Fresh off a 17-10 victory over the Patriots on Sunday at Heinz Field, the Steelers find themselves 8-5-1 and regaining momentum as the 2018 regular season winds down.
By snapping their three-game losing streak in dramatic fashion, the Steelers maintained their half-game lead over the Ravens in the AFC North, and now the team controls its path to the playoffs with two games to play.
First, the Steelers travel to New Orleans to face the 12-2 Saints, then they close out the year at home against the 6-8 Bengals. It all adds up to a dramatic finish, and Ramon Foster, Ben Roethlisberger and Mike Tomlin had plenty to say about what it all means for the team.
Speaking with 93.7 The Fan on Tuesday, Foster and Roethlisberger discussed the team's recent victory over the Patriots, their upcoming showdown vs. the Saints, and much more. Following their radio appearances, Tomlin held a press conference at the Rooney Complex, where he addressed some of the same topics and more.
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Mike Tomlin
On Patriots victory: "The offense started fast, and I thought that was significant for us as a football team. We won the toss, we were able to go down the field — I think we went down the field the first couple of times we had the ball, and that was significant. We were able to drive the ball and produce a field goal late in the game offensively... Obviously, we gotta work to continue to maintain possession of the ball and safeguard the ball. We had a couple turnovers. But we knew that was possible playing a formidable bunch like that, particularly with the veteran presence that they had in the secondary and the things that they were able to get done in an environment such as that.
"On the defensive side of the ball, I thought we responded to the turnovers very well and played really good sudden-change football. Obviously we stood up on a couple of short fields and made the necessary plays. I thought that we were able to absorb some negativity early and find our rhythm. I can't say enough about our ability to communicate. Oftentimes, when you're in Heinz Field, you think about the issues that there are for your opponent from a communication standpoint, but you have those same issues defensively. I can't say enough about Vince Williams and what he was able to do in terms of being a central communicator for us throughout the game. It allowed us to settle in and be able to match some of the pace things that they do and things that they do very well...
"And then in the special teams game, I thought we did a good job of neutralizing their dangerous return men, whether it was (Cordarrelle) Patterson in the kickoff return game or (Julian) Edelman in the punt game, they thought they were capable of being explosive in those areas and we didn't allow that to happen. Obviously, we made a significant field goal there late in the game."
On James Conner injury: James Conner with his ankle, I saw him downstairs getting rehab just a few moments ago. Hopefully that sets the stage for a productive Wednesday and we'll go on from there. We'll let the amount of work that he's able to do and the effectiveness of that work be our guide and we'll make those decisions at the appropriate time as we push towards game time.
On this week's matchup: "Man, we're excited about this opportunity. We understand that we're playing a really good football team. We're playing a really good football team in their venue. We don't run away from that. We understand what time of year it is, and if you have the intentions that we have, you need forks in the road such as this. Man, they're a really good bunch."
On Saints defense: "When I look at their defense, I just think about a lot of homegrown talent, guys that they've drafted and developed. You start up front with (Cam) Jordan and (Sheldon) Rankins, former first-rounders that they've drafted and developed and have become Pro-Bowl-caliber players for them as an interior rushman and an edge rushman. Those guys set the pace or the wave that others ride. Together, collectively, they have over 20 sacks. They're extremely disruptive, both vs. the run and the pass.
"They've added to that tandem most recently with a first-rounder out of UTSA who's produced some sacks and some sack-fumble like plays. His length is a difficult thing to deal with, but like a lot of 4-3 teams, it's (not just) about those three men. They play a bunch of people up front. They keep them fresh, they get after your passer, they trample the run on the way to the pass, and I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that they're No. 1 in football vs. the run. Part of that, obviously, is being a 12-2 football team. I understand that, having leads and so forth, but I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that they are No. 2 in the league vs. the run in terms of yards-per-carry. So they're probably not getting a bunch of carries because of the nature of the game or the circumstances that they're in, but you better acknowledge that they're just formidable at stopping the run period because the yards-per-carry illustrates that as well."
On Saints secondary: "Again, a lot of homegrown talent... A bunch of top-notch talent, man, first-round-caliber guys — guys that are capable of playing aggressive and playing tight man-to-man, playing the ball down the field. I think one of the things that has allowed them to go on the stretch run that they have defensively over the last five or six weeks where they're really getting after people is they've gotten the ball, and they've gotten the ball in a variety of ways. The way that they were able to punch that ball out, Von Bell, from that Carolina Panther runner last night, was reflective of how they've been playing, really, over the course of that span.
