STEELERS VS. BUCCANEERS 
Post-Game Quotes
Sunday, December 3, 2006
at Heinz Field

Steelers Quotes

 

LB Joey Porter

 

General comment

 

"I think we played good. It's how we needed to play after playing bad last week. We just wanted to come out here and get a win, no matter how we did it. We feel like we had a chance to go out there and play good today, and I think we did."

 

Their quarterback was running for his life out there.

 

"[He's a] young quarterback. That was kind of like our formula, what we did today, [to] get up early, and then have a chance to rattle the quarterback. Whenever you have a young quarterback going against our defense, I think we have a great chance of messing with him. And I think we did that today."

 

You moved into fourth place on the all-time sack list for the Steelers. How does that feel?

 

"That's always good. That's always a credit to the team. Individual success is something [that's based on] how good the team is playing. It's not like I'm out there by myself. Whenever you can have those accomplishments, it's always a good thing."

 

You don't have much time to enjoy this, though. What can you draw from your game a few weeks ago against Cleveland?

 

"We're right back to work tomorrow. We have a short week. This one is over. All our focus now goes toward Cleveland. Whatever we did last time, we have to do some of the similar things – just stay after them. They have a young quarterback, too. We just want to get after him and make him frustrated."

 

LB Larry Foote

 

You had some injuries today, but some guys stepped up.

 

"Troy [Polamalu] was out. T.C. [Tyrone Carter] stepped in. You saw all the plays he was making. A couple times, I thought that was Troy. That one he made in the backfield – that's what Troy does on that certain defense. When guys go down, we have to step up."

 

Just another day at the office facing a rookie quarterback?

 

"Another day. I was just mentioning, this is the first time we actually studied a team all week and we knew what they were doing. A lot of times, teams have been changing up from what we've been studying on film. We knew the play before they were doing it. And we made plays today."

 

So you had a pretty good idea on that interception you had, that that play was coming?

 

"Right. I knew that the curl was coming when the running back went to the flat. When the guy crossed [the field], I don't know if the quarterback saw me because he might have thought I was going to go with the cross."

 

So you just try to hide and then jump it?

 

"Yeah. As soon as I saw the running back I knew the curl was coming. And the quarterback didn't see me."

 

You said this is the first time you kind of knew what was coming. Is that an extension of having a rookie quarterback? Of them trying to keep it as simple as possible?

 

"It's just the [Jon] Gruden offense. They like to run the ball. We stopped that. So we knew they were going to do the West Coast Offense [with] a lot of 1-2 [step drops] and a lot of slants and stuff. We knew it was coming and we jumped a lot of those things."

 

WR Nate Washington

 

General Comment

 

"I did pretty good today, I guess. I'll watch tape tomorrow. I know there are a couple of things that I messed up. I kind of catch myself in trying to be a perfectionist sometimes. That kind of gets me. But I did okay today. I did just enough to get us the win."

 

Are you the leader of the wideouts now [with the injuries]?

 

"No. The only true leader that we have, [that] we look to, is Hines [Ward]. He's been in this business before. He has true experience. But I think other than that, we don't look for any leaders. We play off of each other. There are times that I don't know things that Santonio [Holmes] might know, even though he's younger than me. But we all play off of each other. Other than that, I don't consider myself to be a leader. I will take that leadership role, but I'm just playing with the other guys [and] leaning on their shoulders like they lean on mine."

 

What's left to do with this season?

 

"We just have to finish strong. The season hasn't really gone the way that we wanted it to, but we just have to finish strong. Even though we're kind of [up and] down with a loss and a win, we just have to finish strong."

 

You took a good shot on that seam route over the middle. Did that kind of get you going?

 

"It did. It's just a play that I have to make. We're expected to catch the ball and that's what I have to do."