Yesterday's Patriots game continued a frustrating trend in which the local football team has killed itself with mistakes. If you review the Patriots' five losses, three of them -- against the Colts, the Jets and the Steelers -- might have turned out differently without some crucial errors. You had the dropped pass by Jabar Gaffney and the David Thomas unnecessary roughness penalty against the Colts; Ben Watson's no-contact fumble to kill a drive against the Jets. Yesterday it was just add water, and the mistakes multiplied. While Pittsburgh's defense certainly caused some of the Pats' problems -- particularly on the two strip sacks by James Harrison, in which Harrison embarrassed Matt Light and brought back memories of last year's Super Bowl against the speed-rushing Giants -- others were completely self-inflicted. Matthew Slater's failure to field a kickoff was critical, because it turned a 13-10 game into a 20-10 game, and seemed to set the Patriots snowballing into self-destruction mode.
BAD MEMORIES: Did anyone else get flashbacks to the 2005 AFC Divisional Playoff Game between the Patriots and the Broncos? In that game, won by Denver, 27-13, New England also committed five turnovers, including two interceptions and a muffed punt (it was Troy Brown playing the role of Matthew Slater in that game), and Ben Watson even had a spectacular (albeit meaningless) tackle to stop a defensive player from scoring a coast-to-coast touchdown off an interception.
TIME FOR FANS TO RE-EVALUATE: It might now be time to stop all the silly get-rid-of-Brady-to-make-room-for-Cassel talk. While the first-year starter has done an admirable job all season, and has been brilliant at times, he was completely befuddled yesterday by Dick LeBeau's zone defense (Boston Herald). And if you want to say the results would have been better if Randy Moss had done a better job holding onto some balls, well, you're right, but the Steelers dropped a couple of interceptions, too. Cassel's struggles remind us of the thing that makes Brady great most of all -- the ability to make the right decision in the tightest of situations, something he has shown time and again throughout his career (and something he should continue to show when he returns from his rehab), and that Cassel has only shown flashes of grasping. An unfair comparison? Sure. Just as it's unfair to suggest that based on a handful of good games, a career backup should displace one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time.
CHEAP SHOT? YEAH: Robert Littal of BlackSportsOnline has posted a video of Ryan Clark's hit on Wes Welker in the third quarter, and he tells Steelers fans to accept the obvious: It was a dirty play.
AND NOW FOR THE REAL TEST: Pittsburgh sure looked like a team that could advance to the Super Bowl on defense alone. But we'll know more about them after next week's game, when the Steelers host the high-flying Cowboys (NFL.com).
THE BURRESS SHOOTING: Plaxico Burress turned himself in to police in New York City today and is expected to enter a not-guilty plea on a felony gun possession charge stemming from his self-inflicted gunshot wound, suffered at a Manhattan nightclub called Latin Quarter. He was walking without a cane and without a noticeable limp when he arrived at the East Side stationhouse today.
The New York Post today reports on the steps that Burress took to avoid the authorities after the accident, including convincing staff at the nightclub to clean up the evidence and not contact the authorities, spending 90 minutes calling around to see where he could get discreet treatment, and then giving a false name (Harris Smith) when he arrived for treatment at New York-Cornell Hospital. Hospital staff recognized him as Burress, The Post reports, but did not report that they had treated someone for a gunshot wound, as required by law.
Meanwhile, Burress' teammate, linebacker Antonio Pierce, could be in trouble because he took possession of the gun, which was not licensed in New York, and brought it with him to New Jersey (New York Post). Pierce was interviewed Saturday night by an NFL security official and was in the starting lineup yesterday for the Giants' game against Washington.
Former Giant and current NBC commentator Tiki Barber reported last night that the third Giant who was with Burress and Pierce at the Latin Quarter nightclub was running back Ahmad Bradshaw; Barber reports that Bradshaw was not involved in the incident. He also had the news that one of Barber's teammates, receiver Steve Smith, was recently robbed at gunpoint outside his home, which might have prompted Burress' decision to carry a weapon (ProFootballTalk.com).
