ADDITIONAL STEELERS PLAYERS QUOTES

OT MARVEL SMITH

Re: Successful running game

“It’s something we’ve been focusing on. We have to be able to run the ball and establish it early in the game and get our offense going so we can run everything that we need to to be consistent.”

 

Is it fun to be able to beat guys like that?

“Yeah. I know everybody was talking about how they were tough against the run. We have to be able to run the ball for us to be able to play-action and throw the ball and keep the defense off-balance. We did a good job of that today.”

 

How helpful is it to see Ben [Roethlisberger] be able to slide out of the pocket to make those kinds of plays?

“He made some big plays for us. We have to know that he’s going to keep the play alive and scramble out of there and try to make big plays for us. So, we just have to hang on to our blocks longer.” 

 

With the 4-1 record now, is this room beginning to believe that something is happening?

“We always believed that we have a good team. We just put ourselves in a position right now that we have to sustain throughout the rest of the season and continue to keep moving.”

 

WR HINES WARD

One of the things about Roethlisberger is that he has a tendency to make sure that you never give up on a play because you might see the ball.

“That’s something that we really have to adjust [to]. I know I have to adjust my game to it. The two big plays Plax made – it was just Ben saving some time and scrambling around. It’s something that you really can’t practice that out on the practice field. But, we always have one man going deep, one guy coming short and one guy coming back to the quarterback. Ben gave Plax the opportunity to make a play, and he did that.”

 

Is the key as a receiver just to keep working because you never know?

“You are going to work regardless. But with Ben, you don’t want two guys going to the same spot. On those particular plays, Plax went deep and all the other receivers were trying to cut across and get in Ben’s vision. That’s something that you have to adjust your game to because he’s a quarterback who likes to scramble. He’s not scrambling to run the ball. He’s scrambling to throw the ball to his wideouts.

“Overall, it was a good day. We made some big plays today. We just have to keep it going.”

 

You are not a numbers guy, but what’s it mean to pass Lynn Swann on the all-time receptions list?

“When you think of a Steelers wide out [you think of] Stallworth and Swann, two Hall of Famers. Being it’s my seventh year to pass a guy like Lynn Swann it’s just – I’ll have time this offseason to reflect about it, but it’s a great accomplishment.”You made a Swann-like catch today too?

“Yeah, just working hard. Like I tell Ben, ‘Just throw it in my direction and trust me to make a play for us.’ But we all made plays today. Plax made some plays. Antwaan made some plays. We are just trying to get on the same page as Ben. The more reps you get, the better you become.”

 

WR ANTWAAN RANDLE EL

General comment

“We came out [and] we knew we had some things we could do against them. We came out and wanted to establish the run and that’s what we did early on.”

 

Can you talk about adjusting to Ben because you never know when he’s going to throw the ball?

“I did the same thing in college as a quarterback. So I understand and I know to stay alive. That’s what he expects out of us, and we have to adjust our game a little bit. There is nothing wrong with that.”

 

What’s the secret to be a scrambling quarterback? Like you said, you did it in college.

“Well, the secret is being smart with it. If you don’t have it, throw it away. If you’re going to take a sack, throw it away, hat kind of thing. But, if you know you have a chance to make it, then go ahead and try it. Then, if you don’t get it, then you come back and make the next play. But its not a set up thing. You come out and you run the play that you have. If it breaks down, then you go into that improvisation that we talked about. Being under control and being smart – that’s the biggest thing.”

 

What happened on the interception?

“I took my eye off the ball. I tried to run with it before I caught it. I saw the linebacker coming from the inside. I was trying to catch it and go back to the inside. I just took my eye off it. [The ball] got tipped up and gave them seven [points].

 

LB JAMES FARRIOR

The sack total doesn’t show it, but you really got good pressure on Garcia. He never really had time to set [his feet].

“Yeah. He got away from us a couple of times or we could have had a lot more sacks. He did a good job of scrambling. We knew he had good feet. He got away from us a couple of times.”

 

By and large, don’t you think your pressure disrupted what it was we was trying to do?

“Oh yeah, definitely. I definitely think our pressure was excellent today. I think every time he went back to throw the ball, somebody was in his face. So we did a good job with that.”

 

Did you blitz more today than you did in the first three or four games?

“I don’t think so. We had a good balance today. I don’t think [the blitz] was any more used that what we’ve done in the past. It’s just [that] we were getting there today.”

 

Is this becoming a very confident group at 4-1 and on top of the division? Are you growing in confidence as a team with each passing week?

“I think we’re growing, but we all know that we didn’t play our best game today. We still have room for a lot of improvements. We still have some things that we need to work on to make ourselves a better team.”

 

Such as?

“We missed some sacks, we blew some coverages. They [got] some plays on us. We have to stop that to be a good defense.”

 

LB CLARK HAGGANS

What happened on your fumble recovery? It looked like Garcia had it before you.

“He did. I just tried to get it. We had a hot potato contest with the football and I came up with it.”

