Steelers Week 15: Team quotes and comments

Steelers quotes and comments on week 15

The Steelers won a big one. What a game. It took the Steelers 2 quarters. It took the Steelers 2 quarters of professional football not just to overcome a first half deficit and win the game against the Broncos, but to overcome all the losses from an injury and suspension riddled first half of the season and virtually guarantee a spot in the playoffs.

But forget the playoff math for a second and let’s just bask in the glory of that sweet comeback win. Let’s be honest, the first half we all wondered to ourselves if the Steelers were as scary as everyone on ESPN claims they are. Maybe the offense is just so fun it overshadows the fact that it’s a team that’s wildcard loss level at best with a bad defense.

Then…

Second half. The Steelers offense comes out guns blazing and the defense does a 180. From 4 straight touchdown drives to a shutout on defense. When they play like that you can rest easy, the offense put up 21 points. It was really a thriller and came down to the wire. Not just a great win but a great game.

But when it comes to the playoff math it’s in some ways, more exciting. If the Steelers can manage to beat the Ravens and the Browns then they’re in the playoffs. I, personally, think they can manage that.

Where a few weeks ago the Steelers looked in fairly solid position to get the wildcard spot with 10 wins, maybe, if they can beat one team of two teams with ten wins and not blow it against two bad teams, and also the Jets lose or some other stuff, and now they are easily going to get 11 wins and maybe even win the division.

So ya, let’s bask. That’s the point of this “column” anyway isn’t it? That’s the payoff? So I don’t know about you but I like to bask … oh sauce … anyway …

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Steelers Defense

Ryan Shazier said of the comeback, per John Perroto of the Sports Xchange, “Once we settled down, we played well. All of us on the defense seemed like we were nervous at the start of the game. We were making mental mistakes and physical mistakes. We never really settled down until halftime and then we played the way we we’re capable of playing.”

Meanwhile, Cam Heyward had similar if more blunt memories of it, saying, from Rob Rossi of TribLive.com, “Everybody was p*ssed off. We all knew we played like dirt. We really just had to wake up.”

Mike Mitchell gave a the impression that at halftime the Steelers were all business when it came to stiffening up when he acted it out essentially, saying, per Jacob Klinger of PennLive, “Hey, nobody yell. This is a big game, there’s no time for yelling. We just know we got to get it fixed and go out there and play in the second half. And no one yelled.

Ben Roethlisberger

DeAngelo Williams also was quoted as saying, “Ben told us a month or two ago, he was just like ‘Man, just go out there and have fun. Let’s do it like we did when we were in the playground and it didn’t cost you anything and you were just out there doing it for the love of the game,’ And that’s what we’re doing man. I don’t know if you guys can see it but we’re having fun.”

Mike Mitchell said, according to Jeremy Fowler of ESPN, regarding Ben’s late game interception, “Sometimes he spins out of something and makes a great play and no one says anything, so we’re not going to say anything to him when it doesn’t go our way. We just knew we had to have his back.”

Ramon Foster was quoted by Ron Cook of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette saying some kind words of his quarterback, “An organization lives and dies by the quarterback. You don’t have a quarterback, there’s not much you can do. We have a great quarterback. I’m glad he’s on our side.”

Miscellaneous

Antonio Brown: “There’s no stopping me.”

Mike Tomlin: “The nameless gray faces we play are irrelevant if we’re on our game. We feel like we’re pretty good on offense. If we take care of the ball, we feel like we can go up and down the field on anyone.”

Ben Roethlisberger: “It’s a belief in each other. Belief in the system. Belief that we can do whatever we want.”

Next: Steelers make Broncos defense look normal in huge win

On to next week, and now, almost inevitably, the pla … you know what? Not gonna jinx it.