Saturday, January 15, 2005
Kickoff 4:30 p.m.
at Heinz Field

HEAD COACH BILL COWHER PRESS CONFERENCE

Opening Remarks:

Let me give you the injury update as it relates to our team and pretty much everybody should be working this week. We have the following players that will be listed as probable for the game: Ricardo Colclough with a shoulder, Verron Haynes with a knee, Duce (Staley) with his hamstring, Deshea (Townsend) with his hand, Kendrell Bell with a groin, Jerome (Bettis) with his ankle, Clark Haggans with his groin, and James Harrison with a groin. So obviously everybody will be working and to what degree we’ll see where they are at the end of the week. As it relates to Jerome and Duce they both will play and we’ll see where they are again after the week as to who starts and we’ll go from there. Deshea, we will kind of monitor that as well. He has been working with a big cast, but that will come down some as it gets into later in the week and we’ll see where he is, and then we will make a decision accordingly. We are looking forward to it. Certainly, I was very impressed with the Jets and what they were able to do. To go out to San Diego on a short week and to play the game they played was very impressive. I thought that they won that game. They went out there and did what they had to. And it was a very impressive win and as you know our last game against them was not that long ago, so we’ll have something to look at as will they. Certainly it was a hard fought game and we expect this one to be the same. We are looking forward to the challenge this weekend.

Are they doing anything different than when you first played them?

Not really. I think that Chad (Pennington) has played well. He played well the other night. He threw the ball very well, and they played very good defense. Our game against them was a very hard fought game. I think that we only had about 50 yards at halftime. It was a game that was 3-3 going into the fourth quarter so it was a hard fought game, and I think that this one will be very similar.

Do you believe that Chad Pennington’s arm is injured?

He looks fine. Like I said, he made some good throws and the touchdown throw was well thrown, good timing. And he played a good game the other night. The line did a good job. LaMont Jordan had a big run at the end of the game there and Curtis (Martin) is running hard. Defensively if they get John Abraham back, which he didn’t play in our first game, he’ll be a big lift for them. They played well in the game so it’s going to be a tough match-up for us.

Did you really expect to see the Jets in the playoffs?

I knew this would happen. (Laughter) I think that they are a good football team. They lost a lot of close games against some quality teams. When you look at them, they don’t have a lot of holes on their football team and they are very solid offensively. They have some big play people, (Justin) McCareins and (Santana) Moss, two quality backs, a veteran quarterback who sees the field as well as anybody in the league, and you look at them defensively and they are stout. Jonathan Vilma has stepped in and given them some speed at linebacker, and kind of an impact type of guy on the field. Their front four are as formidable as any that we will play this year, particularly those two guys inside— Ferguson and Robertson— they are loads. It’s going to be a grind as it was the last time when we played them. We know it. We knew it going into that game and didn’t feel any differently coming out of the game. Two good corners in Donnie Abraham and David Barrett. Again when you look at them they obviously at the time had nine wins or maybe eight wins whatever they were but you knew they were going to be in the hunt so it was a playoff caliber football team there was no question about that. We knew it then, and I don’t think they have changed our opinion, but they may have changed some other people’s opinion based on how they played last week. They are a top-notch team.

How will you decide who starts at running back? The healthiest guy?

We’ll see. They are both going to play. We’ll see. I can’t make any predictions at this point.

Is it any advantage or disadvantage to play a team in the playoffs that you have already played and beaten?

I don’t know if it is anything. Certainly, it’s something that you have a chance to go back, from match-up standpoint because you know the players that you played against, particularly for this game as it relates to some of these other games. I know that all these games are kind of, everyone has played each other once already but those other games were played very, very early in the season. This game was just played pretty recently so the same players will be in this game. I don’t think that’s an advantage for either team, to be honest with you. We know them and they know us. It’s kind of like a divisional opponent that you are playing them the second time and we are just fortunate enough that we are playing them here at Heinz Field.