"I (saw) them punch the ball out of several Atlanta Falcons' receivers. I've seen them punch the ball away from Minnesota Vikings' receivers in recent weeks on tape. They're a very ball-aware group. Obviously, they're very capable of catching the ball and intercepting it, but it's just general ball awareness in terms of punching it and hunting it."
On Saints offense: "It rolls through Drew Brees and obviously his unique resume and experience and continuity that he has within their offensive structure with Coach (Sean) Payton. It's something to deal with. It allows them to move in and out of personnel groups with tremendous pace. It allows them to attack you in a variety of ways. I'm sure he has a lot of autonomy at the line of scrimmage. I'm sure in his home venue that'll be significant.
"Their last three games they've been on the road. I'm sure they're excited about getting back in their home venue. To deal with that group in their venue is something. The relationship he's built with (Michael) Thomas has been really extraordinary. (Alvin) Kamara is an asset to them in the running game and in the passing game. You can spend a lot of time talking about their passing game because of Drew and the relationship he has with Coach Payton and what they've been able to do over the years and Michael Thomas and his growth and development — the type of impact receiver that he is and Kamara, the things that he's able to do in the passing game. But the reality is that this is a really strong, fundamental running team... Their running back tandem of Kamara and (Mark) Ingram is a formidable one."
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Ben Roethlisberger
Biggest offensive takeaways from Patriots game: “A lot of kind of what we talked about after the game, I thought how well guys stepped up and played. It wasn’t like anybody on offense had this spectacular day in terms of yards or big plays or things like that. And I say that with a little bit of an asterisk — I think Jaylen played awesome in terms of what he did running the ball and making plays. But it just felt like everybody contributed. It might not’ve been a spectacular day on anybody’s front, but it was a pretty good offensive day. And it sounds crazy because didn’t score all the points we wanted to score and things like that, but just guys making plays.
From James Washington, Eli Rogers coming back for the first time, Vance McDonald (with) two huge plays, especially the one on third down. You expect guys like JuJu and AB to make plays. Switz making plays out of the backfield, doing things for us. Ridley getting a couple huge runs for us. I just think it was an all-around great day for everybody.”
On game scripts: “We always do like a top 10. And that’s kind of determined Saturday, and we talk about it Saturday night and make changes if we need to before the offensive meetings Saturday night. Saturday morning, we kind of know what we’re going to get ourselves into in the first 10. That being said, sometimes things happen, like what happened last week where the first play is scripted, the second play basically is, a formation is scripted and that’s it. And Randy says, ‘Alright, Ben. You call the plays.’ And so we did that and he was chiming in with some things, so we were on script in the sense that we knew we were going to kind of get into some no-huddle stuff and go five wides and go empty and kind of spread them out and work the ball down the field that way. This was a scripted/unscripted first drive.”
On taking ball first: “It was really just a conversation that Coach T and I had. Going into it, he said, and it really just happened in the locker room right before when I was kind of getting dressed and stuff, he goes, ‘Hey, you want to take the ball?’ And I said ‘Sure.’ … We kind of assumed that they would defer. It’s kind of the thing to do nowadays in the NFL, so we kind of felt we were going to get the ball first regardless.
On lack of player introductions: “Pouncey and I had a talk earlier in the week, and I went to Coach T, and said, ‘Hey, do you have any ideas of who you’re going to introduce?’ He kind of gave me a look like, ‘I’m going to do the offense.’ I said, ‘OK, well Pouncey and I have talked, and we said instead of introducing the offense we would like you to introduce the team.’ And he said, ‘OK.’ He kind of gave me a look like, ‘OK, sounds good,’ and that was the end of it. So that’s what we did.
“We didn’t care if it was going to be just — if he said, ‘Well, I’d like to introduce the offense,’ we were going to say, ‘Well, we’re going to go out as a total offense,’ like the whole group’s going to go out together… We felt like we wanted to, as offensive guys, we didn’t want it to be like it’s about individuals. We wanted to go out as a group, so that’s kind of where the conversation Pouncey and I had kind of started.”
On Samuels and Washington: “I think it was awesome what they did. I love the way Jaylen ran the ball. I love the way he caught the ball out of the backfield — what a big third down he had. He did miss the blitz early in that, I think the second drive. That was his guy that blitzed, that sacked me, and so it wasn’t perfect, and he knows that. But after that, he really, I thought, did do some really good things picking up the blitz and giving some chips on the edges to help the tackles. And so the way that he played really, I think, will help his confidence and help him continue to grow and we can continue to use him. So it’s fun to see, kind of, where he started in training camp and where he’s come to.
"And I thought James made some huge plays for us. The one down the sideline, tracking the ball, going up, high-pointing it — I thought that was great. And then he had a catch and break a tackle and run. He started to play with confidence. And that’s what I, when I said that to him a few weeks ago, ‘Get your back,’ he’s showing that. He’s getting his confidence back, and it’s showing for all of us on the field. I told him after, I gave him a hug and told him how proud I was of him.”
On previous comments on Washington: “He’s done the show team. During practice he’s the scout wide receiver. And he’s been out there doing really, really good things. And that helps with confidence sometimes. You’re getting out there and you’re doing some different routes and you’re not thinking, you’re just playing… And I think that his confidence is growing, and I hope that this last game will even help more because we’re going to need him moving forward to make plays for us. Because teams are doubling AB and they’re doubling JuJu, and so he’s going to have to make plays for us. And I am proud — that’s why I didn’t get too worked up when the outside world called me out for saying what I did to him. Because they don’t know what’s going on, the talking heads, and the quote-unquote professionals on ESPN, they think they know, but they really don’t know what’s going on inside our locker room. So I just am so proud of him.”
On Ian Rapoport’s report Ben suffered cracked ribs: “You shouldn’t even say his name on this show, because nothing that comes, what he says there’s any truth to. I will stop you. I have no idea where that came from. My wife texted me before the game like, ‘Did you hear about this?’ And I’m in the locker room like, this is unbelievable. I don’t know where that guy gets his information from, so we’re not even going to give him credence on this show if that’s OK with you.”
On pain from rib injury: “I give a lot of credit to the trainers, doctors. We tried a lot of different things, from heat packs to gels to things to put on, and at the end of the day you trust in the doctors and what they tell you to do and you go out there and let adrenaline and all kinds of things help. We’re all dealing with a lot of pain right now at this time of year, so guys fight through it — we all have and we’ve all done it in the past, and we’ll continue to do it for our teammates.”
On intentional grounding penalty vs. Patriots: “You try not to take a sack, and honestly, I saw one of my guys in the back of the endzone, and I tried to kind of throw it over his head, but there was a guy holding onto me, spinning me around, and so his momentum kind of forced my throw a little wider than I wanted it to. So it wasn’t like I was throwing it to a spot that no one — I mean, it ended up going obviously where no one was — but I wasn’t intentionally trying to throw it over there, but as I was getting spun around, thrown down, it’s just kind of how the momentum took the ball. You hate to have that penalty there, but you’re trying not to take a sack too. It stinks. I hate that penalty.”
On Belichick’s postgame comments complimenting Patriots' coverage on Steelers receivers: “Combat catches, right? We tell them it’s our ball or nobody’s ball. And you’re right, that first third down to Eli, what a — welcome back. Bang-bang. Physical. Making a play. I can remember JuJu on the sideline, I threw two bad balls to him early that I kind of threw off the field too far. And then I was like OK, I’m coming right back to him, and I’m throwing kind of a back-shoulder jump ball to him, and he went up and made that play. James Washington on the sideline, same sort of play. That’s when you, when you got good coverage, sometimes you just got to give your guy a chance to go up and make the play… And that’s just desire and want-to. Great coverage, but they made plays for me.”
On late incompletion to Smith-Schuster: “Great play by him (the defender). He played up through the ball. They went to a zero, so we knew we didn’t have all day. We put JuJu on the inside position to get him that route. We got everything we wanted. We thought they were going to double AB, which they did. We thought they were going to bring the all-out blitz, which they did. But because that extra guy was doubling AB, it gives you just a tick of a second more to throw it, so I held it for as long as I could, and I put it up for JuJu, and that’s what we’ve talked about on this show, an JuJu and I have talked about it many times. With him, and it happened in the Cincinnati game if you guys remember, when he caught that one kind of on the goal line going in. You don’t want to overthrow JuJu, because he goes up and makes plays — like the Jaguars game. I can think of numerous times that you give him a chance to make a play, and he’s going to make it nine out of 10 times.
“That was one of those ones where I’m like, ‘Just don’t overthrow him.’ I’m frustrated with myself because I wish I would’ve put it out there more and just let him run under it and catch it. But for him, you want him to go up and make that play, but like I said nine out of 10 times he’s going to make that play. The one time is going to be a great defensive play, and that’s what that guy did.”
