he made it tough on whomever was at the tackle position. Yeah. Coach Tomlin was asked, you know, earlier during his press conference, do you kind of put him in the same category as TJ Wad and Miles Garrett where you have to plan for him? And you know, he kind of jokingly laughed and said, well, yeah, his paycheck tells me that. Um, and it is true the way that he moves around, as you said, three sacks this past weekend. Um, and it just seems like he’s flourishing in this Green Bay defense since being traded and wanting out of Dallas. Yeah, there are other tendencies, too. This is a defense led by Jeff Hafley, who I think we all got a chance to meet, you probably more so. He was here when he was on day one staff, moved around, now he’s their defensive coordinator. Um, you remember any tendencies that he used to do defensively? I know getting to the quarterback is everyone’s objective, but he seems to do a pretty good job of covering guys, especially ones who are big playmakers for the other team. Yeah, he was with Dave Wanstead, uh was even with Greg Shiano, moved around a little bit with him and has some secondary background as well uh before becoming the defensive coordinator. Um you know, he was a head coach at Boston College before getting this job, but who doesn’t want to coach in the NFL? uh when you have the opportunity to do so and he has the players and adding Micah Parsons to it, uh you could really tell that the Green Bay Packers, you know, to make a trade like that, you have to feel pretty good about your squad and what you have and what can that one vital position do for you to hopefully propel propel you um into the playoffs and further. But as you said, sitting at 4-1 and one, I I don’t know. It just feels like it’s been a wonky start to the season and so many different things have happened, but you never know as you get towards the end, but this matchup for sure um felt like it was very far away and now that it’s here, it’s kind of crazy that it’s already week eight. No, it starts offensively with them with a run game and Josh Jacobs has been very good. He was in Vegas uh and he didn’t stay there. He’s there now as your primary guy. He was coming off an injury, but he played well, I thought, in the game against Arizona. And no doubt they’re going to try to do exactly what Cincinnati did to the Steelers. Yeah. And why wouldn’t you? Uh, after you see the different things on tape, um, for sure. And even going back to some of the time earlier in the season where that was an issue as well. Um, I do think, you know, they did a good job against the Browns. Um, so, you know, it’s how do you regroup uh when you have a longer time period to do it, but also Jordan Love, a guy who, you know, he he doesn’t just stay put. uh he can also use his legs as well. So, we’ll be interesting to see how the defense regroups and what their game plan is to try and stop this offense. One thing we’ve learned, it’s a week toe league. You see wins and then you expect more of them and all of a sudden there’s a I think Aaron Rogers referred to it as a roller coaster ride, which is He said he’s not going to ride it. He’s not going to ride it. No, a lot of people do. He shouldn’t ride it either. Well, I’m never good on roller coasters. I don’t like them. They’re not good for me. We’ll be back with more as we talk about some of the things going on in the AFC North. That all continues right here on a Tomlin Tuesday. Get all your Steelers gear direct from the team. Shop the Steelers Pro Shop in store or online for all things black and gold. You can get jerseys, hats, authentic memorabilia, custom gear, and exclusives you can’t find anywhere else. And of course, get the ultimate Steelers game day accessory, the terrible towel. Steelers Nation shops here. Get your gear in store or online at shop.steelers.com. Yeah, extremely frustrating. Obviously, we had them there at the end. Um, you know, give credit to them. They had good game plan and you know came out they came out on top. How about you? How did you feel out there today? I mean first game in a while over 100 yards and offense kind of was clicking there. I mean it is what it is. Obviously wish we came out with a W. Um it’s always about the team first and um you know proud proud of how the guys fought throughout the whole game but um doesn’t really mean much since you know we didn’t win. What is it about Thursday nights with you guys? Can you put your finger on it? No. I mean, we just got to execute better and um you know, come out with come out with a win. Was it just the the quick passes from Flaco? Yeah, I mean, you know, he he was getting it out quick, but I mean, you know, we had a game plan for that and so we just we just didn’t execute and um like I said, we didn’t make the plays that need to be made tonight to win the game. It’s kind of uncharacteristic the way you guys have been playing, especially stopping the run. Yeah, I mean, absolutely. You know, that’s what something we pride ourselves on and so when that happens, it’s unacceptable. So, we just got to analyze the tape when we get back in. Is there anything with Thursday night games? I mean, I feel like we do a good job preparing for them. Um, and I feel like we had a good week. Um, in practice, but end of the day, you know, it doesn’t matter what, you know, what happens in practice, you got to come out here and execute and we didn’t we didn’t do that tonight. Alex, how frustrating is it to have a game like this defensively when it felt like you guys have been on the rise the last couple weeks? It’s frustrating. um because we know the type of defense we are and the type of players we have and so um like I said we it’s just frustrating knowing how good we’ve been playing recently and to have this happen. So um like I said we just got to hand off the film and get back to work. Our fans are here. Give us something to cheer about to them. The crowd at loud there’s nothing like game day in Pittsburgh. Oh my TJ, this defense is swarming. It is kicked off. What a catch. Wow. Guess who? Touchdown Pittsburgh Steelers. We’ll see you at Acer Stadium. Here we go. Man, it’s just life in the National Football League. It’s what I probably enjoy most about it. Um, each week, man, there something to get really fired up about. Got a lot of respect for that organization historically. I got a lot of respect for that organization present day, uh, with their collection of leadership and players and so forth. And so, um, we’ve been in some big games with them. Um, I’d imagine this was not going to be any different. Um, it’s exciting. It’s the NFL. Steelers and Packers have played some very interesting games over the years. Uh, plays to remember over the years that you’ll remember, and they’re trying to create new ones this weekend against Green Bay. One thing we know, although the Steelers have struggled on Thursday night, they have been very good under the lights Sunday, Monday, and coming off by weeks, too, or mini buys, right? Mini buys. Coming off of Thursday Night Football under coach Tomlin, the Steelers are 14-6. And then in terms of Sunday Night Football, uh especially at home, under Mike Tomlin, they’re 22-6, 11 and 8 at home. So, ironically, the last time they played on Sunday night was against Aaron Rogers when he was with the Jets. Uh and this time he’ll be on their side as they go against his former team. Yeah. And it’s also a throwback weekend. We have new uniforms uh dating back to 1933. They’re not the Bumblebees. A lot of people expected that, but they’re different. I like them. I like the helmets. I, you know, I think that just really makes it pop. It’s very different than anything that they’ve done. And obviously, that’s a lot of time and planning to go into something like that. All right. Around the league, it’s interesting. The Ravens are coming off a buy, so they’ll have a game at home against Chicago, and they’ve had a lot of injuries, but they’re one and five. That’s a tough deficit to come out from. Most teams that do that don’t. Uh there only been four teams in the history of the NFL have come back to make the playoffs at one and five. Cincinnati got a little extra mojo after they won here on Thursday night against the Steelers and now they have the Jets who are really struggling there. You know, it’s like I said, it takes time. People think this is week to week, but it’s also tight week in and week out in terms of the outcomes of these games. Steelers are still in a good spot at 4-2. Yeah, I think you know, winning on Thursday night would have really cemented, okay, you’re in a really great spot, but I think you you know, yes, the Ravens are one and five, but the Steelers still have to play them twice. Um, so it is one of those things you kind of keep in the back of your head, but there’s not much you can do other than focusing on your next challenge and what are you going to do in terms of trying to get victory in that one. So, but you know, Chicago’s playing well. So, there’s a lot of different things, you know, for all the various AFC North teams as they head into this week. This is an interesting stretch for the Steelers, too, because while the team is focusing week to week, we can also look a little down the road and if you look four games Yeah. So you have this game and then you have Indie which is the number one seed in the AFC. Not many people saw that happening here at home. Daniel Jones is doing a great job. That’s right. At Acer Stadium after that it’s a Chargers game and you never know about that team. Herbert’s capable of lighting anyone up but he’s also they’re not winning the way I think people out there thought he would. And then the Bengals return here. So next four going to be very important. Absolutely. And not to mention, you know, you’re going to the West Coast. It’s a Sunday night football game, which always seems to be the case when we play the Chargers um at Sofi Stadium. So, will be interesting to see, as you said, kind of taking in those four game chunks. Uh this is this is going to be one that will tell us a lot. One thing that’s and this is just something that’s I’ve been thinking about a lot uh about field goal kickers and how their range now affects how you defend uh another team when you only have a few seconds left and you think you have to before you have to go to like the 40 yardd line or 35 yardd line. Now, once the ball gets to midfield, any of these kickers, and we saw Lucas Havshek, who is a kicker now, he was about to become a student teacher because he didn’t have any jobs. Green Bay called him up. 61 yard that erased Mason Crosby’s record from all these years. So, it’s interesting how you even 30 seconds is is a lot of time in the NFL if you just need three points. Yeah. And it’s all about the operation and everything that goes into getting that kickoff, but it is something that we’re just accustomed to now. We’ll take a break, come back with more right here on a Tomlin Tuesday live on KDK Plus and Steeler digital platforms. Our fans are here. Give us something to cheer about today. The crowd at Acure is so loud. There’s nothing like game day in Pittsburgh. Oh my TJ. This defense is swarming. It is kicked off. What a catch. Wow. Guess who? Touchdown Pittsburgh Steelers. We’ll see you at AAR State. Here we go. To have a game like this after it felt like the defense had been trending in the right direction the last couple weeks. It sucks, but um I mean like we said before, we wasn’t we weren’t perfect like when we played the Browns and we’re not perfect now. So, we just got to keep working, keep keep um working on our craft. Really, there ain’t really much to say. It’s a different challenge for you guys when you’re facing, you know, two guys of that caliber as opposed to just one face most of the year. No, not really. I mean, we got the guys to do it. They just got to let us play. What do you mean by that? The I mean, I I wasn’t a big fan of the calls today with the with the officiating, but it is what it is. It’s football. What were some of the Joey guys? What explanations did you get on on some of those penalties? looked like you were top professionals. I was trying to figure it out, but he wasn’t really saying nothing um educational to to learn from. So, it was pointless. It sucks, but you know, it’s in the past now. We just got to go to look at the film whenever we come in and just build and build, get better. Um you know, it’s still early in the season. Um nothing’s out of reach. We’re still in position to do what we want to do. So, we just got to go back to work and get better. That’s it’s that simple. What wasn’t working well with stopping the run tonight? We just wasn’t doing what we’ve been doing. We wasn’t being physical. We wasn’t maintaining our gap. Um, everybody just got a job and they just got to take that job. Um, starting with me. Um, I got to be better. I had two chances to make a play, didn’t make the plays and it turned into a big run. So, um, I just got to get better. Um, it’s that simple. Is there anything you put your finger on there? I mean, this I think this is my first Thursday night here. So, I think um, we had good preparation, good walk through, good practice. Um, you know, it’s just it’s unfortunate. Um, felt like we had good momentum. Felt like we practiced good, felt good going into the game. So, um, we just got to go out, execute better, play better, play more physical, um, be who we are. Get all your Steelers gear direct from the team. Shop the Steelers Pro Shop in store or online for all things black and gold. You can get jerseys, hats, authentic memorabilia, custom gear, and exclusives you can’t find anywhere else. And of course, get the ultimate Steelers game day accessory, the terrible towel. Steelers Nation shops here. Get your gear in store or online at shop.steelers.com. All right, in terms of some good injury news, Calvin Austin III still working back from that shoulder injury. Coach Shland said the team’s optimistic, as is Calvin. and hopefully he’ll be ready to go for Sunday Night Football. And coach also confirming what I think we all figured would happen is that Miles Kilibru is out for the season with that knee injury. His surgery though was successful. Yeah, that’s good news as far as the surgery is concerned. Hate to miss him the rest of the year because he’s such a dynamic player on special teams, but wishing him a speedy recovery. Calvin Austin’s presence will be uh very helpful here because this is a team that comes after the quarterback. He’s a good route runner and hopefully he’ll get open and make some plays. Yeah, excited Sunday night football. Feels like it’s been a while since they played on Thursday night. had a nice little weekend off and ready to get back at it. All right, Missy, as always, appreciate it. That’s going to do it for us. Steelers and Packers coming up uh Sunday night. We have a whole bunch of programming on KDKA and KDK Plus throughout the course of the week. And of course, you’ll always be in touch with steelers.com. That’s going to do it for us for Missy Matthews. I’m Bob Pompani. Have a good week. We’ll see you on Sunday.

Coach Tomlin addresses the media ahead of our Week 8 game against the Green Bay Packers.

#GBvsPIT 10/26 at 8:20 PM ET on NBC

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