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	ARTICLE Steelers-Ravens Post-Game Quotes Sunday, September 19, 2004 STEELERS-RAVENS POST-GAME QUOTES PITTSBURGH STEELERS QUOTES HEAD COACH BILL COWHER (General statement) “Obviously, it was a disappointing loss. It was disappointing seeing them run down the field like they did. I thought we made some adjustments, but we turned the ball over and got some penalties. After we made some adjustments, we picked it up more offensively.” (On backup QB Ben Roethlisberger’s first game) “Not the ideal scenario to come into a game on the road and down 20-0. But he came in and did some good things and most of that was in the hurry-up offense. That’s what the number two quarterback is there to do, so he’ll step up and take the reigns and we’ll go from there.” (On the return for a touchdown) “There was a miscommunication on the no-huddle call. Ben didn’t signal the call correctly.” (On the injury to CB Chidi Iwuoma) “He has an abdominal strain and we don’t think it’s anything serious. A lot of people were scared because he was hit in the stomach but his ribs are fine.” (On scaling back the offense for Ben) “We did a little bit but it wasn’t really bad. Again, the circumstances scaled back a lot.” (On the intentional grounding call) “I thought his (QB Tommy Maddox) arm was hit, causing it to fall short of the line of scrimmage.” (On if he thinks Baltimore is as dominant as they looked today) “I don’t think we played well. They played very well. Our kicking game wasn’t very good. We gave up three points just before the half on a very poor punt and we gave up two touchdowns in the second half on an interception and another interception for a touchdown. But their defense created it.” (On if a rookie quarterback can keep a team in the playoff hunt) “We will certainly find out. I don’t see any reason why he can’t.” JAMES FARRIOR (on the Ravens) “They did everything well in all three phases, special teams, offense and defense, they did just enough on offense, just enough on defense to win the game. We didn’t have the offense, they didn’t help us and nobody helped anybody.” (on Tommy Madddox’s injury) “We still got to keep going forward. Injuries happen, they happen every day in the league. I mean, we’re going to have to keep going and move forward, we know Tommy went down but Ben, he’s going to be ready. We just have to keep playing and let the chips fall where they may. He’s probably going to make some mistakes, everybody does, but it’s going to be a learning experience for him. (on the first drive) “It was tough, they just ran the ball down our throats. There wasn’t anything to it, there wasn’t anything that we didn’t see on tape. They just out executed us today.” CLARK HAGGANS (on the opening drive) “With Ogden coming back, we knew it would be a physical game. They ran the ball a lot. We just have to forget our mistakes so this won’t happen again. So that this does happen in the future and all season. They had the ball a lot, they controlled us. We had a lot of missed tackles. We’ve got to look at what we did wrong. Emotion was riding high, we had a solid week of practice. We came in with the idea that we were going to be physical and play hard. But we had three or four penalties, actually eight penalties and a few turnovers, it’s hard to rebound from that.” CASEY HAMPTON (on Chester Taylor) “Chester’s a good back. I guess they were just trying to keep them (Jamal Lewis) fresh for the fourth quarter. Whatever they did worked. Both of them run the ball. Jamal takes the ball inside, Chester can go outside. We just didn’t play good, solid football.” (on the first drive) “It was tough, because we pride ourselves on stopping the run. It’s something we’ve got to overcome.” DESHEA TOWNSEND (on Kyle Boller) “He played well, but the key for them is the running game. Anytime Jamal can keep going, it takes a lot off of him (Kyle). He basically throws when he has to, but the main thing was Jamal Lewis. We’ll see them again.” JOEY PORTER (on Todd Heap’s injury) “He was hurt the play before. It looked like he was hobbling, but at the same time, I don’t know if he was fake hobbling. I’ve seen a lot of guys that looked hurt and kept playing. They fall on the ground and get up and run a play. I didn’t hit him, I pushed him. He rolled over and make like I had hit him. I just pushed him. It’s not like I took a cheap shot at him and ran in there and hit him. I pushed him with my hands. This is football.” (on what the Ravens said after the play) “Of course, guys are going to be mad. After the game, they said ‘I see what you did’, he was hurt before. It’s just a thing to get the crowd into it, to boo me, to make me out to be the bad guy. So I’m fine with that.” (on what the defense has to do differently) “Just regroup. I don’t even know if they had 300 yards total offense. But the big thing is they won the game. We did some good things out there, but that first drive was the key of the game to me. It set the tempo for them and then the way they did it was running the ball down our throats and that hurt us as a defense but I felt we could rally back. We made some good stops toward the end, there was just too much to overcome. It was down 20-0 so we had a lot to play for.’ (on the first drive) “I knew they were going to run the ball. I felt like we would stop them. We kind of knew the plays they were going to run, Jamal came out and ran pretty hard. It was a combination of misreads and mistackles. I felt like after that we did pretty good, we stopped them after that.” HINES WARD (On the game) “The Ravens took the first drive and went down for a touchdown. We never responded. We tried to get something going, but turnovers and penalties kept shooting us in the foot. We played inconsistent all day. It was frustrating because I think we were pressing too much. We went down early, you know. When things happen like that you have to take control. It’s a full 60-minute ball game and you can’t overreact, but I like the way we fought back at the end.” (On if QB Ben Roethlisberger can lead the team) “It’s going to be difficult. We were in the huddle, trying to coach him up at the same time about coverage. But he did a tremendous job.” (On what he told Ben) “I told him to learn from it. With Tommy (Maddux), ‘if it’s something serious, you’re our guy for the rest of the year.’ He’s our guy, you know, and [Plaxico Burress], myself and Antwaan Randle El, have to adjust our game to be ready.” (On how he is going to help Ben) “Patience. It’s going to take time. Dealing with Tommy (Maddux) over the past two or three years helps a lot. But Ben’s our guy and right now, he’s getting an opportunity to play next week. We have to go out there and make the plays. We have to make the hard catches for him.” (On Ben’s interception) “I think he was trying to put a perfect ball to me. He really didn’t have any zip behind it – he just lofted it up there and the guy (Chris McAlister) made the pick. He came over to the sidelines and said, ‘My bad, my bad.’ I just told him to throw the ball. Go out there, it’s the same game you played when you were in college. Now you’re at the highest level of competition. Just go out there and do what you know best.” PLAXICO BURRESS (On if Ben Roethlisberger was confused) “I wouldn’t say that. We had trouble with getting the calls in on time. He’s back there, it’s the first time he’s in the game so he’s all excited. We’re trying to win in the hurry-up offense and score some points and it can get like that sometimes.” (On Ben’s positives from today’s game) “We’re pushing the button. Everybody knows what this kid can do. He played a quarter and a half – it was his first time out there. You can’t expect a guy to come out there, run the offense in a quarter and a half, but he’ll have more chances. He’s going to be the future of this team, eventually, and it wouldn’t be a bad time for him to go out and start.” ANTWAAN RANDLE EL (On how he and Roethlisberger worked together at practice) “I go out as a third receiver coming in. That’s the way it works out. My thing is third down and if I can get a first on third or even second down, he’s looking for me then I make sure I’ll get open. That’s the way it works. So it’s not a thing of tear down Randle El. He looks over, you can see he spread the ball around pretty well.” (On the officiating of today’s game) “I don’t know anything about the officials. All I know is the guys in the stripes – some days they’re for you, some days they’re against. You never know. That’s the way you feel.” BEN ROETHLISBERGER (Opening statements) “It’s unfortunate that it has to come under those circumstances. You never like to see some get hurt, especially someone like Tommy’s. He’s a great guy. But, hopefully we’ll keep him in our prayers and it won’t be as bad as we original hoped.” (On the speed of the game) “It’s kind of funny. They say, you get your feet wet. I got my whole leg wet today. It’s one of those things. You come out in your first game against one of the best, if not the best, defenses in the NFL. I give a lot of credit to Baltimore. There were some mistakes made from myself out there. Those are things you have to correct for next week.” BALTIMORE RAVENS QUOTES HEAD COACH BRIAN BILLICK (On the victory) “It’s a big win for us, by the nature of the opponent, things we had to overcome at