As for Burress' mental state in the midst of all the attention -- he seems to be taking things in stride. Giants running back Brandon Jacobs told the New York Daily News that Burress was laughing and joking about the shooting when he talked to teammates about it on Sunday night.
THE BEAT GOES ON: From a football perspective, the most important thing that happened with the Giants yesterday was this: They demonstrated once again that Plaxico Burress is not an essential ingredient in their formula for success (just as they showed last season with Jeremy Shockey), and they are still unquestionably the best team in football (NFL.com). Yesterday's victory over Washington was the Giants' sixth straight over a team with a winning record; they can make it seven straight next week against Philadelphia.
NOT GOING TO HAPPEN: I'm not in New York right now, but I hope all the talk of a Giants-Jets Super Bowl has been toned down following the Jets' home loss to Denver.
ANOTHER QUARTERBACK GONE: Derek Anderson's nightmare season has come to an end as a result of an MCL injury suffered late in yesterday's loss to Indianapolis (ESPN). Anderson is likely to join Brady Quinn on injured reserve, meaning Ken Dorsey, who has not started a game in more than three years, is the new starter in Cleveland. This is more bad news for head coach Romeo Crennel, who according to Chris Mortensen of ESPN needs a miracle finish to save his job.
A-TYPICAL: The Colts' 10-6 win in Cleveland marked the first time in more than five years that they won a game without scoring an offensive touchdown. The decisive play yesterday was a 37-yard fumble return for a touchdown by linebacker Robert Mathis.
FAREWELL TOUR: Monte Kiffin, the defensive coordinator behind the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' rise from worst franchise in football to consistent contender, appears destined for Tennessee, where he will join his son on the coaching staff of the Volunteers. ESPN's Pat Yasinskas writes that Kiffin gave Tampa Bay fans something to savor yesterday with his defense's performance against the high-powered Saints. The Bucs intercepted Drew Brees three times, helping the team make up for a paltry 252-yard offensive performance.
NOT A GOOD STREAK: For the second consecutive week, the Packers' defense found itself on the wrong end of a franchise-record setting performance by an opposing player. After getting shredded by Saints quarterback Brees a week ago, Green Bay gave up four touchdown runs to Carolina's DeAngelo Williams and saw its playoff hopes probably sink for good.
WIDESPREAD USE OF STEROID? The web site ProFootballTalk reports today that as many as 25 New Orleans Saints players may have taken StarCaps, which contained a banned ingredient. The information reportedly comes from the leaked testimony of defensive end Will Grant from the combined hearing of Grant and two other Saints players who are facing suspension.
AND FINALLY: The Patriots had a bad day yesterday. They weren't alone. Referee Mike Carey called attention to himself (never a good thing for a referee) twice during yesterday's Falcons-Chargers game. Thanks to the web site FanHouse for calling our attention to these two videos, the first of which shows Carey forgetting what the penalty he was about to call was, and the second of which shows him getting trampled by Atlanta quarterback Matt Ryan:
Bill Belichick just wrapped up his press conference for today, and began by reiterating that New England missed a lot of opportunities against Pittsburgh yesterday, adding that after looking at the film there were even more than he had first believed.
One of the Patriots' strengths under Belichick has been the ability to move on from big games -- whether they were big wins or big losses -- and the coach was asked if he feels this team, as currently constructed, with key veterans on injured reserve or no longer with the team, has the personnel to do that.
"Yeah, I'm confident in this team," he said. "Based on the way this team has been all year."
Belichick also touched on Matthew Slater's fumble, as the rookie took his muffed kickoff very hard and blamed himself for the loss, saying "we all make mistakes, in every game. You learn from them and move on. Everyone made mistakes in that game."
He added that those sentiments would go for corner Deltha O'Neal as well, who was targeted by Pittsburgh.
The locker room will be open in a couple of hours and hopefully we'll be able to get more reaction from the players as they close the book on this loss and move on to Seattle.
We had a lot of opportunities out there today. We weren't able to take care of some of the ones we had. Pittsburgh took advantage of those. That was really the difference in the game, the turnovers. It was a huge part of it. We just have to do a better job of taking care of the ball and taking advantage of opportunities. I really felt that we had enough out there but we just weren't able to do enough with them.
