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STEELERS HEAD COACH BILL COWHER PRESS
CONFERENCE Team Pass members can watch Bill Cowher's press conference.
Coach Cowher: Obviously,
given the short period of time, there are not a lot of updates. There is nothing
really that surfaced from the injury standpoint in regards to this game. The
only updates I do have are the guys that did not play yesterday: Andre Frazier,
I would say right now will still be listed as doubtful. Marvel Smith, I would
upgrade to questionable. We will see if he can work tomorrow and we will go from
there. We came out of the game pretty clean from an injury standpoint. There are
maybe some guys that will not work tomorrow, but nothing I foresee holding them
back from playing on Saturday. Just a quick reflection on the game,
I thought as I stated after the game, our defense came up with a very good
effort against that football team and particularly having that opportunity to
take the ball away twice, our red zone defense stopped when they got the ball on
the punt at the three-yard line, very similar to the week before. That was a big
stop. Our special teams did a good job. (Antwaan Randle) El’s return and I
thought our coverage teams performed very well. I thought offensively we did
some good things. We didn’t throw as efficiently as we would have liked, but I
thought that given the whole set of circumstances that the only negative thing
is we weren’t really able to finish drives. We got the ball into the red zone,
and had to settle for three field goals out of the four times down there. That
is something that I think we can improve upon, and that we will need to improve
upon. Nothing has really changed, though. Our situation is pretty much the same
as it was last week. There is no margin of error. It is the next game, and that
is the only game we need to focus on. We know what is at stake and the only
thing we can control is how we play and how we approach the next game. That is
what we are doing. Will this be like their
( There is no question. I will say
this about Cleveland, I have not had a chance to look but I know that (Charlie)
Frye has been starting now and I know he is a very good athlete and I know he is
running around and I know he brought them back yesterday for a game winning
field goal attempt. I think any time you are looking at a first year coach, I
think all the players, you don’t look at their record as much as what they are
trying to build. It is a football team that obviously took
Does it seem as though they are
responding to Romeo Crennel? Oh, yes. Like I said, you look at it
and they made a commitment to the young quarterback, they are going to get
better with that. They had some tough injuries. When you lose your number one
pick in the tight end and number one pick in the receiver to injuries, yet at
the same time they still have (Dennis) Northcutt, (Antonio) Bryant out there,
Reuben Droughns who has rushed for over 1000 yards for the first time since back
when I was coaching them (Cleveland). They are making strides and there is no
question about that. They are trying to build something. I don’t think there is
any question that they are making strides in the right
direction. What are they doing differently with
Frye at quarterback? I have not looked at them enough to
answer that question, to be honest with you. Did your offensive line maintain
what it had established against Every week is a challenge. Every
week, you are dealing with different obstacles. We were not as crisp as we have
been in the past. But I give credit to them, too. Kevin Williams came back and
he was disruptive, there is no question, he is a good football player as
defensive tackle. We dealt with the noise okay, a little spotty at times, but
sometimes you are going to play games like that. We got off to a rough start
with a couple of the false starts in that first series. They had one false start
and one hold. But after that, I thought we settled down a little bit and dealt
with the noise and even the protection was pretty good for the most part. I
thought we did a lot of good things. We probably were not as efficient as you
would like to see, particularly we had some third-and-makeables that we had a
chance to convert that we were not able to do. But I give credit to
How much of the lack of efficiency
offensively might have been a reflection of game plan or strategy, particularly
as it relates to that defense creating so many turnovers and
interceptions? I give them credit because their
front four can create some disruption in your offense, particularly since they
got Kevin Williams back. He was a big plus for them to get back. They have some
corners that can make plays. They have safeties that are very understanding of
that defense. I think we missed some opportunities. We left some plays out
there, but at the same time we did a lot of good things. We played smart. We
didn’t beat ourselves. Like I said, if you finish off a
couple of those drives, you don’t probably don’t walk away from it feeling the
same way you do now. I think we got down there in the red zone four times and we
were only able to score one touchdown. A lot of times you come out of that, and
if you do that, it is going to come back to haunt you. I think just the fact
that we weren’t able to finish those drives, I think maybe probably it was
perceived to be a little bit more uncomfortable than it really was. I have to
give credit to Will you leave your defense as your
punt return team considering how well that worked? We have done that quite a bit. We
look at the down and distance situation, but we got a returnable punt, Antwaan
Randle El took it and ran and we did a good job. We have been close on some of
the punt returns and trying to eliminate the penalties. I almost feel like
that’s all I am ever talking about. I think we only had two penalties on the
punt returns this week. One of them was negated because of them being downfield
and I made them kick again and told them whatever you do, no penalties. My man,
Mike Logan, goes out there and gets a penalty. They are very aggressive
penalties, there is a very fine line right there. I am promoting finishing and I
am promoting making sure that we get a hat in a hat. It is an act of aggression.