home, just all the way around, incredible win.” (On how the first drive set the tone) “It had to be [big], and the nature of the way we did it – running the ball, you know, reminiscent of the game last year if you remember. We drove down the field and then we turned the ball over. And to punch it in like that and be able to do what we did was huge.” (On this being a team victory) “The whole team, yeah, I mean absolutely across the board. We’re kind of putting the pieces together here, and that’s what makes this even more sweet.” (On the play of Boller) “He’s come a long way. I just see this kid every day in practice do more and more and understand more and more as he goes along, and it’s exciting to watch.” (On Heap’s injury) “We’ll just have to see what the trainers say.” (On Joey Porter apparently hitting Heap after the injury) “I’ve got to be careful, men, because I can’t afford the $15,000. We are awful concerned about receivers turning their shoulders, going forward on the line of scrimmage and talk endlessly about pass interference down the field, but something like that evidently is legal. How about that?” (On the penalties for taking helmets off) “We have a big challenge to find some personal discipline, some personal discipline. That’s a real focus for us. We’ve done some dumb things, We’ve got to find some personal discipline.” ADALIUS THOMAS (On the game) “It was a big win. When you go out and win the turnover battle, and not turn it over, that’s a good job by us. It shows the character we have. After that loss last week, we didn’t let it affect us.” (On the team) “We are a mature group that grew up a lot. We have to play every week. You can’t let last week bother you.” KEVIN JOHNSON (On the game) “It was huge. Anytime that you can bounce back from a game like we had last week and win like this is huge. Guys are really going to rally behind one another. We are going to get where we need to go.” (On only having two receptions) “Anytime you can sacrifice catches for a ‘W’, you do it. Today we wanted to pound the ball. We pounded it pretty well today.” ED REED (On the “complete win”) “It was a [complete win]. We came out and did our thing. Pittsburgh fought hard and they are a great team. We expected a fight and they gave it to us. We got the ‘W’ and that’s all that matters.” (On his missed pick) “I hate to see it go to [Hines Ward]. It happens, it just slipped through my hands. It was the easiest thing I have ever seen in my life. I saw myself down the sideline to the end zone. You have to catch them. I am a better player than that. It won’t happen again.” (On the offense scoring on their first possession) “We were geeked. We were ready to play. We knew they were going to score, we just needed to do our thing [on defense] and shut them down.” CHRIS MCALISTER (on the overall game) “It’s good to walk away with a victory. Everything else really doesn’t matter to me at this point.” (on controlling the line of scrimmage) “Our front seven, the whole group, did a great job of getting pressure on the quarterback, never let him feel comfortable.” (on things to correct) “There are always things to correct. I’m pretty sure we didn’t play a perfect game. But we played well enough to win.” (on if it was as heated as he expected) “Of course. It’s probably our biggest and only rival at this point. It always has been, it’s always been a Pittsburgh game it’s always been a lot of cheap shots thrown throughout the whole game from both sides, just to make it even. This was every bit of the physical game that we anticipated.” (on Porter’s cheap shot) “Porter’s an (expletive). That’s the bottom line. There’s no reason for anyone to take a cheap shot like that.” (on the one he took from Hines Ward) “Hines is an (expletive) too. No, the rest of them are pretty good.” (on needing personal discipline) “We need it. There was a lot of personal displays on my part and some of my teammates. But ultimately, like I said earlier, we can’t go where we want to go, I think a lot of us and myself as well need more personal discipline and more control.” KYLE BOLLER (on how you’re developing) “I continue to try and learn and take it slow – as slow as I can. You can’t make the same mistakes twice. I feel like I did a really good job of protecting the ball. There were a couple of throws that I would like to take back but every quarterback misses throws. I just continue to get in there and watch more tape. It really is a big tool for me is to slow down and try my best each week to become a better player.” (on running the ball) “I really have to credit our offensive line. They are really doing a great job, both rush blocking and pass blocking. They’re