What were the circumstances that led to Matthew Slater who is not your regular kickoff returner being back for the kickoff return in the third quarter? Ellis [Hobbs] wasn't out there.
Was there any thought to go with Kevin Faulk, a more experienced guy, because of the weather conditions? Slater has been doing it.
(On James Harrison...) They are a good pass rushing team. We have to do everything better. We have to block them better. We have to throw, catch [and] get the ball out on time. They just did a better job than we did.
There looked like there were some drops by either team early on, how much of a factor was the weather? Yes, it was wet but there were plenty of catches out there, too. It is the end of November.
What does it say to you with the disparity of the score considering the turnovers? Pittsburgh was the better team today. They beat us. They were the better team today.
You were 1-13 on third down conversions. Was there a particular package they were using or was it better execution by them? They are a good third down defense. They lead the league in it. I think we need to do a better job than we did. Like I said, we had our chances in some others situations as well and we just weren't able to take advantage of them.
Was it surprising to see Randy Moss drop a few passes the way he did? I think there were a few plays everybody would like to have back - coaches and players.
Was it the same as last week with Dean Pees going up to the coaches box to call the game? Yes, same set up.
Was it an especially rough game? I think it is always physical when you play Pittsburgh. They are a physical team. I feel like we are a physical team, so it was a tough, hard hitting game. There was a lot of good contact out there and there always is when we play the Steelers.
What are your thoughts on the hit on Wes Welker? I don't have anything to say about that right now.
With Pierre Woods leaving the game are you concerned about the depth of the outside linebacker position? We will see what we have for next week. I am not sure where that is right now, but we will see what we have going forward to next week. You hate to see anybody go out of the game. But, unfortunately that happens over the course of the year. Whatever it is, we will have to work our way through it.
The game was essentially over at that point but do you appreciate the hustle of Benjamin Watson at the end tackling Lawrence Timmons at the one-yard line. Yes, definitely. I thought we played hard out there, I just didn't think we played well. We didn't play well enough. I thought there was a lot of good effort out there. We just have to do a better job than we did today. We have to take advantage of the opportunities we have.
Did Stephen Gostkowski's missed field goal change the momentum going into the second half at all? You always like to get the points when you send your field goal team out there. That's why they are on the field. Pittsburgh had one of those at the end of the game, too, in the fourth quarter. We had the ball to start the third quarter and we didn't take advantage of that opportunity either. I think that is the whole story of the game. We just didn't take advantage of our opportunities and that goes all the way across the board.
What were your thoughts on Kevin Faulk's performance? Kevin is a good football player. He always seems to make some plays for us.
Comments (1) Satire wrote, Don't you just love that penetrating Belicheck in-depth analysis?...
Can you talk about the number of turnovers you guys had? A lot of turnovers, especially in the second half. Five turnovers in the second half; you can't beat anybody doing that. That is what was very costly.
Was the weather a major factor in today's game? No, you can't say that. The weather is the weather. You have to deal with whatever is out there. They had to deal with it too. When it comes down to it you can't turn over the ball like that.
In the second half, was it something that Pittsburgh's defense was doing to confuse you guys or was it lack of execution? Lack of execution and they are a good defense. They made some plays out there. Our hats go off to them. They played well tonight.
How did you feel going into halftime? Well it was 10-10 going into halftime and we were right where we thought we would be in the game. We didn't turn the ball over in the first half and then you go out there and have five turnovers in the second half. That is a big difference maker.
It seemed like there were a lot of dropped balls today... I missed some throws out there and maybe we missed some catches. That is just part of the game and that is going to happen. As an offense, we have to move forward. I really think the main thing for us was those turnovers. Anytime you go out there against a good defense, against a good team, who can manage the clock like they do and then turn over the ball, that takes away opportunities for us on offense and keeps our defense out on the field. We need to go back to the drawing board and do whatever we need to do to take care of the football.
