Washington 23, Pittsburgh 17
MIKE TOMLIN: I'll start by tipping my cap to Coach Rivera and the Washington Football Team. Man, they made the significant plays tonight and we didn't, particularly in the second half. I thought that was the difference in the game. Particularly the weighty downs. We didn't win enough possession down football tonight. The examples of it were littered throughout.
I thought that touchdown drive to start the second half when we had them third and 14, they hit a perimeter screen for a significant gain to move the chains kind of started the ball rolling in the wrong way, if you will.
We were down in the red area twice, and we went for it on fourth down. Didn't convert either. So possession down ball was heavy in this football game. We paid the consequences of it, failure in it. Such is life in our game.
I'm excited about facing the adversity of losing with this group, man, smiling in the face of it, preparing, getting ready for our next challenge.
With that I'll open it up for questions.
Q. The fourth down pass to Anthony McFarland, was he the number one option on that play?
MIKE TOMLIN: Absolutely, he was.
Q. Can you put a finger on some of the inconsistencies of the offense? Points haven't been as much the last two games.
MIKE TOMLIN: We just got to make routine plays routinely. I say that often, but there's a lot of truth to it. Got to make routine plays routinely. We're not making them routinely enough right now, so it's affecting our fluidity as a collective group.
Q. What is your level of confidence in the running game right now? There's pass plays being called on a lot of third-and-short, even fourth-and-short.
MIKE TOMLIN: I'm just worried about us fluidly moving the football, whether it's run or pass. We move it how we choose to move it. The way that we chose to move it tonight wasn't fluid enough for us to have victory, particularly in the moments that you mentioned.
Q. Is there any amount of weight that's lifted with the undefeated season, that streak being over? You said you like to learn after wins. Can you learn after a loss like this?
MIKE TOMLIN: We step into a stadium each week with intentions towards winning. Our intentions will be the same next week.
We just live one week at a time. It's not a collective for us.
Q. You talk about routine plays. Would some of those drops be characterized as routine? How concerning is that?
MIKE TOMLIN: A lot of them would be characterized as routine.
Q. Why are you excited to face adversity with this group?
MIKE TOMLIN: Because, you know, different points along the journey you get a chance to learn about yourself, who you are, what you're made of individually and collectively. It takes the journey to reveal that.
We're faced with a loss now. We'll get an opportunity to smile in the face of it.
Q. They were having a lot of success in the second half with the runningback in the back field. Can you put a finger on why they were so successful?
MIKE TOMLIN: We just weren't tight enough. You got to give credit to those guys. But we weren't tight enough. Particularly as some of the injury things set in, just the communication and stuff on the defensive side of the ball got a little scattered. We got to be better.
Along those lines, Haden had a concussion, Robert Spillane had a knee injury that's being evaluated.
Q. What was Matthew Wright's range tonight? Why didn't you kick it from the 28 midway through the fourth?
MIKE TOMLIN: I didn't feel good about putting that on him. I appreciate his efforts tonight. He was above the line, gave us what we desired. It was my decision not to put him in those circumstances late in the football game.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports