Q: What have you seen of the Steelers in the
first two weeks?
BB: What have I seen from the Steelers? I can't
remember two more dominating games. It hasn't even been competitive. They
really look good, just doing everything – offensively, defensively, special
teams. They're making big plays, controlling the game, controlling the line
of scrimmage. They've been more physical than both teams. The kicker hasn't
missed; the punter never has to punt. It's been about as dominating as you
can get. Even going back to some of the preseason games, and even last year
like when we came up there in the regular season the game was over by the
end of the first quarter or by the middle of the second quarter. It wasn't
really a competitive situation. They got so far ahead so early that they
just cut loose all their blitzes and nobody can block them. They run the
ball, control the game, control the clock. They're tough. They added a
couple of new players that we didn't see last year. [Casey] Hampton didn't
play against us, [Kendall] Simmons didn't play against us and a couple new
guys like [Willie] Parker and Cedrick Wilson, [Heath] Miller. Guys like that
continue to make them a stronger team with more depth and more playing
ability.
Q: How will you try to defend Parker? Is it
easier or harder to defend instead of Duce Staley or Jerome Bettis?
BB: I think they're all hard. They all have a
good level of skill. Obviously, they have different styles. I don't need to
tell you that. But those styles are affective and those guys have all gained
plenty of yards and they do it in their own running style. They do it very
effectively. Parker certainly adds a dimension with his speed. Staley has an
ability to make tacklers miss. Bettis [has] run vision and power and his
ability to control the line of scrimmage and ability to control the tempo of
the game, like they've done against us in the past. We have a tremendous
amount of respect for them as well. Even Ben [Roethlisberger] was running
the ball against us too with those quarterback draws, counter plays and his
ability to scramble. One way or another, they have a lot of different ways
to run the ball at you and a lot of different guys to do it. Really, they
all bring different styles, including [Antwaan] Randle El and [Hines] Ward
on the reverse packages and stuff like that. They make you defend against a
lot of different things.
Q: You went deep on them in the AFC title
game, do you see anything different in their secondary?
BB: It's changed a little bit at left corner in
the last couple of games with [Ike] Taylor being out there instead of Willie
Williams. [Mike] Logan is a guy that we didn't see last year; he's obviously
playing in the dime defense. We didn't see him. Fundamentally from a team
standpoint I don't see a lot of changes. No.
Q: How aware do you have to be of Troy
Polamalu?
BB: Well, if you don't know where he is, he'll
kill you. We know that. He had three sacks last week, made however many
tackles last year. He had over 100 tackles. He's all over the field. He's
really fast. He runs down a lot of plays. I thought that play he made on a
reverse against us in the first play of the January game was just an amazing
play where he came out of nowhere and tracked [Deion] Branch down. He's got
a lot of speed; he's got a great motor. He's very aggressive and around the
ball a lot. You make a mistake around him and he'll intercept it. Just like
he did against Washington, he'll pick it off and run it back for a touchdown
or scoop it up and run it back. He's a big factor in their game plan,
there's no question.
Q: Did you think they were vulnerable in the
secondary; is that why you went after them deep?
BB: No. It's like any play that we run or they
run. You read the coverage and if the coverage takes one guy away you throw
it to somebody else. Just like when Pittsburgh throws the ball down the
field. You take away the underneath guy and you don't have coverage on the
deep guy and they throw it to him. Roethlisberger hit [Plaxico] Burress on a
touchdown in the October game. You get back there deep and they hit you on
the underneath plays, like they hit Randle El. He ran the screen. They're
smart. They take what you give them. If you don't have it covered then they
throw it; if you do then you try to throw it to somebody else.
Q: How do you think they're different without Burress?
BB: I don't know. Do you think they would have
been ahead more than 20-0 at the half against Houston or up 37-7, or
whatever it was against Tennessee? How much worse would it have been? I
don't know. It looked pretty bad to me.
Q: What was difference between the two games you played last year?
BB: Those two games are totally independent of
each other. Both games, there were some big plays early in the game. They
favored different teams and that sets a tone for the game by the end of the
first quarter. In the first game it was 21-3 or 24-3 at the half or whatever
it was. When you have those big plays early in the game that has a lot to do
with how the rest of the game is going to played, what plays you can run.
You've got to modify your game plan a little bit, unfortunately. I hope the
first game was an aberration for us. But I don't know. Based on the way
Pittsburgh's playing, just trying to stay competitive with them. At least
through half of the game and just try to give yourself a chance in the
second half is going to be important. Nobody else has been able to do that.
Q: Would you have felt less confident taking
over as offensive coordinator with anybody else at quarterback?
