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"Anthony Smith is such a gamer. When
given the opportunity, he lights people up. He may be the hardest hitting safety
on the team." - JustinD
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HEAD COACH DICK JAURON Coach
Jauron On Kevin
Everett: Nothing much has changed, but we are
thinking that we will know a good deal more soon. Our initial doctors said we
would know more and that was on Monday, said we would know more in 48 to 72
hours. I am not sure if you know about all of the things they were talking
about; with the core body temperature and all of those things. We are nearing
that time frame and hoping; all of our thoughts and prayers are with him and his
family. We are hoping for the best outcome that anybody can
imagine. On what he said to his team after
the incident: Kind of pretty much what we just
talked about. Kevin, like most people and players in this league, is really
well-liked by his teammates and he is a terrific young man. Everybody is in a
little bit of a state of shock and there are really not a lot of things you can
say except that we know that we all love him and our thoughts are with him and
his family. Our prayers are certainly with him and his family. We think there is
a good deal of power in hope and prayer. That is what we will continue to do and
in the meantime, we’ll continue to do what he does and what he chooses to do,
which is to play football. That is what we choose to do. We have the
responsibility to do that to the best of our ability, to honor ourselves, him
and his family. We will keep working, but it is never far from our thoughts
here. On how difficult it is for a team to
play under these circumstances: I think it is foolish to deny that
it’s an issue, but I don’t know how to answer that, except to say they are out
there working hard. They are concentrating. But again, it is never going to be
that far from our thoughts; any of us. On injuries from the week
one: There is just no real way to
describe it except to say that that injury, the nature of it and the potential
nature of it; because as I said we are going to continue to be optimistic as we
move here, but the potential degree of injury that he has is really quickly
brings the nature of the game into prospective. That being said, I don’t want to
trivialize our game either, because of the commitment, friendships, camaraderie
and the depths of those things that are true; the true values of our game are
really critically important here, but the outcome of a single event is not that
important. Let’s just face it. We all play as hard as we can to win, but when
something like this brings what’s critical in our lives right back into
prospective. On
We certainly have our work cut out
for us. Against a team as good as the Steelers on both sides of the ball, both
sides of the ball and special teams are going to have to play at the top of our
game to stay in the game at all in On how the Steelers look differently
offensively: They certainly run the ball very
effectively and you get the sense that that is where every fine team is based.
That concept remains the same. The multiple formations and personnel groupings
may be a little bit different, not that you didn’t see it in the past, but it
seems like they may try to feature it a little bit more now. The core values of
the team are the defensive play, with the aggressiveness and pressure and
toughness and the offense is a physical team also. In terms of that, the core of
the team doesn’t look like its changed attitude wise. There is a little bit of a
difference formation wise and certainly play calling wise off of that first
game. On the Patriots
situation: That is in the leagues hands. That
is where it is and that is where it belongs. I don’t really have anything to say
about it. On if
No. I was here last year and I don’t
have any recollection of that. But again, I try to stay away from that whole
thing and leave it where it belongs; right in the commissioners
hands. On Marshawn Lynch and Paul Posluszny
being starters: Hopefully it says that we picked the
right guy and we think we did. Clearly we liked him enough to pick him at one
and two. They are good and I think both of them are going to get better and
better. They are pretty good now, but they have a long way to go to become to be
real professionals in this league, in terms of understanding and reacting at the
speed that they are capable of. Even right they are very good players and I am
very happy with both them after them after the first week and of course after
the work in the offseason and preseason. On if Paul Posluszny was always
projected as a middle linebacker: We did project him in the middle. We
don’t feel like that is the only place he can play, but we definitely projected
him in the middle for us. He is an aware player. He is a guy that prepares
really well and will work at it constantly. He thinks about it. I think he
learns on every snap. I don’t think he is a guy that makes the same mistakes
over and over. He is not going to be that guy. He is just going to get better
and better as time goes by, as he get more comfortable with how the game is
played at this level and then more comfortable with our scheme and the different
things that we do in it. Hopefully everyday he gets better and hopefully that
will be true throughout his whole career. We are really happy that we have
him. On if he gets a sense that this is a
big game for him: Yes, but this is only his second
regular-season game. I’ve been in with him and I got the sense that the first
one was too, although I do understand the difference with this one, in
On if the Steelers blitzes more
against the Browns than he’s ever seen: No, I think I have seen him blitz
more. He’s a guy that has really impacted my life in a positive way. I couldn’t
say. He has kind of been my mentor in this business to a good degree. Anytime I
had decisions in my career, particularly early, he and I talked them through. I
just really think a great deal of Dick as both a great person and obviously as a
coach. I think that is enough said there. On what teams have done to control
Lee Evans: It’s still early in this year, but
in the past people have done certain things that they generally do to a real
quality wide receiver. They’ll roll to him. People have played quarters to him.
