The Pittsburgh Steelers dropped their second preseason game of 2015 23-21 to the Jacksonville Jaguars Friday night on the road and afterwards head coach Mike Tomlin addressed the media to update the team’s injury report in addition to giving his thoughts on several of the individual performances.
“On the injury front, we got out of the game relatively injury free,” said Tomlin. “Josh Harris has got a foot, don’t know the extent of that. We’ll take a look at it. Lawrence Timmons didn’t play in the game because he hurt his toe after we met the other day at practice, so we held him out of the football game and we’ll watch him, and hopefully that’s a day-to-day type thing as opposed to a week type thing.”
Josh Harris told me after the game on Twitter that his injury isn’t serious and that a big guy rolled up on his foot.
The Steelers offense certainly had a nice start Friday night as quarterback Ben Roethlisberger connected with wide receiver Martavis Bryant on the game’s opening drive. Tomlin was asked after the game if he needs to see anymore out the starting unit between now and the regular-season opener.
“Absolutely,” said Tomlin. “Shoot, they just played a drive or so of football. We’ve got to play 60 minutes of winning football. And obviously we’re going to go through this process and work to that, but I like the start tonight. But it was just that. It was a start, it was one drive.”
New kicker Garrett Hartley had a 48-yard field goal in the game and Tomlin was asked to evaluate his first game.
“It was a nice kick,” said Tomlin. “It was good to start from plus-48, it would’ve been great if it were from 50 [yards]. It was a good way to get to know him. But I like his demeanor. It was a little windy down there, more windy than it’s been in this place in the past, but we didn’t talk about at all, he ran out there and banged the kick like that”
Rookie wide receiver Sammie Coates made a nice catch along the sideline late in the game and Tomlin was asked to evaluate the play of the third-round draft pick out of Auburn.
“Yeah, he made a nice play there, but he’s got to get into better condition,” said Tomlin. “Fatigue was a factor like it is with a lot of young guys. He’s got to get better in that regard. I think that the more in shape he gets, in terms of NFL wide receiver shape, the more we’re going to see his skill set like that sideline catch. But until he does, it’s going to be up and down. And that’s not only for him, it’s for all of them. That’s why we say, ‘Physical condition precedes everything else, particularly at the wide receiver position on Sunday ball.’”