Any conversation with Belichick postgame? “I did not see coach after the game. I don’t know that he, he maybe does go find certain guys, but I didn’t talk to him but I did talk to Tom (Brady), just a quick, just a lot of respect for him. And it doesn’t matter how many times you play against him, it’s an honor to share the field with him.”
On Boswell: “The crazy thing is, and I try to tell this to him, is that every time he goes out there, I’m not watching it like, ‘Oh, man, I hope he makes it. I hope he makes it.’ I expect him to make it. And when he went out for that last one, never once did I think, ‘Oh, man, coach we should either go for this or punt it. Don’t put Boz out there.’ Never once. And I keep trying to tell him that. Boz, I believe in you. We believe in you. Make sure you believe in yourself and don’t get down on yourself and doubt yourself, because none of us do. And so when he went out there, I assumed he was going to make it, and he did. That’s the confidence we have in him.”
Watching Brady’s last drive: “I know, I guess I was thinking in my head, ‘OK, how would I like to be in this situation? How much time do I have? How many timeouts do I have? How far do I have to go?’ You just kind of, you’re playing it out in your head as if roles are reversed. He’s one of if not the best to ever do it. And he’s done it many times on many stages at the end of games, and so as a quarterback that’s seen him do it, that’s got a lot of respect for him, that’s, I’ve done it a few times myself, you sit over there and you think, ‘Man. This is what he wants. This is the moment that he usually shines and is at his best.’ And so you’re just counting on your defense to step up, and they did.”
On Steelers defense vs. Patriots: “They played awesome. They got after him. They created some havoc.”
On Saints defense: “Especially last night, with them being on, I watched that game and watched them on defense as they played. Technology’s amazing. On my phone or devices here, I can watch film of them. I can watch their defense. I can break it all the way down from what down it is, what formation it is, red zone, third downs, all those things. So I started doing that pretty much last night. I’m just trying to get as ready for them as I can because, like you say, everyone talks about and has talked about — rightfully so — the Saints offense. But their defense is very good, especially recently, and we’re going into their place where they’re even better.”
On keeping young players focused in rowdy Saints stadium: “Hopefully those young guys just don’t know any better. *laughs* But you’re right, and I will talk about the Heinz crowd. That was awesome. They were loud, they created havoc, they created false starts, penalties, all kinds of good things… Those are all really good things. And we’re going to have the same issue. They got a good pass rush down there, it’s loud, they got that turf that’s going to help with speed around the edge. It’s going to be an awesome challenge, but we got to just believe in ourselves and trust our guys, and the five guys up front are going to always lead us. Hopefully they’re ready and up for the challenge.”
How to simulate environment in practice: “Not talk, really. I mean, we, on Friday we’ll put speakers out there and (simulate) crowd noise, but sometimes the best thing to do is just not even talk. Just always look out to the wide receivers and just do air signals or things like that. That’s about the only way you can simulate something that loud.”
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Ramon Foster
Pleased with offensive performance vs. the Patriots? “We definitely left plays out there, but considering some of the stuff that did happen in the game, we kind of stalled a little bit for a second. It should at least have been 24 points, but that’s neither here nor there. It’s good to actually get a win.”
On running backs stepping up: “I gotta tip my hat to Coach (James) Saxon and the running backs in general, because that group of guys took on a lot of heat, they took on a lot of uncertainty from a lot of different people, and they kept their heads down and went to work.
"Just, honestly, as Coach Munch (Mike Munchak) and Coach (Shaun) Sarrett, they’ve really trained us in a way that, hey, we gotta go get the job done. Whatever they’ve done as far as psyching us (up) to say, ‘Hey, you guys are the guys that need to lead this team,’ we’ve kind of taken that on. And true enough, it hasn’t been great at times for us, but with the job that we can do in front of us, like this past weekend, it can be consistent from us.”
On Chris Boswell: “If there’s a guy that’s on the street right now at this time of the year, he’s on the street for a reason. What we have in Chris Boswell is a kicker, the (absolute) best option — it’s a lot better than a lot of teams. If you go back and also look at it, the New England Patriots’ kicker, who’s been solid for years, has gone through same of the same stuff that Boswell has gone through.
