Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin held a press conference immediately following the team’s Week 17 home win over the Cincinnati Bengals. Here’s the transcript of of the coach’s comments along with the questions he was asked.
Opening Statement:
Tomlin: I’m appreciative of the effort. We controlled the things that were within our control today. We’ve got our fourth AFC North win. I’m appreciative of that. I can’t say enough about the efforts of the guys, particularly like, Matt McCrane, coming in and getting on a moving train and kicking the way he did today. We accept the outcome. Obviously, we’ve had 17 weeks to state a case for ourselves. We stand by our work, you have to in this business, but I am appreciative of the efforts today. It is what it is. We’ll assess tomorrow and obviously move forward. But, hard fought game today. I’m appreciative of the efforts, it’s tough, the end result of it all as it always is. Not a lot to mention regarding injuries. I think everyone that went down in the game was able to come back. Questions
Question: Did this team under achieve this season, what your expectations, what the organization’s expectations were?
Tomlin: I don’t get into that. We are what our record says it is.
Question: Was the plan for AB to try it in warmups and when did you know he wouldn’t go?
Tomlin: We just decided not to. We wanted to go with the healthiest of guys and the guys that worked during the week. He didn’t play, Sean Davis didn’t play. James Conner was able to convince us here at the site. I just thought under the circumstances that we were in, the healthiest, most prepared guys would give us good quality play and I thought they did. Can’t say enough about Danger, for example. I can’t say enough about what L.J. Fort did in place of Vince Williams. Appreciate the efforts of James Conner.
Question: How hard is it to swallow as talented of a team as you have that you’re not in the playoffs?
Again, I’m not getting into that. I was talking about what happened in the stadium today, the assessment of this game and so forth. We can paint with a broader brush on Tuesday.
