Audio from Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin post game press conference following the 2010 preseason week 1 win against the Detroit Lions on Saturday August 14th, 2010. Transcript to follow on Sunday!
[audio:https://steelersdepot.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/mike-tomlin-lions-press-conference-aug-14-2010.mp3|titles=mike-tomlin-lions-press-conference-aug-14-2010]Mike Tomlin: Good start for us. I stress that it’s just a start. We’re not going to judge it emotionally. We are going to get back in the morning and look at the tape. Technically, from an assignment standpoint, energy, all elements, it’s going to be an awesome evaluation for us as a staff looking at the growth and development of these men and how they’re coming together. I like the overall energy and the effort. Probably the most impressive thing about the outing was we played relatively penalty free. Part of us being a good team starts with us not beating ourselves. I think we had pre-snap and post-snap penalties at an absolute minimum, and that was one of the things we wanted to do tonight. We knew we weren’t going to play perfect; you never do the first time out. But we thought if we played penalty free and showed awareness in terms of situational football, the unwritten rules of the game, I thought it would be a good performance. I think for the most part I think we were able to do some of those things.
Question: Why did you choose not to play Ben?
Mike Tomlin: We framed this thing at the very beginning that we were interested in this guy having a productive camp and preseason. We wanted to get clarity. The quarterback position, we acknowledged, because Dennis Dixon is a young guy; we wanted to provide him a lot of snaps. Based on that framework we thought it was the appropriate thing to do tonight in a limited number of snaps that would be available with the first group. We thought that it would be better time served if we used Byron in those instances. And Ben is going to have opportunities to play in the preseason. But with the number of snaps that we anticipated the first offense running tonight, it just wasn’t appropriate to play him. He wanted to play. He’s had an awesome training camp thus far. We’re going to continue what we set out to do in that this guy is going to have a productive camp and preseason. And we’re going to get the clarity from other men we’re looking for. It just wasn’t in the cards for him tonight in those circumstances.
Question: When he does play will it be with the first team?
Mike Tomlin: We are not going to lock ourselves into anything just based on our discussions and our decision making tonight. I’m not interested in sending Ben Roethlisberger out there with the second group the first time out.
Question: What were your impressions of the offensive line?
Mike Tomlin: As on outfit I thought we shot ourselves in the foot. And that usually happens at the start of the preseason. We got to do a better job holding on to the football. I really think in order to give a good assessment of those guys, we shot ourselves in the foot some, but that’s part of it. We will continue to work and get better. We saw some four down, and that’s always new. We expect the offseason and training camp playing versus a three down team. It’s great getting some of that in the preseason because we know what September holds for us in terms of the Tennessee Titans and Buccaneers and so forth. So it was some good work for us.
Question: What were your impressions of Isaac Redman tonight?
Mike Tomlin: He played similarly to how he’s played in training camp. He’s been very consistently; he has a personality, he is a downhill guy, he’s patient, he has good vision, he finds holes, he finishes plays. So it’s very encouraging.
Question: How do you determine the preseason captains?
Mike Tomlin: They are the captains from a year ago.
Question: Do you have another vote at some point?
Mike Tomlin: At the end of the preseason, between the fourth preseason game and our opener we will vote on captains for 2010. As a general role for the preseason I always have the captains from a year ago represent us until we get to that point.
Question: How do you think Maurkice (Pouncey) did?
Mike Tomlin: I have to look at the tape to get a legitimate evaluation of his play. He did play both positions (center, guard) and we are pleased that he was able to handle that. That is an indication that things are going well for him. Well will get a look at the tape to see how he performed the minute details at both positions.
Question: Doug Legursky
Mike Tomlin: He is a guy that is capable of doing some other things and we quite simply want to highlight it. The more that he can do provides flexibility for us from a personnel stand point. It really gets critical when we start talking about game day hats in September once the regular season starts. We just want to cast a big net with some of those guys. He is a good short area quickness guy and he has good vision and he understands blocking. We utilize his talents in that way.
Question: Dennis Dixon
Mike Tomlin: I thought he did a nice job. He moved the offense relatively well. I liked his composure and it was a good start for him.
Question: Any injuries?
Mike Tomlin: It looks like Jonathan Dwyer had a shoulder injury of some kind. It doesn’t seem to be serious. He is in the process of getting that looked at right now. We will have information on that it happened very late in the contest. Other than that I think we are in pretty good shape. Going into to the game I held Jason Worilds to precaution because he was battling a hamstring through out camp. He may have been healthy but he has not logged enough practice time in my opinion to play effectively. We look forward to getting him out there next week.
Question: Antonio Brown?
Mike Tomlin: Nice start.