Was it hard for you personally with the two strip sacks in the third quarter? There is no doubt. As a quarterback, you have to go out and take care of the ball. That is your No. 1 priority. You get strip sacked twice and then those two turnovers on the interceptions. That is really what makes the difference.
Was it a 'pilot error' on the two strip sacks or was it that you were still processing what was going on down field? It is just you drop back and go through your reads. Until I see it on film and really am able to analyze it, I couldn't tell you 'oh, well I was still going through my read or I held the ball too long.'
Where does a performance like this leave you guys? Where does it leave us? It leaves us at 7-5 in the division right now. That is where it leaves us. We have four games left and we have to go out there and play well in all of them. This is still a tight race. We are going to go down to the wire here. Five [losses] aren't going to knock us out of the playoffs right now but we have to come out and play better than we did today.
How did it affect you guys when Wes Welker was knocked out of the game? Once one guy goes down, another guy has to step up. That is just how this league works. That is how our team works. We would love to have Wes [Welker] out there every single play. He is a guy that works hard and you want him out there. But if he doesn't, then we have to move the next guy in and move on.
Can you talk about the offense's game plan for this game? For the game plan that we had and the structure that we had, we had a good idea of what they were going to do and how they were going to attack us. For the most part it played out how we thought it would.
You had a lot of success in the two games prior to today. How do you emotionally handle a game like this? Emotionally, you just say 'this is a loss and the last one was a win.' You try to get better and go back to the drawing board and see what you need to do to get better.
You talked earlier in the week about not letting the ups and downs and distractions of your season affect how you play. Is this another occasion of where it just concerns you, the film room and the coaches? That is exactly right. To be completely honest, I am not going to read anything you guys [media] write. We have to go out as a team and get better. That is what we have to do. It is not about Matt Cassel. This is about 11 guys on offense trying to get better and a team trying to get better. This isn't about one guy's performance or Matt Cassel and his stock rising or dropping. I could care less about that. I care about winning ball games. Tonight we lost so obviously I am upset.
Coach Belichick said the whole story of the game was that you guys did not take advantage of opportunities. Do you feel like you let this one slip away? I am speaking for myself. I am very disappointed in my play. Bill says time and time again, do your job. I always say as a wide receiver your job is to get open, catch the ball and score touchdowns. That first half and the whole game, there is nothing to say. We dropped balls. I didn't really have a good game. I put a lot of blame on myself because I think this team really looks to me to do my job week in and week out. I don't want to blame it on the weather. The balls were there, they just weren't caught. This is something that will probably bother me until next Sunday. Hopefully this is something that we can rebound from. But, it does hurt. It is a bad taste.
Does the weather have an affect mentally? I don't really know what the feeling is but I think for the most part once you start catching you get into a rhythm and then you start feeling good. Once you drop one ball and you drop another ball I think it does start to affect you mentally. That is why they call us professionals because we are supposed to let the bad go and get back to playing football. I know, from my standpoint, that I didn't play good today. I am not blaming it on the weather. I am not blaming it on the rain. The balls were hitting my hands, and hitting my body. I just couldn't secure the catch. Hopefully, I can come out and have a good week of work and put this all behind me.
When it comes to Matt Cassel, he had a couple of interceptions and it is not something we have seen from him the last few games. Tonight was it just a matter of Pittsburgh's defense? Any given Sunday anything can happen. I think for the last couple of weeks we know from an offensive standpoint, the media and the fans have seen what Matt Cassel has done with this offense. So, in a certain sense people think we are riding high. But, football is football. I think once we came out in the second half a couple bad things happened and they trickled on down. Like I said before, part of being a professional is to play through adversity, let the bad go and try to make something positive out of anything. It was some bad football out there. A lot of the blame I am putting on myself. Hopefully, I can rebound.
Kevin Faulk, Running Back
(On if the first half went how the team wanted it to go)
"It is not about how you wanted it because we made some mistakes in the first half too. It was close where you wanted it to be at that point in the game against a team like that."
(On if he saw Ryan Clark's hit on Wes Welker that knocked him out the game)
"No, because I think I was blocking at the time. You could tell that was a hard hit because if Wes Welker stays down then it must have been a pretty hard hit."