giving me a great pocket to throw from and holes for Jamaal (Lewis). Once you get through the secondaries, you’re gone, so they’re doing a great job.” (on the intensity of the offense) “That’s our offense. I made it a point right before the game started to come out and start fast and I feel like we did today. Guys, we were hitting them off the ball and making tackles.” (on Todd Heap’s injury) “It hurts a lot, Todd’s my go-to guy. Hopefully he’ll be back very soon, like you said, I haven’t heard anything. Other guys have to step up and make plays, Danny Wilcox, Terry Jones are going to become more and more important to this offense. We’re going to have to move forward and hopfully he’ll be back soon.” (on running the ball) “Whenever I can use my feet, I feel like it’s an advantage to our offense. I talked to Coach Nolan about it for a while the other day and he said a quarterback that can move and scramble, it’s hard. Guys that just drop back and throw it, it’s a little bit easier. Whenever I can use my feet and get outside the pocket, I think it’s really going to add to our offense.” (on getting called back after a big play) “It’s frustrating, it’s the little things, it’s the little details that we always talk about. When you have a big play and it gets called back, fortunately today we were able to come back with another play and move the ball.” (on mixing it up) “Yeah, obviously anybody who is active, doing different things here and there, you’re in the game, you have to be in the game. You’re making plays. I’m not always going to have to take off and run for thirty yards, but it’s important to make sure, in a four quarter game, you have to start fast and you’ve got to finish strong. And that’s really important.” (on Jonathan Ogden) ”He’s a seven, eight year ProBowler. He does a great job, he’s my left tackle. He does a nice job, I feel really safe with him there.” (on throwing the ball away and not taking a risk) “You don’t want to turn the ball over after last week with two interceptions. You can’t win and turn the ball over. If my target’s not there, I’ve got to chuck it down and just not make a bad play worse.” (on what was different this week versus last week) “We came out and started fast. We were productive. You know, third and long, those are the kind of things that you have to hit and continue to drive. Last week we were a little bit short on those drives. We’d do some good things and then get knocked down. We had pretty good field position today and the guys made some pretty good tackles too, at the end.” CHESTER TAYLOR (Good stable of backs on this team?) “It feels good knowing we can go to any player. We try to sell Jamal, but when he comes out of the game, we can do the job.” (On the OL) “The offensive line did a great job. I just tried to run behind them and tried to find the holes.” (Pittsburgh’s front seven got blocked well) “They blocked it well, but Pittsburgh has a good defense. We studied them all week. We found creases and we just hit them.” (Kordell provide any input?) “He’s still in love with Pittsburgh. He wants to go back to Pittsburgh (laughing). I’m just playin’. He was a good influence on us in practice. He just wants us to work harder.” (First hit not enough to bring you down?) “I just try to get every yard I can, every yard I can get.” TERRELL SUGGS (Able to disrupt Pittsburgh’s offense) “That’s what we do. We don’t want anybody to run on us. I don’t know what the number was that they finished with, but they had a pretty good day running the ball. They had an equal day. They did a good job running it, and we did a good job stopping it. Nobody really won that battle, but we won.” (At 0-1, how important was this game?) “We know how important it was. We can’t let any home games get away from us, definitely. Any time you lose in your division, it hurts, so we’re just going to rack up as many division wins as we can.” (Trouble with Staley’s running style?) “No, but he’s a great back. Duce is a great back. The man is very hard to tackle and you have to gang tackle him. But he didn’t seem to bother us.” GARY BAXTER (On the pass rush) “We wanted to heat it up a little bit and blitz some guys. We couldn’t let him have all day in the pocket or he’d pick us apart, We came with our game plan, and that was to turn it up each and every play.” (forced fumble a game-changer?) “Definitely, because we caused the fumble, Terrell Suggs picked it up and I tried to get a block on Hines Ward to spring him into the end zone.” (Really came to play hard today?) “You know it was really just a matter of time that we got on the same page and got the chemistry going. We bounced back and we weren’t even thinking about