Steelers' players hadn't watched the film of Sunday's 27-24 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers yet, but there was one thing they all knew, they weren't happy with the outcome and they had to do something to change things moving forward.
The Pittsburgh Steelers and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers faced off in Week 4 at Heinz Field.
The Steelers lost on a last second touchdown in a game that was marred by 13 penalties for 125 yards. Not a way to play winning football.
"We were a highly penalized team and it's very hard to win when you are," said defensive end Brett Keisel. "We have to be more disciplined, better aware of what we are doing, pre-snap, post-snap, all of the time. Obviously those flags can hurt you.
"We'll go look at this thing together, come together as a team and do what's best to move forward. We have a lot of work to do. If we are all accountable, if we all can get up in the meeting room and look at each other and look at where we all need to get better, hopefully we can move forward."
It was a combination of penalties that hurt the Steelers, from post-snap calls for celebration and taunting, to a myriad of penalties during the action.
"I can't have the penalty on my behalf with the hands to the face," said cornerback Cortez Allen. "A lot of times it's not intentional. I have to be mindful of my hand placement. I have to practice that more. I will work on it more this week and the weeks after and get better at it."
Allen said everybody has to look at themselves, at plays such as his penalty, and evaluate what they can do better.
"Any loss is frustrating, but we have to be honest with ourselves as to why we weren't able to come out with the win," said Allen. "You just have to be real with yourself. I can't allow the red zone catch. I have to be better in that position. I have to finish my overall plays, I could have played better. I can only speak for myself."
The team is looking to rebound this week against the Jacksonville Jaguars, who are 0-4 after a 33-10 loss to San Diego this week. But, it' not going to be easy; it never is in the NFL.
"This is big business in this league and you always have a new tough opponent the next week," said Keisel. "You want to be a consistent team. You want to be able to stack winning performances together. If you want to be a good team you have to win consecutive ball games. We felt good about how we performed in Carolina and we don't feel good about how we performed yesterday. It's something that needs to be addressed, and something hopefully we can quit talking about and actually do it."
