POSTGAME | Steelers beat Patriots: Rodgers, Tomlin & Heyward react
ESPN,Sports,NFL,espn,SportsCenter,shannon,GMFB,cowboys,ravens,niners,chiefs,america football,Stephen A Smith,Stephen A.,first take,espn first take,Shannon Sharpe,Get Up ESPN,NFL LIVE,Monday Night Football,super bowl,NFL Playoffs,2024 NFL season,ESPN YouTube,NFL Highlights,good morning football,NFL Network,dak prescott,lamar jackson,justin fields,patrick mahomes,jayden daniels,jordan love,josh allen
[Music] Man, it’s great to win in the National Football League. Um, appreciative of the efforts today. Uh, certainly required 60 minutes of effort in all three phases to get it done. Uh, certainly there are a lot of things to work on, but it’s good to do that with the win. Um, couple things of note. I thought we started uh fast offensively. Um, but then we stalled out obviously, particularly in the second half. Um, but a lot of credit goes to New England and their defense and what they were doing. Uh, they were major components of that. Um, defensively I thought we were really tight um, in the red zone and things of that nature. I thought we could have been better on possession downs. Thankfully, we took the ball away from them to alleviate some of that lack of possession down uh, success. Um, but all in all, it was good team victory, man. We fought for 60 minutes. We utilized a lot of people, specialization of talent, division of labor, things of that nature. Um, still finding our way, you know, with the number of new people and uh, people out and things of that nature. And so it was a good experience. Um, no significant injuries to mention. Um, Slay missed some time in the game with a leg contusion. I think he was able to get back in and finish. Um, same with Brderick. Um, but we’ll stack this one. Questions. Takeways down there by the goal line. How big is the one at the end of the huge? Um, you know, that’s why we spend as much time uh practicing down in that space as we do as a collective. Uh we got to be great on defense uh in the effort to win the point swing. We got to be great on offense. And when you take the ball away, man, you you get all seven points. Usually you’re fighting for four. Um but man, those takeaways, particularly down there, uh were big. As technique as some of the things you’re working on in practice with the punching and stuff like that, no question. You know, we spent a lot of time um on our ball search culture. Um but it’s just words. It’s an agenda. The efforts of the guys make it real. uh not only on Sunday but but during the course of the week and you know just felt like we were headed toward a good game in that area just by the way we worked this week in that area. You were clicking but at the end boom boom boom right down the field there and makes the play. So you know um and that’s often times the case man you can um it cannot be going the way you desire. Uh but you better have enough emotion. You better have enough belief. Um you better stay the course in an effort to do it. You can say the same thing about the defense in in in New York. uh and we were able to finish it at the end. Same thing with the offense um today. Um but that’s what team is about. You found a good chance walking out through the tunnel. Does this win have any more significance other than just good to win the NFL? As you said, it’s good to win the NFL as you just said. Like uh Raandre Stevenson, obviously fumbles have kind of been an issue throughout his career. Was that a coaching 23 guys this week? It was, but um it is every week. um we identify, you know, opportunities and certainly um you know, he had some fumble issues last year and so it was an agenda of ours. Mike, what were your thoughts on how Derek Harmon played in his regular season debut? Man, I was appreciative of his efforts. Um excited for him. Um he’s a competitor. He wanted to be out there with his teammates, man. I thought he um represented himself well today. And so it’s just upward and onwards from here. 97 I guess 97 didn’t surprise you. never 97 and 90 never surprised. What kind of challenge did Drake Bay provide through your defense today? His mobility is an issue. Um particularly in some of them short yardage moments, you know, fourth down and ones and things of that nature. Uh quarterback mobility by play design I thought was a factor in some of those things. He got out around the edge on us and extended some possessions, but uh not that we were surprised by it. That’s a component of his game and it’s a component of his game that we respect. Mike Eckles played a lot more snaps. can just get to the tackle and the effort that he he um he’s been real solid, man. But he’s been real solid throughout this whole process um for