Opening Statement:*It's was a hard fought game. There were a lot of things we could have done better. We'll evaluate this one the way the way we evaluate all of the other ones. Tonight we are excited about winning and winning on the road and making the necessary plays, particularly defensively down the stretch, the signature plays. We produced turnovers tonight. It was big for us. Obviously we weren't as effective as we'd like to be offensively, particularly in the red area, especially early on. We had a turnover, we had a penalty that pushed us out of the red area early. But we'll evaluate it again tomorrow like we do all the other ones. Tonight we just are excited for the men in the locker room, the contributions they made and that we were able to get out of here with a win. From an injury standpoint Chris Carter had a hamstring, he wasn't able to return; Maurkice Pouncey has a stomach virus he wasn't able to return. Troy(Polamalu) had a blow to the head, concussion like symptoms. Again we wanted to err on the side of caution, that's why we didn't let him return to the game. I don't know at this juncture if it was a concussion. I want to be clear there. Larry Foote had a hamstring as well. Other normal bumps and bruises that come along with football. We'll regroup and move forward. We have another big game waiting for us here next week. We can say that every week moving forward. Excited about the win, excited for the men particularly in the manner which it unfolded particularly with the signature plays defensively down the stretch. We know as we push into December football those are the kind of plays we are going to need to get out of stadiums with wins.Was Ben Roethlisberger's thumb a factor at all tonight?*
I didn't think it was a factor. You can ask him from a comfort standpoint, but in terms of his execution we didn't have any discussions regarding it, he and myself, the medical staff. It was a non-issue.
How much have you been waiting for a performance like that with the turnovers?
I'll take it.
Was there anything you could pinpoint offensively tonight?
We fumbled going in on the first series, we had a nice significant run that had us first and goal but we had a penalty on it the next series. Those types of things, Steelers vs. Steelers beating yourself is going to put you in position to have to make plays at the end like we did. You have to put seven points on the board. Red zone execution is a big part of football. When you don't you are going to be in close games like we were today.
Can you talk about your unsung guys, Weslye Saunders, Ryan Mundy and Keenan Lewis?
We believe we have starters and starters in waiting. Those guys are just men that are capable but need an opportunity. A lot of times that opportunity is produced by the misfortune of others. Our expectations of them from an execution standpoint is the same and thankfully for us they delivered, the two you mentioned and others.
Talk about Mundy coming in and playing for Troy Polamalu:
He is capable. We expected that.
And Saunders:
Same thing.
Was LaMarr Woodley a game time decision, him not playing?
We were going to let him run, he's run a little bit all of these days. He wasn't well enough to play today. It was the final decision we came to. We'll go through the same process again next week. Obviously he's getting close.
