Steelers 23, Seahawks 20
Q. How tough was it to watch what happened with Taylor and then have to get right back into playing a crucial part of the game there?
BEN ROETHLISBERGER: Yeah, it's really tough, you know, going through it, and with Ryan, it brought back a lot of memories. It is, it's hard to refocus after something like that. I wish him nothing but the best, too. Our prayers are going to him, him and his family. A lot of praying was going on on the field, but we're going to continue to pray for him.
Q. What can you say about T.J.'s play there at the end?
BEN ROETHLISBERGER: I didn't get to see it. I'm mad. I was talking to Dobbs I think about something, and I hear the screams and the ball is out, and I didn't know who did it, but I kind of asked someone, was it T.J., because you kind of expect that. I'm just glad they paid him to come here.
Q. At the two-minute warning I think you guys went five of six to Najee grinding it out, then you took a shot to Chase. Was that just something you saw at that point?
BEN ROETHLISBERGER: Well, we actually had a run play called again, and they brought too many guys in the box, so we had a check that we were going to take a shot down the field because that's what they gave us. I was actually looking at Diontae first but they covered him. I don't know, when we checked the play it kind of raised their antennas that something was up, and I just kind of figured I'd take a shot to Chase because I knew he had a shorter guy on him. I figured the worst that would happen was incomplete. Didn't think that would happen, unfortunately.
Q. When you're in a game and it's 14-0 and seemingly under control, then it ends the way that one did, do you think about ramifications of losing a game like that while it's being played?
BEN ROETHLISBERGER: No, we don't think about losing. Just disappointed we didn't finish it in regulation when we had a chance. Hate that my kids had to stay up so late with school tomorrow.
Q. You talked about earlier this week how much you guys would miss JuJu. How do you feel like the passing game as a whole was able to absorb his loss and spread it around?
BEN ROETHLISBERGER: Well, as I said earlier in the week, you can't replace a guy like that. I thought guys did a good job of stepping up. I didn't think our passing game was great tonight. I'm not going to say it's because JuJu wasn't out there, but he's obviously a big part of our passing game.
Q. Ray-Ray was out there for a lot. Was that game specific or just an elevation of his growth?
BEN ROETHLISBERGER: Yeah, I just think he's going to be the guy that we're going to count on to do some stuff, I believe.
Q. How do you describe what the emotions are like after a win like this?
BEN ROETHLISBERGER: Kind of crazy. I don't know if it's really fully sunk in yet, but we got to our goal, which was to try and get to .500 before the bye, try and get healthy and get ready for a long stretch.
Q. What was the explanation you got on the lost fumble?
BEN ROETHLISBERGER: I was told that my arm was -- even though the ball was going forward, my arm was going backwards. So I had to ask Josh Dobbs, who's an aerospace engineer, how that works.
Q. What did he say?
BEN ROETHLISBERGER: He said it's not possible, but I can't get fined for that because I'm just telling you what Dobbs said.
Q. How do you feel 3-3?
BEN ROETHLISBERGER: Yeah, considering where we were, it's the best we could do. You know, we're going to, like I said, take a little break, get this bye. We're obviously going to spend some time early in the week, tomorrow, with our hearts and just everything with Jerry O and his family. Just so sad, and we missed Jerry out there today. I know he wanted to be out there.
But like I said, our thoughts and prayers and everything go out to him, and I think we'll need to spend some time early this week really just trying to be there for him.
Q. You were able to pound the ball with Najee, not a ton of yards but you stuck with it. Was that part of the plan or something you want to do moving forward?
BEN ROETHLISBERGER: Yeah, any time we can run the ball -- once again, all those were RPOs, and when they're giving it to us, we've got to just kind of -- Coach says "war of attrition," you just keep going, and KB coming in there and running a couple times hard. It was encouraging to see towards the end of that game when you really need it you can pick up five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten when you really need it.
Q. What about the response from the defense? It went to overtime in kind of an odd way, defense comes up twice, causes the Seahawks to fumble, set up a field goal.
BEN ROETHLISBERGER: It's awesome. That's what we expect from them. That's why we think they're the best in the business. Like I say, we hate that it got to overtime, and then once we get the ball we'd like to go finish the game, and fortunate we didn't to offensively, but our defense came up with a play when we needed to, and Boz iced it like we expect.
Q. You guys got some points the last couple weeks, started running the ball better. Do you feel like you're figuring some stuff out?
BEN ROETHLISBERGER: I think so. I think there's some cohesiveness. I think there's some understanding. We'll see where it goes, though. We haven't -- it's not like we've solved anything, but we're making progress.
Q. Is this offensive identity something that's still evolving, or do you feel like six weeks in you guys have figured out what you want to be or at least the direction that you want to go?
BEN ROETHLISBERGER: I don't know. I don't think we're there yet. I don't know how to answer that, sorry.
Q. Ebron's touchdown, is that a play that would have normally been JuJu, or is that something you had in for him, as well?
BEN ROETHLISBERGER: I think it would have been whoever the personnel grouping was, and they were jamming the box, and so we gave it to him and he made a great play.
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