Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin held his post game press conference to discuss the 26-23 loss Thursday night to the Tennessee Titans.
Tomlin opened up by saying they didn\’t do the job tonight, obviously, and that they defeated themselves in some areas with the blocked kick and so forth. Tomlin said that the team will get back to work and that\’s all that they can do.
Tomlin said that there was a debate as to whether or not to send kicker Shaun Suisham out for the 54 yard field goal, but that he decided to give him a shot because he had nailed the previous long one. Tomlin said that he takes responsibility for that.
Tomlin said that he called the timeout prior to the Suisham kick to discuss the options and also to give his kicker a clean shot at it without worrying about the play clock running down.
Tomlin said that he did not think that the process of road games is a issue. Instead the Steelers coach said that they need to coach better, play better and finish better in those settings.
Audio is below.
[audio:https://steelersdepot.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/mike-tomlin-titans-post-game-press-conference.mp3]
Transcript
Opening Comments: We didn’t do the job tonight, obviously. We defeated ourselves in some areas, the blocked kick and so forth. We’ll get back to work. That’s all we can do. Needless to say it’s disappointing though. We tip our caps to those guys. They did the job tonight, we didn’t. Some injury news: (Maurkice) Pouncey has an MCL of some description that needs to be evaluated. Chris Carter has a hamstring. Marcus Gilbert has an ankle. (Rashard) Mendenhall has an Achilles of some kind. Isaac Redman has an ankle. Brandon Johnson has a hamstring.
With an injury list that long do you allow yourself leeway in explaining tonight’s game?
No.
Re: Ryan Clark injury
He was able to go back into the game. He had a hip pointer of some kind.
Was there any debate on the 54-yard field goal?
There was but he banged the other one before that pretty clean so I decided to give him a shot at it. I will take responsibility for the miss.
How do you evaluate Ben Roethlisberger’s performance tonight with the injuries to the offensive line?
We lost the game and that is the way we look at it. That’s the way we need to look at it. Individual performances aside we all could have done more to get out of the stadium. That’s just team football. It’s the ultimate team sport. We didn’t do the job tonight.
Was there any concern about using the timeout before the field goal attempt?
Not at all. It was a clock stoppage. Shaun (Suisham) is a mentally tough guy. I didn’t want the play clock to run down. We wanted to have a good, clean discussion about our options. He banged the previous one pretty good. We decided to give him a shot at it.
Do you look at the process after 0-3 on the road?
We need to look at everything, but I doubt that the process itself is an issue. We have to coach better, we have to play better. We have to finish better in these settings.