You have to use good judgment at times. But I like their approach and I don’t
want to diminish that. Mike is a good football player. He takes a lot of pride
in that. We are getting close. I thought we were getting close last week. I
thought we were real close. Antwaan Randle El was getting excited about that,
too. If we get out kickoff return going a little bit, we were a little bit
behind with that yesterday so we tried to get that going. We are going to need
all three phases. That is way this football team is built, we want the special
teams to be the positive every week and then find a way to win on offense or
defense or both obviously would be the ideal way of doing it. But we are getting
a little bit better. I thought we did some things better than we did the week
before. I think that is very important at this time of year, to continue to get
a little bit better from the previous week. Would you like Antwaan Randle El to
run more north and south? Sometimes you do have to make a guy
miss. It’s easy for us to sit up here and say but we’re not the one down there
returning punts with people flying at you. His statistics over the years warrant
his decision making. I trust him very much with the ball in his hands.
Was his return the result of a
change of approach or just the way the play unfolded? Just the way the play unfolded. It
was very easy. It was not a very high kick. It was a low kick; he caught it on
the run and there was no one near him. He just kept on running. It’s all
subjective based on the kick, based on the circumstances. We’ve talked about it.
He’s fine. You don’t want to get guys over thinking about it. He’s good at what
he does. I don’t question that. Is a defense vulnerable to the big
play if it plays aggressive? Yeah, it’s going to happen. It’s
good to know that you have some guys that can make big plays. You look at a game
like yesterday. With Willie Parker, you get two or three but you know that if
you keep giving the guy the ball, if he gets a seem on that carpet he’s going to
go. Ben [Roethlisberger] made a great throw to Heath [Miller] on a bootleg.
[Heath has] this uncanny ability to make people miss. The other thing we’re
getting is some great blocks. I can’t say enough about our wide receivers: on
the touchdown run that Ben makes, [Randle El] comes back and knocks Pat
Williams, who’s like 350 pounds, in the air; Hines Ward with what he does week
in and week out; Quincy Morgan on the bubble screen that we throw to [Randle]
El; Cedrick Wilson recovered a fumble last week. The hustle and the effort that
we’re getting from our receivers in everything that we’re doing is what you are
going to win football games with. That’s permeating right down with everything
else that we’re doing right now. I can’t say enough about those guys. We feel
like we have enough play makers that we’re going to make a play somewhere in
there, just don’t beat yourself. If you have to punt, you have to punt. Just
don’t feel like you have to force the issue. Somewhere in there someone’s going
to make a play. That’s what you have to believe and that’s what you have to
trust in the course of the game that that’s going to happen.
Are Joey Porter and James Farrior
finally getting healthy? They are. Joey’s getting energized.