(On the Patriots third down efficiency)
"Well you just answered the question already. We had four, five turnovers in the second half. You can't have that against a team like the Steelers."
(On the third quarter turnovers)
"It's always frustrating when you turn the ball over and then when you finish the game with a loss. That's the most frustrating thing you can do, but hey the season's not over yet. We have to come back, watch the film, look for our mistakes and come back and be ready to play next week."
(On how the weather affected the receivers)
"It's our job. It doesn't matter what the weather conditions are we have to try to execute and do our job."
(On how Matt Cassel responded to adversity)
"It's not just about Matt, it's about this whole team. We have to respond to adversity right now, we lost the game and we have to come back and bounce back next week."
Tedy Bruschi, Linebacker
(On today's game)
"We try to pride ourselves on being a fundamentally-sound football team. When you have mistakes like we made out there it is just not good football. The ball was on the ground; they were breaking runs like they did and they are able to convert on third down, then all of a sudden you have a score that looks like it did on the scoreboard."
(On the poor weather conditions during the game)
"Rain is rain. Snow is snow. Sun is sun. It is all about who takes care of the football better out there and who is able to force turnovers better out there. They did a better job of that than we did."
(On if he felt the offensive turnovers made it hard on the defense)
"No, I wouldn't say that. I can definitely tell you about how our attitude was in the huddle in there. When a situation is presented to us like that you just have to deal with it no matter where the football is. Whether [the football] is on the one-yard line or they get a fumble on the kickoff and they are in the red zone already. I think their offense came out fired up but I think we were up to the challenge. We wanted to get a stop and maybe force them to three [points] or try and get a turnover ourselves. I think we forced them to three [points] once. That was one of the first games I have been involved in where it seemed like the ball was on the ground so much. All of sudden, we are out there again. Whenever we got out there, it was just 'this is what we have in front of us, and now we have to do our job."
Sammy Morris, Running Back
(On the Patriots second half struggles)
"Obviously not enough happened for us as a team. Turnovers will kill you, especially playing a team like Pittsburgh."
(On what the team will have to do to stay in the playoff race)
"A couple weeks ago people were asking if it was a must-win and I would say that at this point of the season they are all must win. Obviously with a loss this late in the season it's going to put a little more emphasis on this next game, on [it] being a bigger game for us."
(On the Patriots third down efficiency)
"That's the big thing about third downs, it keep drives going or it cuts them short. Especially when you go three-and-out, it cuts them short pretty abruptly. You add the turnovers and the scoreboard reflected [the outcome]."
Ellis Hobbs, Cornerback
(On whether every game is now a must-win)
"I mean, starting in the beginning of the season, you have to think like that anyway. To play the way we do and lose, you just can't expect the playoffs to be handed to us. It's a competitive league this year."
(On what needs to be corrected)
"I don't want to jump to any conclusions. I have to see the film myself. First off, I'll point the finger at myself. I'll do whatever I can do to get better -- hopefully, everybody else will do the same thing -- and if everybody gets better individually, and as a team and just press that much harder, I think we can turn it around for this West Coast swing."
(On the weather and the turnovers)
"This wasn't our first time playing in crazy conditions. We've just got to make more plays on our side of the ball. We've just got to make more plays on offense and defense."
Matthew Slater, Wide Receiver
(On fumbled kickoff return)
"There's no excuse. You have to field the ball. Yeah, it's wet. Yeah, there's rain. But I have to do my job."
(On the emotions he felt)
"I'm frustrated. I cost my team the game. I just have to continue to work as long as I can, as hard as I can and go from there."
(On whether he saw the ball clearly)
"I saw the ball. There's no excuse. I just feel like I let the team down. You can't give up the ball inside the 10, or the 5-yard line, whatever it was. Like I said, I have to do my job. It's as simple as that. There are no excuses."
Jabar Gaffney, Wide Receiver
(On the Patriot turnovers in the third quarter)
"It was frustrating. We had the ball coming out in the second half and it was time to get back into the game and we let some opportunities go."
(On if the weather was a factor)
"Both teams played in it, so you can never make an excuse for the weather. You just have to go play whatever the conditions."
