STEELERS VS. BROWNS 
Post-Game Quotes
Sunday, December 7, 2006
at Heinz Field

Steelers Quotes

 

WILLIE PARKER

What do you know about Frenchy Fuqua?

 

I really don't know too much about Frenchy.  Coach Hoak talks about him all the time.  I was young, and I really don't know too much about him.

 

What was the difference between tonight and the last three games?

 

Tonight we just went in there with a swagger.  We knew these guys just hated our guts, and we just kind of played with a swagger.  We wanted to do everything right.  We knew we hadn't been playing well.  The offensive line just played really well tonight.

 

Did you ever think that you weren't the right type of back for this offense?

 

When I first got here, I analyzed everything and I saw that over the years they really hadn't had speed backs – it's always been power backs.  I thought I'd need to make my niche somewhere else – special teams or something like that.  But one day I was like, no, I'm going to keep going at it and I'm going to keep going hard at running back.  So I just work hard every day, every off-season, every play and every chance that I get to try to be that every-down back. 

 

How does it feel to be the Steelers' all-time leader for single-game rushing yards?

 

The best thing that I got out of the game tonight was the win.  The team just gathered around each other and just rallied to win.  The accolades aren't really what I'm about.  I'm not going to dwell on it – it just happens. 

 

You seem to really step up your game at home.

 

It's not that I step up my game at home, it's just that we happen to have the best part of the running games at home.  I don't know why.  It just happens that way.

 

Did you know you were close to the single-game rushing record?

 

Yes, Coach Cowher came to me and asked me if I wanted to run some more.  I asked him why he asked me that, and he told me that I was eight yards away from the record.  So I said, "Yeah, I want to run some more."  He told me that when I got the record that he was going to pull me, so I said, "Well, you do what you have to do."

 

What did Coach Cowher say to you when you came off the field?

 

He told me how proud he was of me, and how far I've come.  It's like a father and son relationship.  He just embraced me and kind of got emotional.

 

There are still critics out there who say that you can't get the job done.  Does a game like this help to answer your critics?

 

You're always going to have critics, no matter what you do.  Michael Jordan was the best player of all time in basketball, and I'm sure he had a lot of critics.  When I hear stuff like that, I just try to prove everybody wrong.  Every time I go out, I try to give it my all.  You never know who is in the stands seeing their first Steelers' game.  I just want to leave them with an impression, when they leave that stadium, of "That Willie Parker, he's a tough player."

 

What was the difference between tonight and the last three games?

 

Some games you struggle.  It's about how you bounce back.  As an offensive unit, we really bounced back today. 

 

Did you sense that the Browns were tiring as the game went on?

 

I wasn't really paying that much attention to Cleveland.  It wasn't like it was when we were at their stadium.  It was a different Cleveland team tonight.  They jumped on us early in Cleveland.  Tonight they stayed back, and we just kept pounding them.  I didn't really sense that they were tired.  I kept coming back laughing with my offensive linemen – we were just having fun in the huddle.  I didn't really focus on what they were doing, I was focused on what we were doing.

 

What does being the only Steelers player to rush for 200 yards twice mean to you?

 

It means a lot.  I came a long way, and it means a lot.

 

The NFL single-game rushing record wasn't out of the realm of possibility.  Did you consider that when you came out of the game?

Coach Cowher didn't come up to me and tell me that I could break the NFL record.  He only talked about the Steelers record.

 

OT Max Starks

 

Talk about Willie Parker's 200-yard rushing game.

 

"It's a big accomplishment. I went to him before the game and said to him that we need to shut everybody up about our running game woes and just go ahead and rip it off. He did a phenomenal job."

 

What did he say when you said that?

 

"He said, 'Just open the holes up and I'll do it.' We did our best and he made it happen."

 

Talk about the way this offensive line finally had it come together.

 

"I think it's something that, when a team plays seven in the box like they did, we usually dominate. They didn't try to come with too many tricky type of blitzes. They played pretty much head-up – the way we thought they were going to play. We just exploited that. We thought they would come with a lot more blitzes, and they didn't. So we just took advantage of it."

 

Are you surprised that they didn't blitz more?

 

"[I was] a little bit surprised, but, then again, they have a really big front. They brought in Ted Washington to hopefully stop the run. Willie McGinest is an experienced pass rusher off the edge. So I think they had a lot of confidence in their front seven."

 

It wasn't just Willie [Parker]. Every back that was in there got good yardage.

 

"Yeah, everybody had a shot. Even Ben [Roethlisberger] had good yardage at eight-yards a carry. So it was definitely a good day."

 

LB Joey Porter

 

General comment

 

"A lot of them didn't want to be there. We ran them up out of here, like we're supposed to."

 

Did they do a lot of talking?

 

"Yeah, they did talk a lot. I can live with talk. But when you start taking cheap shots, that's a whole different thing. We play a certain way, but we never take cheap shots at anybody. They have to sit on the two losses we gave them all the way to next year."

 

How much did you enjoy seeing your offense perform like that?

 

"It was great. That's our formula – run the ball and play good defense and put the quarterback in tough positions. It's good that we're finally getting our formula working, but I wish we could have gotten it going earlier."