Washington 23, Pittsburgh 17
THE MODERATOR: Questions for Ben.
Q. The level of disappointment in the locker room now, what is that feeling?
BEN ROETHLISBERGER: Yeah, it stinks. Been a while since we lost a game. It's not a good feeling. But we'll prepare for a short week and get ready to go again.
Q. Your head coach was just talking about looking forward to facing adversity with this group. What has it been like in this last little stretch with postponements, COVID, disruption of practice? Are you sufficiently off your feet a little bit where this might sharpen everybody up, refocus the team?
BEN ROETHLISBERGER: Hope so. We're getting to that point of the season when you've got to be sharp in all areas, your whole team, both sides of the ball, all that stuff.
There can be all kinds of distractions, changes of this, that and the other. At the end of the day, we got to go play good football.
Q. This is the second week in a row that the offense has struggled to move the ball consistently. What needs to change? Is there something in the last two weeks that you've noticed different from the rest of the season?
BEN ROETHLISBERGER: I think we just need to make plays. I need to be better. I need to deliver us into plays that are best suited for situations and things like that.
Starts with me. I need to be better.
Q. Is part of that it just seems like there's a lack of flow to it? Your coach used the word 'fluidity'. Do you sense that with the offense?
BEN ROETHLISBERGER: Sometimes. Right now we're not great on offense. We're not bad. I'd say we're a little above average. B, B minus right now. So there's plenty of room for improvement.
Q. How comfortable were you with the wheel route to McFarland? Did that play work in practice this week?
BEN ROETHLISBERGER: Yeah, you know, it's a good play. I think the thing that hurt us the most was they were running the guy out there late to cover him. Sometimes you want that guy to be set to see what's going on. I have to deliver a better throw. Ran a great route, gave us the chance. It's on me to deliver the throw.
Q. Difficulty in short yardage situations, it's become a trend lately. What needs to get better in those areas?
BEN ROETHLISBERGER: If I had those answers, we wouldn't have issues I think. I don't know. It's frustrating. We need to be better.
Q. It's early, you haven't had a chance to look at the film. What are some of the initial takeaways you have from this game?
BEN ROETHLISBERGER: I wasn't good enough. We didn't put up enough points. We didn't possess the ball long enough.
Q. You didn't practice on the two official days this week. Were you dealing with something? Did that affect your play?
BEN ROETHLISBERGER: I didn't play good football. Regardless how much I practice, don't practice, I need to be better for this team.
Q. It didn't look like they blitzed very much if at all. Was that the case? Because of their D-line, are they maybe uniquely suited to playing you guys that way?
BEN ROETHLISBERGER: They didn't bring many blitzes. They brought a couple, but not a lot. They've got a lot of pedigree in that front four or five that they rotate in. A lot of first rounders. They use those picks. Those guys are studs for a reason. They got after us today. Congratulations to them.
Q. It looked like they were dropping the safeties a little bit closer to the line of scrimmage. Did that hinder with some of the underneath stuff, short stuff you tried to do?
BEN ROETHLISBERGER: Yes and no. We understand that people are going to bring guys down to take away some of the quick gain. We need to make the plays over the top. We did some of that tonight, but not enough of it.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports