Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin is currently being criticized heavily both nationally and locally for his recent interview with Tony Dungy in which he talked about already looking ahead to the team’s Week 15 game against the New England Patriots in addition to the possibility of a future playoff matchup between the two teams. On Tuesday, Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger was asked to comment on what his initial reaction was to hearing Tomlin saying what he said during his weekly interview on 93.7 The Fan.
“Honestly, he’s the head coach, he’s allowed to think about whatever game or whatever elephant in the room, or whatever matchup, things like that,” Roethlisberger said after first saying he wasn’t sure about the entire context of Tomlin’s remarks about the Patriots to Dungy. “For me, I am 100 percent on Cincinnati and nothing else. That is my biggest focus because these guys are going to come out to get us. I mean, they want to ruin our playoff chances.”
Later during his interview Roethlisberger was asked if he ever does any game-planning or film watching of a particular team weeks ahead of playing them and specifically when it comes to the Patriots.
“No, I dont, not at all,” Roethlisberger said. “Not one thing of Patriots film. Obviously, when we’re in practice and we’re working the no-huddle and we’re working plays, we’re like ok, these plays can work against whatever team we’re playing. But there is zero film work, talk, anything like that from me for any team other than the Bengals right now.”
On the heels of what Tomlin said recently to Dungy, Roethlisberger’s Tuesday comments on the topic are pretty much as expected. I mean, even if he were already doing some sort of small preparation for the Patriots a few weeks ahead of playing them he would be foolish to admit it. Personally, I believe him when he says he’s totally focused on the upcoming Monday night game against the Bengals right now, as he should be.
Tomlin will meet the media again in roughly 15 minutes from now and you can expect him to be asked even more about the comments he made recently to Dungy about not only the Patriots, but him thinking his team can and should win the Super Bowl this year. We will make sure to pass along anything he says on the topic to you.
