Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Baltimore Ravens: Tomlin Tuesday
By Kim Myers
It’s Ravens week Steeler Nation! I have a guess that we didn’t need any more fuel to the fire on the Steelers/Ravens rivalry but there’s definitely a lot at stake with this one for both teams. Even at Week 2 this could be a pivotal game on either side. For the Ravens, they’re going to be trying to put the PR nightmare behind them as well as keep from going down 0-2 in their record and in the division. The Steelers are going to be trying to go up 2-0 and put themselves in the driver’s seat in the AFC North, a position they haven’t been in for what seems like an eternity.
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Steelers coach Mike Tomlin addressed the media on Monday afternoon rather than his usual Tuesday spot due to the short week.
He began with a review of the previous win over the Browns and acknowledged that the team accomplished what they wanted to accomplish in the first half of the game and then did not accomplish much of anything aside from eventually getting a defensive stop against the Browns and getting themselves into field goal range. He explained that the penalties the team incurred, particularly on special teams, was a large contributing factor in stalling out the offense in the second half. That being said, he also acknowledged that the team failed to convert on first downs that would have sustained drives in the second half as well as kept the Browns offense off of the field.
The injury situation Tomlin addressed was that Dri Archer [ankle] and Shamarko Thomas [Achilles] would be joining those players who sat out of Sunday’s game in the “questionable” category so far for Thursday night’s game. Lance Moore, Brice McCain, and Martavis Bryant were all out of Sunday’s game and will most likely not be seeing any action this week.
Tomlin briefly addressed the release of the Ray Rice video by just saying that he had seen the video and did not have any comments on it whatsoever.
He was excited to get going down to Baltimore for another divisional game, for the kickoff of the Thursday night football on CBS.
"“We’re going to be excited; not concerned about the short week. It’s week two in this season and we are going into a hostile environment. I am sure there is going to be a lot of excitement associated with that, prime time. I look forward to the challenge and getting to know our team as hopefully we push through it.” – Mike Tomlin"
Mike Tomlin addressed the difficulties the Steelers defense had on Sunday once the Browns employed a hurry-up no-huddle offense and explained that the main issue of the failure was a breakdown of communication on the field. There were some plays where the Browns snapped the ball and the Steelers defense were still looking to the sidelines. The team has got to be anticipating seeing similar attacks from the Ravens offense on Thursday night.
"“The big thing is that’s whenever it’s called, we have to communicate it. Communication is integral to execution, and I think we could have communicated better. I also thought we could have executed better.” – Mike Tomlin"
Tomlin also added that the team intends on rotating the defensive linemen until they’ve found the best combination to produce the best results.
Obviously Count: 19