last week. We were just trying to make sure we didn’t allow any big plays down the field.” (Surprised it’s your first forced fumble, given your aggressiveness?) ”A little bit. It felt good, but at the same time, when you’re a DB and blitzing inside those trenches, it’s not a fun thing. Trust me. I had guys fall on me twice. That’s a lot of weight on you.” JAMAL LEWIS (on the win) “It was big. We came out and the line blocked everything real well and I’m surprised we ran it so many times, it caught me off guard, but we established the run early, and that’s what we do best. We stuck with it, and it opened up the pass.” (on the running game) “It was real important. We were really fortunate. Like I said, I was surprised and (Matt) Cavanaugh stuck with it. We went out and the line blocked everything and we were successful.” (on having Jonathan Ogden back) “He knows that position so well and he’s been here a long time, just his presence throws the defense off some. They know they have to deal with him.” (on Chester Taylor) “I know when I’m in the game I can come out and get a breather, because I know we can still establish the run because we’ve got good backs in Musa (Smith) and Chester (Taylor). I know when I’m out and Chester’s in, they might lighten up the defense and he knows where to hit it.” (on the importance of coming out of the gate quick) “Oh yeah, early in the week I told the running backs ‘we have to go out and set the tempo early, get everything going.” JONATHAN OGDEN (on getting back on the field) “It was, it was good to get back out there. We were hurting, but it was good to get back out there, and it was fun. I hated to miss last week, but to be home against Pittsburgh and get this win. It’s about as good as it can be.” (on the running game) “Oh yeah, I know they’re going to run hard. We want to block for them and once we get them through the line, we know they can run over or get by a safety or corner, and that’s all we try to do. We know they’re going to run hard and we just had to match their intensity.” RAY LEWIS (On the offense starting well) “It’s simple, with our offense. When you get Jamal rolling, it’s hard to stop us. We came out and set the tempo today and exactly what type of game it was going to be.” (On the penalties and injures) “I truly believe that we have to go and correct those little problems. We can’t have those personal fouls..it could have been a tough game and that can come back to haunt us. At the same time, the injury bug, we’ve been dealing with it and…guys are fitting in the way they’re supposed to fit in, so I think everything will still be fine.” (On fans relaxing after last week’s loss) “It’s simple. It’s one thing when we can play our style of football. It’s a totally different thing when we don’t play our style of football. Our fans knew what we were going to bring against a Pittsburgh-type team. You give all credit to them, those guys came out and played hard. But when we play that type of football and Jamal [runs well], it’s just hard for us to get beat. You leave the defense off the field, we get all the rest in the world.” (On the defense making plays this week) “That truly was the biggest difference. The biggest difference was we knew we had to come out and pressure, outside of those last couple of drives when we played zone, not to get beat and anything like that. We set the tempo. Last week, we came out and were stopping them and we were stopping them, but we just weren’t playing our style of defense, and that’s aggressive. And today it was aggressive, and you saw he threw us a couple of balls.” (On Joey Porter’s actions) “I don’t have anything to say about him really. It just shows what type of character that guy has. Football is football. When you take a cheap shot like that and just try to hurt somebody, it goes way outside of your character and shows what type of spirit he really has, you just pray for him and let it go from there.” RANDY HYMES (On the offense) “That’s a big key. We know they’ve got Hines Ward, Plaxico, we’ve got to keep our defense off the field. Jamal Lewis, getting his yards, Kyle Boller staying in the pocket throwing the ball. That was real big.” MARQUES DOUGLAS (On pressing Maddox) “The key today was pressuring Maddox. He’s a quarterback that’s going to stand back there and read defenses. We looked at last year’s film, we looked at the game that they played last week, and we knew in order to be successful, we had to pressure him. We had to get in his face. (On rushing Roethlisberger) “When he came into the game, his eyes were big. The line was kind of unsure what they were doing, so then you’ve got to pin your eyes back and go get it hard.”