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	ARTICLE STEELERS-BENGALS POST-GAME QUOTES Bengals Coach and Player Quotes STEELERS QUOTES STEELERS HEAD COACH BILL COWHER Initial comments... “I’ll say this: That was a very inspiring Cincinnati Bengals team. We knew that coming in here. They gave us everything and more. We were very fortunate to win this game today. Players, they persevered and made some plays when they had to. It was a very hard-fought game. We didn’t play our best, but I’m not going to say it wasn’t because of Cincinnati. They played their tails off. I have a lot of respect for them and what Marvin has done here. It was a very hard-fought game — a tough game to win. We found a way. “We had a few injuries, I must get to that. Plax (Plaxico Burress) had a hamstring; I’m not sure how long that is going to be. He didn’t feel it pop, which is a good thing. It could be a couple of weeks. Kendrell (Bell) reaggravated his groin; it’s still too early to tell. I don’t think it was anything that was ripped or torn or anything like that, so he could be a few weeks with him as well. And (Brett) Keisel had a hamstring. So that’s another in the line of injuries we are taking right now. So we will see where we are, obviously, next week with the injury situation.” Talk about Jerome Bettis... “He’s running well, he really is running well. Some of the jump cuts he’s made — I know he made one jump cut as soon as he got the ball in the backfield and turned it into a three or four yard gain. He’s is running the ball well. “... You all are waiting for Ben (Roethlisberger) to have (a bad) game. I guess this was his game. I’ll say this about Ben ... this was the first time I have seen him have a little bit of adversity. He handled it very well. This guy never lost his composure. He was fine. He worked through it. And he never really lost any confidence. I think he grew tremendously today with everything that took place. He did what he had to do. He led the team. Offensively, we got the ball in the red zone a couple of times and had some self-inflicted wounds, and couple of sacks, some penalties, and certainly we were not very efficient down there today.” Defense played well, especially in the second half... “Defense played their tails off. We knew Rudy Johnson was a good runner, and we tried to take away Chad (Johnson). Even on the touchdown play, Deshea (Townsend) read the route and was waiting on the ball. That may have worked against him because Chad actually came up and grabbed the ball. (Since) he was waiting on the football, he kind of lost track of Chad. It was one of those plays — heck — Deshea was waiting on it. Then after that, we tried again to be conscience of him. I think even on their second touchdown we were too conscience of Chad. Chris (Hope) was working the other side and he hit the seam down there and had a touchdown. You know what? In that second half, our defense stepped up. There were some big third-down stops. Again, some of the running plays, we did a very good job of tackling. Troy Polamalu had a couple of one-on-one tackles on Rudi Johnson. When you hold them to five-yard gains and still feel like you’ve won because of what we were trying to do defensively, we were trying to take away some of their deep comebacks they were running. We tackled pretty well today. I thought that was a big key.” From a coaching standpoint, in terms of adjustments, was this was as challenging a game as you’ve had? “Yeah. The guy with the biggest challenge was Spence (Kevin Spencer) on the sideline because we kept telling him there were certain guys he couldn’t use. He was running out of options. When Kendrell went down, he had to use Larry (Foote). We lost Keisel. We actually lost Chidi (Iwuoma) in pregame because he hurt his hamstring just warming up this morning. We tried Tyrone Carter just before the game. Again, the guys stepped in and did a good job. They are getting used to that. If you go through a year liked we’ve gone through and you ask players to step up, and you say it all the time in coach speak, and they turn around and it happens time in and time out — last week it was James Harris — the players pay a little more attention in practice and players take it a little more seriously.” Could you pinpoint why they were able to get to Ben so many times? “No. I’ll have to look at it. Not off hand. I’ll say this: He may have taken the sack, but he didn’t throw the interception, and that’s not all bad.” What was Ben saying as the game was going on and handling the adversity? “I just liked the fact he got off the sideline and he wanted to look at that coverage. ‘Give me the pictures. Let’s take a look.’ We were talking about his guy was open and that guy was open — it’s easy for us to say form the sideline. He had a chance to look at it and understand it. He made a great third-down run that Lee Mays couldn’t come down with, but that was a big play at the end of the game that kept the drive going. It was one of those games. They did a good job, and we did some things that hurt us with penalties and missed assignments and missed formation lineups. We didn’t play our best game. We weren’t as sharp as we’ve been. We were very fortunate to win this game. We really didn’t play good enough to win. We played with a lot of heart and lot of courage and we came back and played hard. We couldn’t do the things we’ve been doing characteristically against a football team, but we found a way to win, and that’s the sign of a good football team.” Is there any satisfaction with Dick LeBeau coming back and playing the way you did? “Knowing Dick, no. But I can’t speak for Dick. Dick LeBeau is a heck of a football coach. He’s a tremendous asset to this football team.” When Duce Staley returns, will Jerome Bettis return to the goal-line back? “We’ll face that when Duce comes back and he’s ready to go. And we’ll get Jerome in there some. This system is working pretty good, and it’s nice to have both of those guys. There’s no question about that.” Any update on Duce? “No setbacks. He got back from his second opinion. He’s going to be week to week.” STEELERS PLAYERS BEN ROETHLISBERGER On getting sacked... “Give a lot of credit to the Cincinnati defense. They came with a lot of different things, and our defense had to pick up a lot of things. I take the blame for a lot of the sacks. A lot of those sacks, I probably should have gotten rid of the ball. It was one of those things that you have to laugh off and come back and make something happen the next time.” On getting sacked so many times early in the game... “I wasn’t flustered; I was disappointed in myself. We’re a great offense. We definitely didn’t play our best today, but that’s the sign of a good team — you can win when you don’t play good.” On playing in front of former teammates and his college coach... “Before the game, it was neat to see them. But during the game, you totally forget about it. You focus on the football aspect of it. But then you get to see them after the game, so it’s good before and after the game.” On adjusting to Plaxico Burress’ absence... “Plax (Burress) is such a threat. If he’s not catching balls, just the threat of him catching a deep ball is a real threat. We had receivers step up today. Lee Mays caught some balls, (and so did) Antwaan Randle El. We just have to continue to get better and let Plax get better because we’re going to need him on the field.” JAMES FARRIOR On the defense producing points... “It’s been that type of a season. When the offense struggles, it’s the defense’ job to pick us up. I thought we stepped up big today. It’s just been that type of a season.” ANTWAAN RANDLE EL On his big punt return... “I caught a block and they were coming down pretty hard. I got right there into the pocket, got a nice block, and it opened up the middle.”