us. Uh team development and so forth. He made some big plays today, the interception, the fourth down tackle. He was engaged in the game. Uh he is a good teammate and I’m glad we got him. Today coming straight back to you, you know, I thought he played with great energy and communication. uh for a guy that’s new, uh his level of communication is unique in terms of um you know, adjustments and so forth, but he’s a veteran. Uh he’s got a good passion for the game, good relationship with the game, and certainly it’s good to win. Anyone else? All right, you talk about that last drive and in particular the throw to Cal. Yeah, we had to have a drive there. So, guys made some plays. Uh thought important play was the screen there, Kenny cutting it back inside to give us a third and manageable. And then we actually just talked about that uh in the huddle before the drive um about just a subtle uh signal on what I might want if I gave that when uh when Cal was on the other side. So that was nice he was in the same page. I didn’t throw the best ball, but Cal’s so damn fast, you know. He made a great play. It’s probably on the TV copy. Everything is these days. No one else. When you’re not taking advantage of opportunities, what’s keeping you guys confident or getting you through those chances for that last drive to be there? Just our defense, honestly. I mean, there was urgency. I think, you know, it was one of those weird disjointed games. We had three possessions in the first half. We had a chance on the third possession to keep it going. we just Pat and I weren’t on the same page on the scramble drill. Then we sat on the bench for what seemed to be 20 or 30 minutes. Um so we just couldn’t get to a rhythm at all. Then we came out second half and made a terrible throw. Uh defense just kind of stood on our head all day. But um you know I thought the first two drives were really good rhythm wise and we just couldn’t find that rhythm uh in the second half. You did it at the end there. What’s that say about the offense resiliency? You stick to it nicely. I mean it’s what we’re supposed to do. you know, we got to make those plays. Uh, so we’re not in those positions, you know, 14 nothing. We’re feeling pretty damn good about ourselves. You know, we haven’t been in the head by two scores yet and two drives, two touchdowns, starting fast for the third straight week. But, you know, I just didn’t uh didn’t play great and uh we kind of lost our rhythm. Had too many penalties and negative yardage plays and didn’t make them pay when we had opportunities. Something about the Patriots defense you found especially challenging that? Well, I mean, they throw a lot of different things at you. Felt like they were kind of in a two shell to start the game. We kind of ran it ran at them pretty good the first couple drives and they adjusted and we just didn’t uh didn’t make enough plays. You know, we had some penalties, had some bad throws and um but they played kind of how we thought they were going to play. They’re tough group. They’re well coached. Uh and they were sticky in coverage. Rivers milestones today. Where does that rank on the list of accomplishments for you today? I mean, not super duper high. Uh, you know, it means I’ve played a long time. Uh, I grew up and, you know, Niners quarterbacks were my favorite and then Brett and I got to play with Brett. Um, I was drafted the year after Phil Rivers. Um, had a friendship through the game with him for years. Loved watching Phil play. You know, just his mannerisms, his lack of swearing, trash talk. Um, you know, Phil was uh was one guy I really enjoyed watching on on tape and uh and the only guy to get out of the Pro Bowl with an excuse that he had his eighth or ninth kid I think right before that. So, um, good to be mentioned with those guys. Aaron, what’s it like to see when a guy like the girl Peppers gets to come face his old team and then make a big impact playing a game like that? Well, I think as uh as former players when you’re playing former teams, that’s what you want. you want to make a big play and and make them uh you know, think about what they what they lost. Uh so, you know, there was there’s always that, you know, every single week there’s a guy that’s facing this former team probably and you’d like to get him the ball or like to, you know, have him make some plays, but uh he was uh he was definitely happy in the locker room. Yeah, a couple weeks ago. Anyone else, Aaron? Entering the game, uh New England led the league in sacks. your offensive line didn’t give up any in that. Talk about maybe the the growth that you’ve seen in this young unit over the first couple weeks to today. Well, it’s a group effort and I’ve I’ve tried
