Audio from Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin post game press conference following the 2010 week 13 13-10 win against the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday night December 5th, 2010. Transcript to follow soon!
[audio:https://steelersdepot.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/mike-tomlin-ravens-press-conference-dec-5-2010.mp3|titles=Steelers HC Mike Tomlin Baltimore Ravens Post Game Press Conference Week 13]Head Coach Mike Tomlin
(opening statement) “That’s Steelers-Ravens right there. That’s why we believe that’s the number one rivalry in football. It’s a humbling thing to be a part of, we’re fortunate to come out on top tonight, of course. We have big-time respect for that football team, they’ve earned it. Hopefully, we’ve earned their respect. Guys fought to the end through adverse circumstances. Of course we went into the game short in some areas and got shorter over the course of the game. But like we always do, we’ll assess where we are. We’ll put the healthy men on the field next week so we can push forward. A laundry list of injuries, Ben’s [Roethlisberger] got a broken nose, it happened early in the contest, on the first sack. He’s going to be fine, other than the discomfort that comes with that. Danny [Sepulveda] has an ACL injury, that’s unfortunate of course. He wanted to help his teammates, he was able to hold for the remainder of the game. Respect him for that. But of course, we’ve got to get that looked at and fixed. Flozell [Adams] had a high ankle sprain and Heath Miller had a concussion. So I’m sure there will be more bumps and bruises, it always is when these two teams come together. We just love the way we have an opportunity to represent AFC North when those two teams come together. Tough place to play, but let’s be frank, we needed to come here and even the score in this match-up. They came to our place earlier in the year and got us. So we had to even the score, thankfully, we did, and we’ll push on.”
(on Troy Polamalu’s forced fumble) “It was actually a run pressure, we anticipated them to maybe run the football, and we were trying to drop them for a loss, get them off schedule, you know, keep them off schedule. I think maybe it was second down, they called a pass. Troy’s [Polamalu] a great player, a lot of guys would go in there and sack the quarterback. He sees the game a little differently, that’s what makes him special. He got the ball out, unfortunately, we weren’t able to get the ball in the endzone, but our offense finished the job for us.”
(on Flozell Adams’ emotion) “For Flozell that was a lot. Flozell’s a man of few words, and that’s okay by us. We judge him based on his actions, and he’s always ready to compete for us. He doesn’t complain, this guy wants to be part of a winner. He’s been good, unfortunately, he sustained an ankle [a high ankle sprain]. We’ll see where that takes us.”
(on running back Isaac Redman being a check down) “He was out in the route and that gave him the opportunity to do what he did. Isaac is a competitive guy, he takes his division of labor job very seriously. Frustrating night for him. You’ve got to tip your hat to the Ravens, they got after this guy in short yardage. And he’s our short-yardage runner. I think we were maybe 0-for-2 or three with him in those instances. But he kept plugging and made a significant play for us, and I’m happy for him.”
(on the officiating) “I coach, I don’t officiate. I don’t work in New York, I work in Pittsburgh.”
(on Ben Roethlisberger playing through his injuries) “That’s Ben. We expect that from him, not that it’s unappreciated. It is. But we expect it from him, and he expects it from himself.”
(on why this is the number one rivalry) “Because of the leadership of the men involved, the unique players, whether it’s Hines Ward, Derrick Mason, whether it’s James Farrior and [Ray] Lewis, Troy [Polamalu] and [Ed] Reed, [Lamarr] Woodley and [Terrell] Suggs, you just name it. These are guys that play with great passion. And they’ve earned respect on both sides. Not a lot needs to be said on Raven week. And I’m sure they felt the same way about Steeler week. It’s always a great game.”
(on the last play) “Based on what we saw in pre-game, we thought it was the outer limits of his [Billy Cundiff] range, and it was into the wind. We kicked one from about the 27 [yard line] for our first field goal of the game. And we had concerns that that was the outer limits of our range. The winds were significant going that direction, that was one of the reasons why we deferred to start the game.”