BB: Is this some kind of trick question? Look,
I'm not the offensive coordinator here, I'm the head coach and our offense
is coached by our offensive staff. Each of them has a different
responsibility. I have head coaching responsibility and each of the player's
has playing responsibilities. That's how we do it. I'm not exactly sure what
you're looking for here but that's honestly how it runs. We all have a job
to do and we do it or try to do it to the best of our ability. The coaches
can't play, the players don't coach, the trainers and doctors don't call
plays, I don't do surgery. Tom [Brady] manages the offense well. He's smart;
he understands what the strengths and weaknesses of the plays are and how we
try to attack the defenses. He tries to go out there and execute the plays
to the best of his ability. I think he does, for the most part, a pretty
good job of that.
Q: What's the status of Randall Gay and with
his loss, how will you fill that?
BB: We'll evaluate those players when we got
out to practice today. We'll give an injury report at the end of the day, as
we always do on Wednesday. We haven't practiced in a couple days. We played
on Sunday. We didn't work on Monday or Tuesday. We just met and watched film
and stuff. Where exactly everybody is, we'll find out today when we go out
and practice. We'll give you [the injury report] at the end of the day.
Everybody's going to try get ready to go and see what they can do. Then
we'll just evaluate it on a case-by-case basis.
Q: How has Nick Kaczur progressed?
BB: Nick's done a good job for us. He's come in
as a rookie and had to learn a couple different positions. He played left
tackle in college. He's played some right tackle as well as left tackle
here. He's a tough guy; he's strong. He's got a good understanding from a
football standpoint for a rookie. [He has] a good understanding of offensive
and technique football. He still has a long way to go. He's come in and he's
been competitive. Again, given all that we've thrown at him; I think he's
done a pretty good job of absorbing it and trying to maintain his aggressive
style of play.
Q: Are you trying to downplay the importance
of this game?
BB: We play 16 games; every one of them is
important. Pittsburgh is an AFC team that we're in some kind of competition,
not directly in our division, but from a conference standpoint we are. Every
game is a big game. Certainly Pittsburgh had the best regular season record
in the league last year and it looks like they're picking up right where
they left off. They're the best team in the league this year. It's a huge
challenge for us to play them anywhere: home, away, at a neutral site. We
know we're going to have our hands full coming in there this week. No
question it's an important game, but every game's important. At the end of
the year when we add them all up, they're all going to have one-sixteenth
value. Maybe there could be some significance in one of the games, but it's
a little too early for that. Let's just talk about this one as a game
against the best team in the league. We're playing them on the road against
a team that we had two very competitive games with last year. We have all
the respect in the world for the organization, the head coach, the coaching
staff, the players, the fans and whole city of Pittsburgh that we know, in a
way, that we're going to have to deal with on Sunday.
Q: Having played each other so much, are
there any surprises left?
BB: I think each game takes on its own match-up
and its own personality. They have some new players; we have some new
players since last year. The plays won't match-up quite the same as they
did. They might run something a little bit different and then there will be
plays within a game; that will influence the outcome of it, where there is
no way to historically track that scenario. I've been in enough games to
know that you can be in a 3-3 game one week in your division and play the
team a little bit later and it could be 50-49. That's why football is such a
great game. It never stays the same. The match-ups are different; there are
so many different combinations. A few key plays can really swing the
momentum and the direction of the game. We have a good idea of what [Coach]
Bill [Cowher] is going to do and the system he's going to run and all that
and he knows the same thing with us. I don't think that's any big secret. It
will come down to execution and trying to get things matched up to our best
advantage during the course of the game.
Q: Has this been one of the more challenging
preseasons given your loses to the staff and linebackers and Joe Andruzzi?
BB: Every season is a challenge. There are
tough things that you have to face every single year. Opponents change.
Every team undergoes some kind of new addition on their team; that's common.
We've all seen it. I think each team has its own place for that particular
year. As a coach and as a player you try to maximize your strengths and
minimize your weaknesses, take advantage of your opportunities and mold that
team into the most efficient and competitive that you could possibly do.
That's a challenge every year. It's really a challenge every week. But on an
annual basis it's a little bit different.
Q: You had a 29.7 net punt yards on Sunday,
was that a concern?
BB: Is it a concern? Sure. Against Pittsburgh
everything is a concern. They return punts; they return kicksoffs [well].
They're a good return team. They had touchdowns in preseason. Randle El
already had a big play this year. We've seen them in the past. Our punt
coverage, kickoff coverage, every aspect of the kicking game is extremely
important to us this week. There's no question about it. Bill Cowher and
[special-teams coach] Kevin Spencer do a great job with their special teams.
They're tough every week. Every time that we face them it's a huge
challenge. That's true again this week. We'll have to be at our best. We
know that. Thank you. |
