Pittsburgh Steelers - 19, Baltimore Ravens - 14
Q. You guys had been good in the red zone pretty much all season. Failed down there some times today. What do you attribute that to?
JUJU SMITH-SCHUSTER: Just not executing our plays. It was very frustrating for us to go down there without putting points on the board, especially in the first half and even later in the third quarter, and it's something that today we got the job done and the W is a W.
Q. Ben talked about the heaviness in the locker room that came with the loss of the chaplain's brother this week, not knowing what's going on with Bud Dupree, and also just kind of the chaos and the mental toll that this week took on you guys. Did you feel that going into this game and was that something that hindered you and this team today?
JUJU SMITH-SCHUSTER: I wouldn't say hindered us. Coach always says it doesn't matter what time we play, we got to play our game. It was kind of frustrating that the game kept being pushed back, obviously, for COVID reasons and safety protocol, which is totally fine for both teams and both sides.
So as far as how we came out today, we played sluggish, we had a bad start, our defense saved our ass again. So this is something that has happened before, but I wouldn't take into account that, I mean, in the next 12 days we got three games and it is what it is. We just got to go out there and play.
Q. Both Mike Tomlin and Ben sounded less than thrilled with that performance. Anything you could put your finger on for some of the failures today?
JUJU SMITH-SCHUSTER: Wide receivers not catching balls, not making plays when they're supposed to be made, going down in the red zone not putting points on the board, special teams doing turnovers on special teams, multiple reasons why we fell short today, and also giving up a big play like that at the end for them to score a touchdown put us in a close game like that. So, honestly, all around, offense, defense, and special teams.
Q. What was the post-game message and how frustrating was it in the locker room afterward?
JUJU SMITH-SCHUSTER: Well, one, I think it was very quiet, very sad, very low, just because having our fellow teammate going down, Bud, and not knowing what's going on over there. But that's something that, you always pray for everybody to be safe and have a healthy game.
Another frustration was that we played like the JV. You know, we played down to their level. They came out with a JV squad and we were playing JV and we didn't come out and execute and play the way we wanted to play. And as you could see, it was a close game, which shouldn't have happened.
Q. What's the team's standard for a dropped pass and how many do you think you guys had as a group today?
JUJU SMITH-SCHUSTER: I think overall, I think, I don't know how many we had, probably, like, six or eight and those were crucial dropped passes where it's third down, where it's fourth down, these are plays that we have to make, especially in the red zone. I think we had tremendous a lot of balls dropped in the red zone where possibly they could be seven points instead of three points.
Q. Did they do a better job this week of anticipating, this time against you guys of anticipating some of those third and short rub routes that you guys had? Did they do better this time?
JUJU SMITH-SCHUSTER: I would say, I would say, yeah. I would say they were ready for all the quick slants underneath, the quick plays, plays that we have been getting the past game that we played them at their stadium, so I think they were more prepared, having the knowledge drop, being able to read and to disrupt everything that's going on in the bubbles and all that. So, yeah, they played very well in stopping us on third down.
Q. You mentioned some of these things have happened before. How do you keep them from happening again?
JUJU SMITH-SCHUSTER: Got to go back, watch the film, go over it, and like I said, just make our plays or execute. Like I said, we really haven't showed our complete offense yet. I think we played games that we start off super slow, we played games we start off super fast and we just don't finish at the end, but at the end of the day a win is a win and we keep moving forward, on to Washington.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports