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ARTICLE
HEAD COACH BILL COWHER HEAD
COACH BILL COWHER (general
on game) Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Indianapolis Colts Post-Game
Quotes “For
us to come in and do what we did today, it took a supreme effort in all three
phases, and we had nothing short of that today. I can’t say enough about the coaches,
the players, our football team and the preparation we had coming into
today.” HEAD
COACH BILL COWHER (on the ‘unusual’ calls against “There
was a series of three plays. (on
the no offsides call against Colts)
(The officials) said that we didn’t move on offense, but they didn’t
touch anybody on defense, but we had three guys in our backfield and they
stopped the play with no call. That
was bizarre. (on Troy Polamalu’s
interception being overruled) I
don’t know. If that’s the ruling
then we have to live with it. ” HEAD
COACH BILL COWHER (on
decision to run the ball on the last series rather than take a knee) Pittsburgh Steelers vs.
Indianapolis Colts Post-Game Quotes “We
score there and the game’s over.
And you certainly don’t question that.” HEAD
COACH BILL COWHER (on
decisions to go for it on the two fourth-down plays) Pittsburgh Steelers vs.
Indianapolis Colts Post-Game Quotes “We
came in to win the game, you know.
We felt like, if we got a couple of those fourth and ones, we balled them
up pretty good today. And with
their offense, it’s just a matter of time.
We just played to win the game.” HEAD
COACH BILL COWHER (on
defensive scheme)
Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Indianapolis Colts Post-Game
Quotes “We mixed it up and did a good job of dropping eight and bringing pressure and trying to disrupt them and get them out of their rhythm. Like I said, for the most part we did it, but you’re not going to contain them for sixty minutes. They hit some big plays there in the fourth quarter, and we were fortunate to get out of there with the win.”
STEELERS PLAYERS QB-BEN
ROETHLISBERGER (on
his tackle of Colts’ defensive back Nick Harper) Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Indianapolis
Colts Post-Game "When
you’re a quarterback, and you’re remembering a tackle…But it’s one of those
things that once in a blue moon (Steelers running back) Jerome (Bettis) fumbles
and once in a blue moon I’m going to make that tackle. I turned to hand off to
Jerome and I turned to watch to make sure he doesn’t fumble or to (hopefully)
watch him get into the end zone. And all the sudden I see the ball just go
flying. My first reaction is to go get it but I knew I wasn’t going to get there
in time. So then it’s, ‘Let’s try to slow him down, do something so our guys can
come up and make a play.’ I think I turned him enough times that he got close to
me and he couldn’t decide which way to go. So then I just saw his leg and I went
and I grabbed it, and luckily he went down. I remember grabbing around his knee,
right around his thigh, and that was about it. I was just hoping I could at
least just slow him down." QB-BEN
ROETHLISBERGER (on
the Steelers’ fast start)
Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Indianapolis Colts
Post-Game "No
one thought we could win this game except for the guys in that locker room. We
knew if we wanted a chance to win we had to come out firing on all cylinders. We
got the ball first and went down and scored on the opening drive and that was
huge. We threw the ball well, the receivers got open and the line did a good job
of giving me time. And that opens up the run. I thought that (offensive
coordinator) Coach (Ken) Whiz (Whisenhunt) did a great job of calling plays and
mixing it up." QB-BEN
ROETHLISBERGER (on
preparing for overtime)
Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Indianapolis Colts
Post-Game "You’re
getting ready for it. If you have two minutes to go in the game and you’re down,
you want that Colts’ offense. They can move the ball down the field so quick.
(After) Jerome fumbles, we were sitting on the sidelines over there talking that
there must be a reason because he doesn’t fumble. So somehow, something is
supposed to happen. You don’t expect them to miss the field goal, but he does
and you don’t have overtime." QB-BEN
ROETHLISBERGER (on
gaining personal satisfaction about a head-to-head win versus Peyton
Manning) Pittsburgh Steelers vs.
Indianapolis Colts Post-Game “Absolutely.
You come out here and you play against the best team in the NFL. You love
watching Peyton play. He goes out there, and the things he does are amazing. The
throws he makes, it’s every quarterback’s dream to make those throws. I think
our defense did a wonderful job tonight of showing a bunch of different looks,
moving guys around. I wouldn’t say he was confused but I think there were times
when guys were flying around all over the place.” QB-BEN
ROETHLISBERGER (on
not taking a knee) Pittsburgh
Steelers vs. Indianapolis Colts Post-Game “It
was brought up at first but they had three timeouts so you take a knee three
times and they call a timeout every time. You don’t get very far. I think the
smart play was to give Jerome the ball and I guarantee if we got the chance 100
times, we’d do it every time.” QB-BEN
ROETHLISBERGER (on
having success on the road)
Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Indianapolis Colts
Post-Game “Everybody’s
against you and all we have is us and that’s what makes this team so strong.
We’ve done a great job of that all year. We could hear our fans out there.