(On being 1-for-13 on third downs)
"You can't win like that. You have to pick up third downs and keep the ball and we didn't do a good job of that."
Logan Mankins, Guard
(On the play of the Patriots offense)
"Today was a pretty big disappointment for us. We came into the game with high hopes and we didn't play very well. I can only speak for the offense but the second half was pretty ugly. You guys saw it, you saw a lot of the mistakes we made and you can't win playing games like that."
(On the Steelers' defensive line)
"They have some pretty good players. I think a few of the pressures just came off the edge, they got around the edge and they got to [Matt] Cassel. It's going to happen, and if we get another shot at them or when we play next week we can't let that happen again."
(On momentum from the second quarter to the third)
"I thought we had momentum coming out of the half. We drove down and missed a field goal but at least we drove down. We came back out, we're driving the ball and it was second-and-one, sack, third-and-long, punt. That stuff kills you. Right after that we have the fumbled kickoff return, two strip sacks and an interception. You can't beat Pop Warner teams doing that."
(On the offense)
"I thought the first half was fine. We moved the ball. We didn't score many points but we were moving the ball up and down the field I thought. The second half was just chaos. Turnovers, turnovers, turnovers. It was pretty ugly. Pittsburgh is just one of those teams that they do what they do. They are good at it."
(On mistakes)
"When you go one play, turnover, one play turnover, you are not going to get into any rhythm at all. You are going to stay cold. That puts our defense in a tough, tough situation. For the most part they held their own. They were given the ball down by our [goal line] numerous times and [our defense] stopped them. The defense, they gave us a chance but we (the offense) didn't give them a chance."
Mike Wright, Defensive Lineman
(On the balance of the Steelers offense)
"I can't speak for the rest of the defense but I didn't play the way I wanted to. I don't think they got me off balance at all. I just have to play better. Have to play the run better and have to play the pass better. Also have to get more pressure on the quarterback and be more physical. I don't know how it got out of hand. I don't know. We need to be more physical and need to do our job better. That is all there is to it."
Brandon Meriweather, Safety
(On the Steelers offense)
"They have a great quarterback and actually they have a great offense. We expected them to come in and do exactly what they did, they just executed to perfection. They made plays and we didn't. That is pretty much what got the game away from us."
(On the second half)
"They just came to play in the second half and we didn't. They did a great job of keeping us honest. They did a great job of running the ball and passing the ball. We really couldn't just key in on one thing."
Well, a great half of football for our football team produced a great team win. It was just that: a team win. I think we had significant plays in all three phases. We had big returns, we got turnovers, the kicking game, [the] offense got going there and the defense, well, they were their usual selves. Needless to say, we're pleased with this. We'll keep it in perspective. We'll put it with the other ones. Our greater challenges, of course, lie ahead. We'll enjoy this today, no doubt, but we'll definitely move forward because we have an understanding of what's ahead of us.
Can you talk about James Harrison and what he did today? Not to take it for granted, but that's what we've come to expect from him because that's what he's capable of. He's got tremendous talent. He's got tremendous work ethic and he's a heck of a football player.
Can you talk about the elements and how they might have impacted your offensive scheme and if they did impact the game? We kind of embrace the bad weather. That's kind of our group. We've got a quarterback from Finley, Ohio. That's how we play football.
The Patriots were 1 for 11 on third down. What did you do to limit them? We didn't do anything [differently] than we normally do. Of course we were conscious of Randy Moss and where he was located--he can hurt you, of course, big time--but we didn't step outside of our personality. We did what we usually do.
You weren't here for some of the history between the teams, but did you get a sense that some of your guys wanted this game because it was the Patriots, aside from what it meant for the playoff race? You heard a lot of talk about it being a rivalry. I think more than anything our focus this week was that it hasn't been much of a rivalry because they've gotten after us. For it to be a rivalry we've got to win some and that's what we set out do when we came up here today.