 

It seemed like the intent was to blitz him. You did it right off the bat and seemed to do it a lot, huh?

“We just went out there and tried to force him to make errors. I think he called some timeouts [when] we gave him some funky reads. We did some things. He threw some ill-advised passes. We got our hands on them, but we have to come down with interceptions. It was a solid win for us. We’re in first place. We have Dallas next week. We’re just going to take it one week at a time.”

 

It looked like you guys might have been just a little tentative because of Garcia’s ability to avoid the rush.

“He’s real elusive. He holds the ball out there and he has a great grip on the ball. I think that allows him to really move around. He’s real slippery in the pocket. It was one of those things that he’s a great athlete, you know he can run as well as throw. I know he does a lot of improvising when he gets the ball and receivers get open downfield. Sometimes he runs it, sometimes he throws it for a big gain. We just tried to keep everyone around him [and] keep him contained.”

Did you not really blitz that much today? Because, especially in the first quarter, it looked like you came at Garcia pretty frequently.

“We just did a good job – the whole front – [of] getting off blocks and trying to play the run all the way to the quarterback. I think we did a good job of that. There wasn’t much called, a blitz here or there. I just think that, on their side, they might have anticipated a lot more blitzing that what we gave them. So it worked out for us and we won.”

 

C JEFF HARTINGS

 

This might have been the offense’s best game overall. Would you agree with that?

“Definitely. That was a pretty good defense, a really good defense. And to put 24 points up in the first half, we’re obviously playing pretty good.”

 

What does 4-1 mean to you right now?

“It’s a good start, for sure. When you have aspirations to go to the Super Bowl, you’ve got to – I just take it all into perspective. If we play well enough to beat the Philadelphia’s, the New England’s and the Dallas’, that’s what we’ve got to constantly be thinking about. Obviously, New England is at the top of the hill, so you have to measure yourself against those kind of teams.”

 

RB DUCE STALEY

 

Did you save your career coming here, or the Steelers running game?

“I don’t know. All I want to do is just play ball. Right now, it’s working out. There are some things as an offense that we did wrong. [There are] some things that we could have done better. We have to be able to put them away as an offense. We didn’t do that today. So, like I said, we are going to get in here and we’re going to watch film and we’re going to move on.”

 

The team is 4-1. Are you surprised at the start of this team?

“No. I’m not.”

 

CLEVELAND BROWNS POST-GAME QUOTES

HEAD COACH BUTCH DAVIS

Coach Butch Davis: I am very disappointed with a couple of things.   The way we prided ourselves coming into this ball game defensively that we were not going to give up big plays and you have to give Pittsburgh a lot of credit.  Those guys made plays today.  They made us pay for losing containment; they made us pay for receivers getting lose in the secondary.  I hope we learned a lesson from this that in zone coverage’s when the quarterback scrambles it is plaster; you have to stay plastered on your guy.  If you let a quarterback scramble he can make 7-10 yards.  He can’t scramble as far as he can throw it, you have to stay in coverage.   We continue to have some issues in getting touchdowns inside the redzone.  We have to be able to get the ball in the end zone and score touchdowns.  When defenses are struggling and you are having a tough day like today the offense has to try and match them.  You can’t match them seven for three you have to match them seven for seven.    We are not making anything happen special teams wise.  They did a good job of kicking the ball and not giving Dennis Nortcutt a great deal of opportunity, and we are not making anything happen on kickoff returns to set the table for our offense.  There are a lot of things we have to do better.  We have to get back to work and get ready for Cincinnati. 

 

At what point to you have to assess whether Jeff Garcia is right for this offense?

Jeff Garcia is right for this offense.  

 

Can you talk about their pass rush?

They brought a lot of pressure.  It was not anything that we had not seen.  All their zone dogs and all their blitzes coming off the edge we have seen it for the better half of three or four years.  We just have to step up and block them.  We have the protections and we have the ability to pick all that stuff up, but we can’t have the quarterback under duress the entire time.  If he cannot set his feet then he cannot effectively make throws that you need him to make. 

 

Can you talk about the play of Ben Roethlisberger?

He is very heady, very smart.  He scrambled around and made some plays for them.

 

What happened on the deep throw to Burress did the safety stay up and get beat?

No, not necessarily it could have been the corners.

 

What was the most difficult thing for your defense today?

It was keeping the quarterback in the pocket and I think the running game.  We struggled today at times.  Duce Staley made some good cuts, made some cut back runs and put them in a situation where they where effectively running the football that made their play action pass that much more dangerous. 

 

Did he scramble more than you anticipated?

We had seen him move out of the pocket in some of the preseason games he had played and some of the other games and he seemed to be effective.  We talked about making sure we keep this guy in the pocket and make him effectively throw in rhythm. 

 

What is going on with the fumbled snap?

We were in shotgun and the snap was high.  I don’t know whether Jeff was ready or not. 

 

 BROWNS PLAYER QUOTES