He’s getting his knees back. He probably hasn’t been 100 percent all year long
to be honest with you. He never really had a chance to rest it. James is the
same way. I don’t even know if he had his brace on the other day. It was
probably the first time he’s played without the brace. We have good depth on the
defensive line. I can’t say enough about Casey Hampton. The play he makes on the
safety he puts the center right into the back. Everyone else kind of cleans up
behind him. Aaron [Smith] and Kimo [von Oelhoffen], then we can bring in Travis
[Kirschke] who’s been playing great. Chris [Hoke] and Ike
[ Are you letting Porter rush the
quarterback more? We haven’t made any conscious
effort. It depends on how the game unfolds. It depends on what we see
protection-wise and what we call blitz-wise. We’re moving him around more. He’s
dropping; he’s rushing. We made an adjustment in the game the other day based on
what they were doing protection-wise. Those are the type of things you do in a
game. That’s what’s good about having some veteran guys that you can do that
with, guys like How do delays by the officiating and
challenges affect the game, such as the Randle El
play? The Randle El play, to be honest with
you, I don’t know why it took so long. I wasn’t sure why the initial flag was
thrown out. I can’t answer that. The idea is to get it right. The more
conferencing that you have with officials the less credibility comes with the
game. It slows down the game and you start to wonder why you have to talk about
it. Why do you have to conference a false start? It’s either a false start or it
isn’t. They got the play right. As I stated before, the only thing I questioned
was Randle El getting pushed into the ball, which I still contend. But they
didn’t see that. It’s not a reviewable play; then you have to live with what was
called. I really didn’t know why all the things took place. I was just standing
there watching it to be honest with you. At one point they said we had the ball.
I thought that was great. I wasn’t going to question it. They’ve got a tough job
but they got it right. When he came over, first he said we had the ball then he
walked away. I was thinking ‘okay’. Then he came back and said he was wrong,
they have the ball. That’s when I said if he did get pushed then the touching
wouldn’t matter. I just asked him to ask [the other officials] if he did get
pushed into it. He came out and signaled first down their way. It wasn’t a long
discussion when he asked so I didn’t think our chances were very good.
Do the delays help the visiting
team? I don’t know if it helps anybody.
That’s just part of the game; you deal with it. We’re ready for our calls. I
don’t know if it’s a help. It’s hard to say. Could you have challenged the Randle
El play? When you signal for a fair catch you
give up the right to block. Now when he signaled for the fair catch he was
running to get away from the ball. As you noticed he put his hands up. Now he
can’t block. But he’s running and the guy hit him as he was running away from
the ball which pushed him back into the touching of the ball. If that was viewed
as him being hit and pushed back into the ball then that touching would not have
counted and we would haven gotten the ball at that point right there, which
happened to us in the Super Bowl in 1996. It was not reviewable. I asked them if
I could challenge the fact that he was pushed into the ball. I was told that was
not a reviewable play. What was their
interpretation? I was told that no one saw him get
pushed into the ball. That’s what I was told. Why would he be laying on the
ground? I tried to communicate that to them
as well but to no avail. What happened on Jeff Hartings’
false start? In their interpretation it was an
abrupt move in an attempt to draw people offside. That’s what their
interpretation was even though it was something that we had been doing the whole
game in terms of our running game. Once again I tried to bring that to their
attention. They deemed in [a false start] just like on third-and-one they called
Brad Johnson with a head-bob. From that perspective of the two situations, I’m
not sure what the intents were on both teams, but they called it consistently on
both teams. From that standpoint it was a positive. Were you disguising against the
We do some things. You see
Are you happy with the team’s
focus? These guys understand. We know
what’s at stake. There’s no sense getting caught up in things you have no
control over. It just clutters the mind. We are focused again. Nothing has
really changed. We’ve been in this mode for a couple weeks now. This may be the
stiffest challenge we face in this next game because of the divisional rivalry
element; it’s an away game on a short week and we’re coming down to crunch time.
This will be a big, big challenge for our football team. Are you playing the kind of defense
you need to play? We’re playing the way we should play
to be honest with you. Not to take anything away from
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