Baltimore reply after What the Steelers Said beating the Ravens

Head Coach Mike Tomlin

Opening Statement:

“I’m just really appreciative of the effort of the guys. Obviously, this is a tough place to play. That’s probably three or four years in a row right there, that we’ve been able to come up here and get it done. We’re thankful for that, for the efforts. It was a tough environment today, from a climate perspective. The ball security component was a challenge, but it was a challenge for both teams. I thought it was significant in terms of how the game unfolded, particularly in the first half for us. We were down there in scoring territory a couple of times and came away with no points because of a lack of ball security. Thankfully we made enough plays to secure a victory.”

On his update regarding T.J. Watt’s injury:

“T.J. is being evaluated with a knee injury. I’ll have more information probably the next time we get together. Obviously, we’re disappointed in that. But there are challenges in the game of football. There are challenges in life. We’ll deal with it, whatever it may be.”

On whether the offensive gameplan was to feature Najee Harris:

“Especially considering the conditions, yes.”

On whether Watt attempted to return to the field after being evaluated for injury:

“I don’t know that.”

On Mason Rudolph remaining confident after having a couple of balls knocked out of his hand earlier in the game:

“Like I mentioned several weeks ago when we put him in the lineup, he has an unshakeable confidence in himself. It is real.”

On Calvin Austin’s long punt returns:

“They’ve got a talented punter. He created opportunity for us at times. So, I’m thankful for that.”

On defending the Ravens’ running game:

“We knew there would be a commitment to it, not only because of their style of play, but environmentally. So that was an asset to our calls. No doubt.”

RB Najee Harris

On if he knew the team was going to put the game on his shoulders:

 

“Yeah, man it’s not the first time that it’s happened. We all talked about it. The biggest thing that we were worried about is … ball security. My first play, I tried to tuck it away and it just slipped right out of my arms, so I knew that was one thing that needed to be emphasized a little bit more. So, I’m on the sideline, I tried to get like two towels, kept trying to rub my arms and things like that. We knew that ball security is going to be a big issue, and that’s going to be the outcome of the game.”

On the Ravens resting a few defensive starters:

“I wasn’t really too worried about who was going to be playing. We knew they were going to rest some of their guys, but the main thing for us to do was to get the win so we can even get into the playoffs. That’s all that matters. We did that today. We didn’t really care about who was out there or how long they were going to play. We wanted to play so physical that if they did play their ones, their guys, we wanted (Head Coach John) Harbaugh to say, ‘You know, we’ve got to get them out of there because of how physical we’re playing.’ I think we did that today, and hopefully we get to … I think we’ll play them again, right? If things work out, we’ll come back.”

 

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