They’re awesome. They’re getting it loud at times and when Peyton’s at home
telling the crowd to be quiet, that’s our guys. We come out and play tough and
hopefully we can keep it going.” QB-BEN
ROETHLISBERGER (his
improvement from last year)
Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Indianapolis Colts
Post-Game “I
feel that I’m not losing the game for our team. I’m trying to give us the best
opportunity to win the football game. I did everything I could to lose the Jets
game (in last year’s playoffs) but luckily we won it. And then Patriots game
(last year’s AFC championship game), I didn’t play well. I think that this year,
I just come out and play smart football. I got some good advice the other day
(from Dan Dierdorf): every drive that ends in a kick is a good
drive.” WE-ANTWAAN
RANDLE EL (on
the difference between the two games between
"It
goes back to getting off to a good start. You look at the last time we played
them, we came out and turned the ball over and with the crowd noise, we made
some mistakes. That was the biggest thing. We just had a better game plan to
just come out and attack them. It goes back to being able to snap the ball, get
off the ball without having penalties and without having negative
plays." TE-HEATH
MILLER (on
the Steelers use of the tight end in the passing game) Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Indianapolis
Colts Post-Game "They
stuffed our running game the last time we played pretty well. We weren’t able to
get anything going in that respect so we wanted to come in and hit a couple
passes that we thought would work early on, and then get our running game
going." TE-HEATH
MILLER (on
the his reaction to Bettis’ fumble) Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Indianapolis
Colts Post-Game “I wasn’t sure what happened until I
looked down the field and the guy was way down there. But hats off to Ben—he
made a game-saving play at that point and then our defense came out and did what
they were doing all day.” RB-JEROME
BETTIS (on
his fumble) Pittsburgh Steelers
vs. Indianapolis Colts Post-Game "It
was a great play by the linebacker.
He put his hand on the football and that is one thing you can never let
happen, especially in a situation like this. So, it was difficult for me to deal
with, but my defense they bailed me out and we had a missed field goal. So that was
great." RB-JEROME
BETTIS (on
Roethlisberger's tackle on Nick Harper's fumble return) Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Indianapolis
Colts Post-Game "Great
play. Ben made a great play in
terms of just kind of corraling the guy.
Because when you have your goalline people in there you don't have your
fastest people in there. So, it was
beneficial for us that Ben got him down." RB-JEROME
BETTIS (on
his emotions after the missed field goal) "It
was incredible. I mean, you know
you assume we are going to overtime, so we have to get back and get ready to go
into the game. I wasn't down
(emotionally) or anything. I
was just getting ready to go.
Assuming that Vanderjagt is going to make that field goal, when I saw it
go wide right it was incredible." RB-JEROME
BETTIS (on
the "Well,
the football team we played against was expecting us to run the football. They had the safety in the box. They did everything assuming we
were going to run the football, so we knew we could take advantage of some
things." S-TROY
POLAMALU (on
his interception which was overruled on the challenge) Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Indianapolis
Colts Post-Game "It
doesn't matter how I feel. It is
not my job to make those calls." S-TROY
POLAMALU (on
how the reversal of his interception helped lead to a Colts touchdown) Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Indianapolis
Colts Post-Game "No
excuses. We still should have went
out there. I did have an
opportunity the very next play after that play to make another
interception." S-TROY
POLAMALU (on
his knee popping the ball out)
Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Indianapolis Colts
Post-Game "That
is what I felt happened, but it doesn't matter what I think. I really felt I had the ball, but I am
grateful for how the game turned out anyway." S-TROY
POLAMALU (on
Joey Porter's sacks late in the game)
Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Indianapolis Colts
Post-Game "I
think it is something we have had success with all year. If I can draw two lineman somebody is
getting a mismatch or somebody is going to come free. So, Coach LeBeau does a great job of
putting us in those positions and it worked today." LB-JOEY
PORTER
(on the finish to the game)
Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Indianapolis Colts
Post-Game "That
is why you have to keep playing.
That was one of the craziest games I have been in. It feels good for the ball to actually
bounce our way one time. Bettis led
us out of some tough situations in a hostile environment for a big
victory." LB-JOEY
PORTER
(on Polamalu's interception which was overturned) Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Indianapolis
Colts Post-Game "I
don't even know what to say because I don't know if the league will fine me for
saying we got cheated out there today. But on that play right there, that man
caught the ball, got on the ground, was getting up, and knocked the ball out
with his knee. I mean, I know they
wanted Indy to win this game. The
whole world loves Peyton Manning, but come on man, don't take the game away from
us. That play right there, they
tried to take the game away from us." LB-JOEY
PORTER
(on if any Colts players were talking during the game about his comments from
earlier in the week) Pittsburgh
Steelers vs. Indianapolis Colts Post-Game "No,
they were not saying anything to me because you know, they can't really say
anything because I am just speaking the truth. If you are going to ask me a tough
question, I am going to give you a tough answer. The truth is we are a physcial football
team. We were trying to run the
clock out and ran the ball and got first downs. They knew we were running. The whole time they were trying to get
plays were through their hurry-up offense.
I still stick to my words, that was not smash-mouth
football."
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