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STEELERS POST-GAME QUOTES HEAD COACH BILL COWHER We got through the game pretty much injury free. Shaun Nua hurt his left ankle. Other than that we were fine. I don't know if we made a stride, maybe we took a baby step. We did some things better than the week before but we still have a long way to go in a short period of time. Are you happy with the first-team offense? Yeah. Ben (Roethlisberger) did fine. We wanted to work on the no-huddle (offense) and you can see that he wants to do it. He's got great command. I thought he had a good presence out there. Charlie (Batch) did a good job with the one-minute (offense). We would have liked to not have the turnover at the end of the first half. We still had too many mistakes here and there. There were too many things popping up. We just didn't play consistent enough. Did Santonio Holmes turn up too sharp on the INT? I understood what he did; I understood what he saw. I don't know if it was the right decision to go there. It was probably a little bit of both (of their faults). How did the team do on third down? We had a couple third downs with one (yard) and two (yards to go) and you're not going to win those. On the second drive we had the penalty on Ike (Taylor). Otherwise, that would be a big loss and probably be a third-and-12. On the third down and one, Ryan Clark had a chance to make a tackle in the backfield. On another third down the ball got tipped and Troy (Polamalu) was jumping it to the outside. The ball got tipped and went back to the inside. That was a disappointing series just from the fact that they scored a touchdown. After that the defense did some good things. How did Duce Staley look? I thought he did well given the opportunities that he had. He looked fine. Did you want Willie Reid to bring that punt out of the end zone? Yeah. At that point it was the best offensive play that we had. I told him to return the punt no matter where he's at because I thought that was the best chance we had to get yardage. You used Reid and Holmes deep on punt return. We're looking at that with Santonio and Reid. We just have to keep working out the kinks. What is the advantage and disadvantage of a two-man deep punt return? Whoever doesn't catch it takes over (blocking) responsibility. It certainly gives you better coverage of the field and those are two great returners that we have there. Will you try Nate Washington on kick returns? We'll look at all those things but I feel pretty good about the guys that we have. It's not just the returner. It takes a lot of people to be in-sync with these returns. It's not just Santonio, Willie or Ricardo (Colclough). We have to get everybody in-sync right now. We have a lot of combinations of people we're looking at. There are some special teams guys that will be there (in the regular season) that are not out there now. We need to see the younger guys to make some roster decisions. If Washington isn't playing special teams then will he be active on game day? He'll be active on game day. Did any young guys stand out tonight? It's hard to say. We didn't do a whole lot. We lost the game. It's hard for me to assess it from the sideline. I'll have to look at the video first. Were you close to keeping Ben out of the game? No, he felt good. He felt good yesterday in the walk-through. He took the snaps there. I just told him to let me know if he didn't feel good. We talked about it until he got out there. We wanted him to do the no-huddle, and I thought he did a good job of running it. How did Joey Porter look in the game? He looked fine. He was very active and I thought he was fine. Did you talk to Porter before training camp? We talked. We have an open door policy. We had a very good talk. Is your use of the no-huddle more of a proactive thing as opposed to when Tommy Maddox ran it? I don't know if I look at them differently. Where we are now, Ben is able to do the same things that Tommy did. He knows what he wants to run. He has the ability to call what he wants to call. We have a chance to talk to him if we see certain things. It will be a nice option to use at any point. We wanted to work on it and be able to do it. I know he's eager to do it. It's another option that we'll have. Why did you pull Ben so early in the game? To be honest with you, with the training camp that he's had and when I see him in the games, I think he's fine. I haven't seen any rust. He's playing with a lot of confidence right now. I want to give him enough to get a taste of it. That's all I need to see. Are you still concerned about Ben taking hits after the accident? He's taken a couple. I don't know if that's even a hurdle anymore. I like what I saw with that first group with him in there. He took the ball down, they scored. If they go three-and-out, he'll go back in. I like where they are. I liked the start we had defensively. That second series we had with that first group, I wish we could have got off the field on one of those third downs, but we had the penalty and the missed tackle, and the tip ball. We're making some strides. It wasn't like last week, when they went right down the field. We took a baby step. We still need to develop some of these guys that are playing in the second group. Right now, we're not able to generate much offense with Omar (Jacobs) or with Shane (Boyd). They're young players and they're working and they're out there competing and that's what I want to see. We had a chance to look at them and we had a chance to look at the offensive line. It seems like there's a lot of pressure in that second group. There was a little bit of a concern. Some of those guys will be active on game day and they're fighting for spots. The more experience they can get out there, the better they're going to feel when it comes to regular season, because that's going to go up a notch too. We're getting a lot of valuable experience and a chance to evaluate these guys. But you still want to be able to be more consistent than what we've shown. How did Trai Essex look at guard? I couldn't assess that. Are you going to get Kendall Simmons some snaps at center? I think we're going to do that next week. He just kind of started this week. We wanted to give him another one and get some rest. We'll definitely do that next week. How did John Kuhn look? John's a solid football player. I thought he did some good things. He ran the ball well. I know he can play fullback. We'll look at him for the kicking game and see how he's doing there. He's had a very good camp.
STEELERS PLAYERS Omar Jacobs: How would you assess your performance tonight? Started off a little shaky, but got better. I got some reps in – I did some things wrong, but that's part of the game. I just need to learn from it and get better every time I get out there. What can you take away from tonight? Oh, man, lots of things. I'm still a rookie, that whole thing – things are just flying around, and I'm just trying to learn the offense. That's what I'm working on right now. Duce Staley: Talk a little about how the game went for you tonight. It went ok. I'm continuing to make progress. I need to continue to make plays. Missing the preseason hurt me last year – it's almost like learning everything all over again. You always look back in your mind, and see a couple of plays that you could have done better, but that's what the film is for. Do you feel that your role is becoming more defined, or is there a ways to go with that? There's definitely a ways to go with that, to get comfortable and get better. It's coming along with these preseason games. Nate Washington: Which did you like better, the 20 yard pass or the 20-yard run? Probably the 20 yard pass, because I felt I could've gotten a little more on the run, and I'm a little disappointed with myself – but it all worked out for me. You had the big catch in the playoffs last year – how do you feel about
getting more looks this year? Did you see anything out there that surprised you? No, not really. I'm starting to get a little more comfortable with defenses, and with learning our offense. Things out there are slowing down for me, just a little bit. I'm just trying to take it all one day at a time. You've gotten here the hard way, as an undrafted free agent from a smaller school (Tiffin) – how did it feel to have a big night? I had a decent night -- I wouldn't consider it to be big. I did my job. We'll see on film on Monday if I made any mistakes, but there's always an opportunity to get better, and that's what I'm looking to do. Rian Wallace: Talk about your interception: We were in a zone coverage, and the guy hooked to the inside, and I was where Coach LeBeau placed me on that defense. It came almost right to me. How comfortable are you getting with this defense? I'm getting very comfortable, especially inside. Outside is a new position to me, but I'm even getting more comfortable with that on every play. As you move into the third preseason game, what do you need to do, and what does this team need to do? With me, I need to show that I can do well on special teams, and I still need to learn more both at my inside and outside positions. As a team, we just need to gel – especially on third downs. Which do you prefer – inside or outside? I'm a natural inside linebacker, but I'll really like outside once I get a sack or two.
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