Steelers Week 16: Team Quotes and Comments

The Steelers quotes and comments from the team after a tough and likely season deciding loss against the Ravens.

The Steelers will probably not make the playoffs. The Steelers probably do not deserve to make the playoffs. The Steelers loss to the Ravens on Sunday was, in the most dramatic terms possible, unforgivable. In more measured terms it was disappointing. But that’s almost too gentle. Is there a word between disappointing and devastating? Besides the word and?

It’s my professional duty to recount the events of Sunday but believe me I take no joy in reliving that day. All was well. Steeler nation had sat down to enjoy some leftover ham from Christmas, fairly secure in the presumption that we were a playoff team.

It was a safe bet, we had to be two bad teams and we were in. Not only that, depending on other events, the only question in our naive young minds was how high a seed we could get.

And then the clock struck 1. Doonnngg, said the clock ominously. The ball was kicked off and for four quarters we watched a team that had dominated teams offensively all season sputter out over and over, when they weren’t turning the ball over. The defense gave up yards as usual, but they didn’t get the sacks and turnovers they normally do.

The Ravens jumped out to an early lead. I at least wasn’t sweating it. The Steelers, for all their good points, are not consistent. They just don’t have that quality mentally right now. So I expected them to comeback. Then they were still down at halftime. They got that early 3rd quarter touchdown and it looked like we fixed it. No such luck. When the time ran out the Steelers were on the wrong end of 20-17.

Now, the Steelers must hope the Jets lose to the Bills for them to make the playoffs, or else hold the honor of being the team that barely missed it and winning the prize of the worst draft pick available to all the teams that don’t make the playoffs.

Could the Jets lose? Yes. The Bills are solid. But most of the Steelers fans I know are still too sick from Sunday to think about tiebreakers. It’s not just losing. It’s not just losing to the Ravens. It’s not just knocking yourself out. It’s all that plus the fact that the Steelers easily could have won that game against a then 4 win team with even a below average performance.

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But anyway, let’s see what they have to say for themselves…

Offense

Jeremy Fowler of ESPN quoted Antonio Brown as saying, “We did a horrible job today.”

Ryan Mink of baltimoreravens.com quoted DeAngelo Williams as saying, “Our plan was to come in here and do what we do best. Our plan was to move the ball up and down the field and score points. We had a few guys that stalled, and we had a few turnovers in places when we didn’t execute. That’s what cost us the game.”

Ben Roethlisberger said, “We just didn’t make the plays today. It’s hard to get anything going if you don’t convert third downs, and that’s a credit to them. They did a good job of slowing us down on third down, and that was a big key to the game. Really, that’s our fault, my fault. We controlled our destiny, but we gave the ball away today, and we can’t do that. I can’t do that.”

Coaching

Mark Kaboly of Triblive.com quoted Ramon Foster as saying, “Criticism for the coaches? No, they aren’t out there,” guard Ramon Foster said. “We are the ones who have to make the plays. Those guys didn’t do anything differently than in weeks past. We just have to make our plays and execute the plan, and we didn’t do that. That falls on us.”

Brandon Boykin agreed, saying, “It was just a matter of Baltimore playing better than we did. People want to read into what we did to prepare, but it comes down to who plays the best on Sunday.”

According to Ron Cook of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, David DeCastro said of the Steelers run game, “I would have liked to have stuck with that a little more.”

Defense

Cam Heyward was not a fan of the teams performance, saying, “It was unacceptable. We didn’t get off the field when we needed to. We didn’t tackle well. We didn’t rally to the ball. We didn’t apply pressure. We didn’t stop the run. We didn’t win the turnover battle. You name it, we didn’t do it.”

James Harrison said, “It doesn’t get much worse than this. We had control of everything in front of us, and we just didn’t come through. A few mistakes cost us big plays, and they capitalized.”

Ryan Shazier echoed the same sentiment, quoted by David Ginburg of CBS Sports as saying, “We just didn’t take care of business. That’s the most frustrating part.”

Next: Steelers failed to show up in Baltimore

Welp, last game next week. See you Sunday gang.