 Is it common for teams to add to their playbook for the playoffs?

I guess it depends on which team you are. I don’t know what other teams do. I know what we do. We may add a couple but I can’t speak for the rest of the league.

Are you concerned about any rust factors for being off a couple of weeks?

No, not at all. We had two good practices last week. I think we had a chance to get healed up. We were pretty banged up. I’m not concerned about that. If I had my choice whether I would want to have a bye week or not, I’ll take the bye week.

Do you increase the tempo of practice when you’re going to be off?

I think our tempo was pretty good. It’s been pretty good all year. I don’t think that it was any different this bye week than it has been during the course of a normal week.

Did they do a lot more of max-protections last time?

They mixed it up. They did at times. They mixed it up against what was predicated on down and distance. They did a good job against us last time on third downs. They converted a number of them. Sometimes we were able to win that battle and other times they were. They hit the one big play against Willie (Williams) with (Justin) MacCareins on the go. That’s the thing we have to do, eliminate the big plays. If we can do that and make them methodically move the ball then we’ll have a better chance and hopefully win some of those third down situations that we lost the last time. But we did a good job I think of eliminating the big play for the most part and we were able to come up with a few big plays along the way.

Did they do something a little different with their 3-4?

They had a plan that they went in with. It was a little bit of a different game plan, but not that much. They played New England after us and they didn’t play different playing against them. They played a 3-4 too. 

What did you say to Jerome Bettis to bring him back for the 2004 season and did you tell him you’d run the ball more?

We talked about re-establishing the running the game, when you finish 31^st in the league, that’s a very easy statement to make in knowing that maybe we needed to rectify that element of our football team. As we sat down to talk about the make-up of the team last year there were some concessions that needed to be made. To his credit he wanted to be here and all he asked for was an opportunity to compete for the job, and that’s really all he ever asked for. That was really all the promises I could really make even at the time he signed. We weren’t sure who we were going to be bringing in but we were going to bring in another back, somehow and someway because we really wanted to have some depth at that position given what the focus was going to be. He has made a lot of concessions. He has been the ultimate leader and has been very inspirational for this football team with the way he has not only accepted the role that he was given at the beginning of the season, the way that he really took the opportunities to have that role expanded. He did so in certainly the way that a Jerome Bettis would do that. You are talking about a Hall of Fame player that became a role player. He was a great example for a lot of players on this football team. A very unselfish guy and a guy that is in this business for all the right reasons so there is no better leadership when you get a veteran like that.

Did you coach LaMont Jordan?

Yes, at the Senior Bowl.

Can you evaluate LaMont Jordan and compare him to Curtis Martin?

LaMont is a very strong back who has some deceptive speed. I think they are both very similar types of backs. They are both very slashing type of guys. They are coming down hill right now. Certainly LaMont is a much bigger guy than Curtis but Curtis has that body lean and he gets sideways. You don’t see a lot of big hits on Curtis Martin, you always see him falling forward. I think they are a little bit different size-wise. They are very similar in running style-wise. LaMont Jordan is a good back. He is a big guy that has some speed to bounce it outside. He bounced one outside that got called back because of a holding call but he did get outside against us. He is a good back and they have a great one-two tandem in those two guys.

Did the Jets adjust how they used them versus San Diego?

It’s like that when you have two backs; it’s sometimes not easy to try to keep them both involved. You can say that it was adjusting but it probably was the way the game unfolded. Sometimes it’s a fine line to try to keep people involved. You want to give them a feel for the game but at the same time you are trying to get the other guy in and it’s not always an easy thing to juggle.

Do officials crack down on coaches being on the field during the playoffs?

You shouldn’t be on the field. Who am I to be talking about it? I certainly took notice of that. I certainly wouldn’t want to do anything to jeopardize our team. They usually warn you, and I have been warned a few times but I’ll definitely make sure that it doesn’t happen.

Are you surprised NFL officials have continued to call illegal contact so consistently?