"If he misses a kick, guess what I’m doing? I’m patting him on his back like, ‘Hey, let’s go,’ because you’re part of this team. His situation is highlighted because, during his time of him being able to do his job, everybody’s looking at him. And especially through his situation right now, everybody’s focused in. Will he do it, or will he not do it? And so, he’s our guy. He’s our teammate. We gotta support him fully in everything that he’s doing, and with that, that mind game of being in this league is hard enough. We can’t be down on the guy when we know for sure there’s nobody better than him out there, and we know what he’s done in the past, also."
Does Foster still have confidence in Boswell? "I do. I do. Give him an opportunity, man. However he has to clear his mind about doing his job, I know for sure he can do it. He has done it."
On defense stepping up late vs. the Patriots: “I really felt good about our defense the entire week this week. Looking at them and how they practiced, man, I said it to somebody earlier, I was like, ‘Man, it looked like they were in camp mode.’ And I said that in a sense that they were moving around quickly, their communication was high, and, considering the situation that we were in, they wanted to prove everybody wrong, too. It was refreshing to us to see that."
Any worries during Tom Brady's final drive?: “Was I worried? Yeah, because anything can happen in those moments. That could’ve happened (with) Joe Blow at quarterback. At any point in time, somebody can make a play, and they do have that many playmakers. But our defense, they looked really well last week in practice, and it carried over into the game.”
What does Foster see in Saints? “I see a bunch of quick guys up front. Cam Jordan, he is a very dynamic player. And when you top that off with their offense that can score at any moment, you’re playing with both sides of the ball at a very high levels.
“We got our hands full this weekend. Their D-tackle, (Sheldon) Rankins, he’s (near the) top in D-tackle sacks. Cam Jordan is another guy that’s a Pro Bowl/All-Pro guy. We gotta be on our jobs this weekend."
Does Steelers offensive line feel extra pressure to protect banged-up Ben? “It does, it does, because anybody that can get a sack on Ben, they absolutely love (it). There’s certain quarterbacks in this league that they enjoy taking down. Ben, and let’s say Tom Brady is another. Aaron Rodgers is another type of guy that, if they can hit him, drill him into the ground and pull their hands out as if they didn’t try to do that, they will do that type of hit on Ben. We have to have a heightened sense of security around him this weekend.”
On crowd's influence vs. Patriots: “It was electric, man. And I know I said earlier in the week we gotta handle our business and the crowd would be a non-factor, but they were a huge factor in this last game. I think (the Patriots) had like two or three false starts. Just the anxiety of the crowd — and a couple of their offensive linemen had holding calls because they were a second late on their snap counts. It was huge. When ‘Renegade’ played, it had to have been one of the loudest times I’ve ever heard the song and the people in the crowd. It was a thing of — I hate to say a thing of legend — but it was actually really doggone cool.”
On "stealing" a win vs. red-hot Saints: “It won’t be stealing a win, it’ll be whooping somebody’s butt. That’s exactly what that is. I hate that when we do something good as a team, the Steelers that is, it’s ‘the other team lost’ instead of us beating them. No, that’s not the case.
"But the streaks in this league (are) huge. If we get on a streak the way we plan to right now this month, we’ve proven it before — and you guys know how the playoffs go. It’s one of those things that the hottest team is the team that wins the championship. And momentum is one heck of a thing to be dealing with. We reel off these next two, move into the playoffs as a hot team, we got a really good shot of playing in Atlanta.”
On Eli Rogers' return: “Man, I saw him working out yesterday at the facility. If you know Eli, man, he’s a bouncy type of guy. He’s happy, he’s focused. He loves the game, he loves the sport. And I asked him, I was like, ‘Did you hear the crowd scream for you when you made your first catch?’ And I don’t think it registered for him. It’s a testament to him because Eli is one of those solid guys that we love to have around.”
On array of Steelers offensive weapons: “James (Conner) has been out for the last two weeks, and the way teams have tried to take away AB (Antonio Brown), I don’t know if we’re acknowledging that aspect of our offense more publicly than we should be. AB has been double- and triple-teamed every single play. And for the guys around him, JuJu (Smith-Schuster) and, finally, James Washington and Jaylen (Samuels) coming in, (Stevan) Ridley, I mean, Vance (McDonald) and all the tight ends, Jesse (James). It says a lot about how this team is made up and the guys that are actually making those plays, too, man. They’ve done everything they can to take away our playmakers, and other guys have stepped up. So we are a more than capable team of getting it done. … When we’re just speaking offensively right now, we have a lot of talent.”
