Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin held his usual Tuesday press conference this afternoon to talk about the win Sunday over the New England Patriots and preview the upcoming home game this Sunday night against the Baltimore Ravens. Tomlin also updated the injury report heading into the game. You can hear the audio of the press conference below and I will be updating the post with the main talking points.
Tomlin said it was good to get a win Sunday against the Patriots and thought that they did a good job on 3rd downs both offensively and defensively. He also thought they did a good job possessing the ball offensively. Tomlin said the offense can\’t be 2 of 5 in the red area and expect to be consistently good. Defensively, Tomlin did not like the way they took the field under sudden change conditions. Tomlin was noting the two play touchdown drive the defense gave up following the interception. Expects to hold them to a field goal instead.
Injury wise, Tomlin ruled out guard Doug Legursky (toe) for this week. Inside linebacker James Farrior will likely be limited on Wednesday and they will see where that takes him. The same thing goes with nose tackle Chris Hoke (neck). Wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders (knee) needs to get his left knee evaluated. He injured it in the first half against the Patriots, but played through it. The status of outside linebacker LaMarr Woodley (hamstring) will be dictated on his ability to practice this week. Tomlin said outside linebacker James Harrison (eye) has been cleared to practice and that is where they are right now with him. He will be reevaluated later in the week. Wide receiver Hines Ward (ankle) is scheduled to practice Wednesday and they will let his level of participation guide them moving forward with him. Tomlin said the same can be said about outside linebacker Jason Worilds (quad). Tomlin said they will build their plan around the healthy men.
Not much has changed with the Ravens said Tomlin. Need to be better against Ray Rice this time around. Tomlin went through normal praising of Ravens offense and defense.
Tomlin said that Worilds is tentatively scheduled to go through a full practice, if he is able to finish that would be good for him. If he is not able to finish, they will adjust accordingly. His availability will be based on that participation. Tomlin says they have flexibility if Worilds is not able to go this week and says that they may be capable of playing with 4 defensive linemen. They are not going to leave anything out. Tomlin said they do know that their answers are generally in house. So if they are out of healthy linebackers in house, some of those answers might have to be in the defensive line.
Tomlin stated that the play of the young guys like Chris Carter, Cortez Allen and Stevenson Sylvester has not been perfect and that quite frankly, it has been far from it. Tomlin says they have competed and played hard though and they haven\’t been scared of the stage.
Tomlin said that he flipped Carter and Lawrence Timmons around after initially putting Carter in at right outside linebacker after Woodley went down, because Carter was already going to be uncomfortable at which ever side he played on so they decided to at least let Timmons be comfortable. Tomlin went on to say that Carter played hard and fast and wasn\’t afraid of competition.
As far as Allen goes, Tomlin says he is a tough guy to get away from on the practice field and has played well on special teams and that has led to him getting defensive opportunities.
Tomlin said the Ravens defense is slaying people in regards to turnovers they are getting and that the Steelers have been part of that.
More added shorty.