Your nose tackle Casey Hampton didn't seem happy with that holding call and then he got the sack a play or two later. Can you talk about how important that was? You know, Hamp [Casey Hampton] is a catalyst for us in a lot of ways--usually it's because he's a stout guy and tough to move in terms of playing the run. He got a nice play for us. It was a significant play, but there were a bunch of significant plays in the game. The credit goes to our players. They stepped up and embraced the challenge in a hostile environment against a very good football team and played the way we are capable of playing.
Can you talk about the play of Keyaron Fox and how much his plays swung the game? Again, like I said, you can pick plays that swung the game. Keyaron played big for us today, other than the initial penalty to get us started. This is a guy that's passionate about his role as a core special teams player and I think he's a source of energy for a lot of people. We like humble, grounded guys like him. He's one of the reasons we're much improved in our special teams game.
Was it your game plan to use the two running backs the way you did today or was that just the evolution of the game? That was the plan. We were going to use both guys. I think everybody knows what Willie [Parker] is capable of and of course Mewelde [Moore] continues to prove that he's a valuable asset to us. It was our plan to use both guys and it ended up working pretty well.
You had over 160 yards rushing today. What does that tell you about what you're trying to do in the running game with all the injuries you've had? You know, we still can't run it. We're working. That's what you guys will write, anyway.
Can you talk about how important it was early in the game when they jumped out to a quick lead to hold your composure as a team? That's kind of been our personality here, as much as you don't like to accept that. We've gone into some hostile environments and gotten off to a slow start. But the guys don't blink; they persevere. We got off to a slow start in [Washington,] D.C. against those guys in a hostile environment. That's kind of how it's been for us, but they didn't blink. They knew we had 60 minutes of football and we just continued.
You went to a no-huddle offense on the drive that tied the game. Why then and what did that do for you? We had the intentions of jumping in and out of no-huddle, just like we intended to rotate out backs. So it wasn't any grand scheme of things, we were just going to continue to do that and change the rhythm of the game.
Offensively, it looked like they were spreading you out a little bit in the first half. Did you do anything differently to get James Harrison and LaMarr Woodley involved? We had the intentions of dropping people versus empty because they get the ball out of their hands so quick we didn't think we could get home. We carried that personality all game and it was probably less empty in the second half, so those guys had an opportunity to rush. It wasn't any change, It's just how it fell for us.
What do you think about that penalty on Ryan Clark when he hit Wes Welker? I don't comment on penalties or officiating.
What does it say that your team was able to hold onto the ball and the Patriots weren't? When you play good people -- make no mistake, the New England Patriots are a good team -- we've got to take care of the football. We talked last night about scoring or punting and that was going to be a significant determinant of the outcome of the game. And we did. We took care of the ball. Ben [Roethlisberger] did a nice job, the ball carriers did a nice job, the receivers did a nice job. The elements and all of that are part of it, but more than anything you've got to understand that when you're toting the ball, you're carrying our livelihoods.
How were you trying to attack their secondary? We were just trying to spread the ball around and be inclusive, include everybody -- tight ends, wide outs, running backs. I think we're more concerned about what it is we do as opposed to attacking them.
There was a third and two on a no huddle and it looked like Ben Roethlisberger audibled on a draw to Mewelde Moore. Do you know what he saw? He called the play. It wasn't an audible.
You talked about in the second half trying to get some pressure on them. What did you do differently? We were able to get home some, and it's not because we did anything differently, really. They probably just were throwing the ball down the field a little bit more than they were in the first half, due to game circumstance. Sometimes things like that snowball. I don't want to make more out of it than what it is. When you start to get up on people and they have to start to throw the ball vertically, you get more rush opportunities. It's not like any grand scheme of things that we changed or that our level of intensity changed. I think just game circumstances created more opportunities for us.
Is Ben Roethlisberger getting better at calling the plays and no huddle? He's been pretty consistent. That's how he's been.
Any injuries? None to speak of, thankfully.
Are you concerned Ryan Clark might get fined for the hit on Wes Welker? I'll let the league do their job. I'll let the officials do their job. I'm not going to express my opinions in regards to any of that.
You guys hit pretty hard today. They hit pretty hard, too.
Yeah but they're the ones that walked away bloodied and dazed. They're a good football team.
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