They can certainly play cover two and then you’re rolling on both sides of the
formation. Some teams have tried to single him out. They’ll do that. They’ll
have their real quality corner on him, but generally that is what they will do.
There are different forms of doubles and the pressure packages. Those are ways
to bring pressure off the side of the roll, so you have a short coverage and
long coverage situation. You can do that to him. There are a number of things
people do and have done. On losing Ko Simpson and Jason
Webster: It is always difficult, but that is
what you spent the offseason trying to do and in training camp trying to do. We
are a very young team. We just lost a second year player in Ko and Jimmy
Leonhard, who I think is a fine player as a back-up. He is young also, so he
replaces Ko at that position. The back-up positions; those guys are very young,
so we don’t have hardly any experience there to go in and play. Clearly the same
is true with Jason (Webster) on the edge. He was our most experienced defensive
back and our most experienced corner and we don’t have much experience to
replace him. Kiwaukee (Thomas) is the next most experienced guy there. Ashton
Youboty played a good deal last week and this is his second year. It is
difficult, but I have faith in the guys. They will step up and it is a huge
challenge.
QUARTERBACK J.P. LOSMAN What is the feeling among you and your teammates in light of
Kevin Everett’s injury? I think initially everyone was
pretty upset and depressed. It was
tough dealing with that after the game and the next day trying to find any kind
of information we could. Yesterday
we went down to visit him and he was awake and we got to spend some time with
him. I think that gave people more
of a realistic outlook on what his progress is at this point and time. It is still a little spooky for
everybody, I think. I think what we
have to do is somehow try to put it out of our minds and go play fast and
hard. Can you do that, can you put it out
of your mind and get back to playing at high level? Yes, I think so. We have been playing this game for a
long time and you see some pretty nasty injuries and you see some career ending
injuries, obviously not as serious as this and people usually learn how to play
on. It is something you don’t
really talk about and you kind of play that way. We all know what we signed up for and
this is what this league is about.
We understand that violence draws people to this game along with passion
and you learn on how to just keep moving on. How does losing in the final seconds
compare to other losses? This one was tough, probably the
toughest loss I have had in my career.
We feel that it is going to be a good year for us. We knew that we had a
tough start here with the first few games and we wanted to squeak some of these
out. That was one where we tried to
come away with a win and obviously, with an emotional loss like that with one of
our teammates being seriously hurt and three others being seriously hurt with
some broken bones and things like that, it has been tough around here. But we had a good practice today and are
trying to move forward. What did you feel like when you saw
the schedule with I wasn’t surprised. It wasn’t any easier the year before
that, or the year before that.
How much better are you now? Do you think this is your offense, your
team? Yes, I guess you can say that to a
certain extent. I still have a lot
that I want to prove to myself and still have accomplishments I want to
accomplish. I still have a lot of
goals that I want to get done and I want them to be done soon, real soon and
time is ticking and the ball is rolling.
Week 1 is over and it is Week 2 and it is not going to get any easier.
Do you compare yourself to Ben
(Roethlisberger) at all coming from the same draft
class? Initially, I think everyone kind of
does just out of curiosity. I think at this point, all that stuff is pretty much
over and you are trying to prepare yourself with not just people from your
class, but with everybody in the NFL.
In the league, you are not the young rookie any more. It is time for all the kids, you come
into your third and fourth year, to kind of go off on their own and make your
own story and have their own success. Do you need to get Lee Evans more
involved this week? We try to get him involved every
week as much as he can. I think
that is going to be a number one issue throughout the year. Teams are going to take that away and it
gives other people a chance to make plays and make a name for themselves. Last week, we ran the ball pretty well
against a defense that was definitely trying to take away the pass. The way they play their corners, those
two corners are a special tandem in the NFL. We did some good things, we had chances
in the game to answer the blitz and we came up a bit short, a little
miscommunication on a couple of them and I threw it over Lee’s left shoulder as
opposed to his right shoulder another time. We had our chances, we just didn’t hook
up. Hopefully, we know that we are
going to get blitzed this week and see if we can answer
that. The Steelers also showed some four
down linemen. What did you see Week
1 in preparing for their defense? I think they blitzed a couple times
pretty heavily and I think that is going to prepare us for the game on
Sunday. We had our first crack at
it last week, we came up short. We
had about four chances there to do some damage, hopefully maybe scare them out
of the blitz, and we didn’t. So we
will be ready for it. We know it is
coming and if we can connect, maybe we will scare them out. I doubt it. What did you make of the situation
in I didn’t make much of it. I think people have been trying to steal
signals since I have been in high school.
That has been part of the game for quite some time, and I don’t know what
that extent is. I really can’t
comment on something I really don’t know much about.
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