Steelers vs. Bengals: Tomlin Tuesday

The Steelers open their 2016 home schedule with some AFC North action against the rival Bengals and coach Tomlin is not here for your past drama.

After a short rest from dominating the Washington Redskins last night and then returning to Pittsburgh to get started on Week 2 already Tomlin took to the podium in his usual Tuesday role to review the previous game, update injury statuses, preview the upcoming game and answer questions.

Tomlin echoed the excitement, as best he could for being him, of getting out of Week 1 with a dominant victory featuring five touchdowns but acknowledged that it wasn’t the best start for the game.

He noted that the Redskins were able to move the ball rather efficiently between the 20s and if not for some Kirk Cousins under-throws, the beginning of the game could’ve gone a lot worse.

Injury Updates

On the injury front Tomlin didn’t have an update on linebacker Ryan Shazier but explained that at the time of the presser Shazier was actually meeting with doctors about his knee injury. He said there could be an update later on Tuesday or in terms of practice participation on Wednesday.

There was some good news for injuries. It looks like guard Cody Wallace, receiver Markus Wheaton and fullback Rosie Nix could all return from their respective injuries this week. But it would depend on their practice participation.

Preview

When previewing the upcoming matchup against the Bengals Tomlin made it clear that he wasn’t going to talk about any previous games, players or events.

"He said, “Let past history be past history” as well as “this matchup needs no endorsement from me.”"

When he was asked about if he needs to instruct his players to not let their emotions get the better of them like the Bengals players clearly need reminded of Tomlin explained that he didn’t need to do that at all.

"“I don’t. No. I thought largely our guys stayed composed. We realized to win the game you can’t beat yourself.” – Mike Tomlin"

Wise words.

Questions

Tomlin also wouldn’t take the bait on the question someone asked him about who might have called the ballsy touchdown pass to Antonio Brown when they had a 4^th-and-1 from the Washington 29-yard line last night.

Tomlin said that he takes responsibility for the ultimate call to go for it. He’s not about to tip his hand on how the play was drawn up and what other options were called.

Now the Steelers are onto the Bengals where they still have to worry about how to cover A.J. Green. They should probably start by getting after Andy Dalton, who was sacked seven times by the Jets this Sunday.

Next: Steelers old and new offense

It’s a good old-fashioned AFC North battle coming up at Heinz Field on Sunday. Here we go!

Obviously’s = 7

You can listen to Tomlin’s entire presser right here.

Here we go Steelers! Here we go!