Yes it has been there. Maybe some games it just hasn’t been called as much. But I think that it has been pretty consistent throughout and I think that is good. A foul is a foul. I don’t know if it should change. Why should it change any different in the postseason? I would like to think it has always been that way? I don’t try to teach our players to do anything differently because it’s the postseason, thinking that they will call less fouls. We don’t approach the game that way. One thing that we have been able to do is to play pretty disciplined football as of late and we will need to do that again. We need to make sure that we don’t put ourselves in situations where we are giving up cheap yardage with foolish fouls. Sometimes it happens. There are judgment calls that will take place. But you need to try to avoid them as much as possible.

Does it feel like you’re going into playoffs with a rookie quarterback?

I don’t look at it so much. To me there are no rookies anymore. We have played almost two college seasons already. This is our football team and this is how we got here. We have an identity right now. We have players who have roles on this team, and we need everybody to play up to the level that they have been to put us in this position. No one excluded. I don’t differentiate rookies from guys that have been here eight or nine years. I mean there is a good blend on this football team with the veteran leadership that we have had and the expectations. They understand what is involved that will get translated through the week. We just have to keep doing the things that we have been doing and seize this opportunity.

Do you feel the need to talk to Ben Roethlisberger about the pressure or expectations?

No. The expectations are no different than what we had to start the season with right now. This is the next step this week we are taking. The only thing that changes is the quality of the teams that you play in playoffs and this is a very good football team. All the attention that takes place and all the scrutiny that exists, that’s going to be there. I think that this team has done a pretty good job of handling that and keeping things in perspective, not taking anything for granted, not looking beyond the next week. The only thing that we are guaranteed is a game this week. And they recognize that. We have been kind of playing on the edge all season, so that being the case I think that it has been a good thing that we really don’t have to change the way we have had to play down the stretch.

How can confidence counteract playoff pressure?

I don’t know if there is any correlation whatsoever. Again those are things that they think about because they will have to answer the questions that you are asking. All we have to do is keep doing the things that we have been doing. You don’t deviate from that. We have a quality opponent coming in here. We have to prepare this week like we have been preparing all year long and go out and seize this opportunity. We have to play smart football. We are going to have to try to establish the line of scrimmage, eliminate the big plays on defense, and try to find a way to put the ball in the end zone on offense. It’s really that simple.

Did the Jets do anything different in the first game to surprise you?

No, nothing that we weren’t prepared for. We had to make a few adjustments. They gave a couple different looks early in the game but they are just a pretty stout team. We have to be patient and sometimes it may not unfold right away, but if we can stay patient and not try to force the issue then play our game hopefully we can find a way to win this thing at the end. 

Which tape is more relevant: San Diego vs. Jets or Pittsburgh vs. Jets?

I don’t know if you are going to put one above the other. We are going to look at them all. Certainly we are going to look at the last game we played against them and we will look at what they did against San Diego and we’ll look at what they did against New England, those are both 3-4 teams. I think again you have to take the information you have to prepare. We can’t be guessing what we do best but there will be a few new wrinkles; I’m sure that both teams will have some coming into this game based on the last time you played them. It’s no different than playing a divisional team when you are playing the second time around. I think we will take all that information and look at it and prepare for Saturday.

Will you talk to Marty about the Jets?

I’m sure we’ll talk. Obviously the game is right there to look at. I don’t know if there is much more insight that he can give that we can’t get off the tape. But, I’m sure we will talk.

Evaluate their special teams.

Santana Moss is a very, very dangerous punt returner. (Jericho) Cotchery just returned a kickoff for a touchdown a couple of weeks ago. They have some dangerous people in their kicking game. Certainly we have to try to get our return game going a little bit better then it is. But, right now it’s like everything else it’s just kind of like a new season you are starting 0-0 and we have a great opportunity to start this thing off on Saturday afternoon at Heinz Field.

Will (Antwaan) Randle El go back on kickoff returns?

There is a good chance that could happen.