Tomlin’s Take on Topics

Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin weighed in on a variety of topics during his season-ending press conference.

 

The following are some of the topics that he addressed.  

 

On quarterback Ben Roethlisberger:

He did a nice job of course.  He is a pro-bowler.  He set franchise marks in some areas.  He’s a merging big time football player.  He is very good.  He is very professional.  Aside from what happened inside the white lines in the stadiums, I like the direction he is going it terms of take the reigns in a leadership position.  Is he a developing guy?  Absolutely.  He is still 25 years old.  But I look forward to what lies ahead with him.

 

On linebacker James Harrison:

 

That season speaks for itself. He is a Pro Bowl starter and the team MVP. He is a great success story. People that aren’t in this business and around on a day-to-day basis don’t have an understanding of how it grows and develops. It is nothing mystical. It doesn’t surprise me one bit; his performance this year for us. Since the day I got here, last winter, I’ve run into that guy in the morning, more than any other football player. He is a self-made guy. He is a professional. He would love for you to believe he is wild and it just happens for him and I understand the persona. It is a work hard, make it look easy persona. This guy is a tremendous professional. He has no bounds, in terms of preparing himself and it is good to see the results that happen for people that perform like that. It better be a source of inspiration for others, because those are the kinds of efforts we are going to need, individually and collectively to become World Champs.

 

On going for the two-point conversion:

 

If I had it do over I would.  Sometimes after games are over I don’t do a nice job of explaining.  But it was simple really for me.  If you look at how the game unfolded and I’ll take a little bit to do that now.  We had a turnover to start the second half.  We kicked a filed goal and we were down by 11.   They drove the field and scored and were up by 18.  That created a little indecision in us, in terms of maybe weren’t capable of consistently stopping them. We scored and we cut it to 11, we kicked the extra point and we were down by 11.  We scored again I wanted to make it a filed goal football game.  So we went for two.  Again, not knowing whether or not we were going to consistently stop them.  We did.  Great.  We didn’t get it.  We were down by five at that point.  We go up by one, there is no need of going up by two.  We desire to be up by there and that is just the way we played it. 

 

On if team speed is an issue:

 

That is always an element of football. I think every coach that sits at these tables, in front of mics, have the desire to be younger, bigger, stronger and faster. That won’t change. Does the offseason change the personality? Over time, yes, but we just have to get better. We have a desire to be great. We want to be the one that stands alone and hoist the Lombardi (Trophy). That is not us right now, so the things we do are going to be done with those intentions in mind.

 

Summarizing the Jacksonville loss:

 

I am not ready yet. It was an emotional game. It was a gut-wrenching defeat, but every January defeat I have experienced has been the same. We turned the ball over. We got behind. We fought our way back into the game and we came up short.

On being a 3-4 defense convert:

 

I enjoy the way we play defense with the pieces we have in place.  Are we going to grow and evolve in search for what we are capable being?  Yes.  But I’m not willing to think about it or disclose that at this time.