Pittsburgh - 20, Tampa Bay - 18
Q. Coach, first of all, how's Cam Brate doing? What can you tell us about him?
TODD BOWLES: He had a neck injury. He has all his moving parts right now. He's still at the hospital being evaluated.
Q. Coach, what happened today in terms of not being able to score points, short yardage struggles?
TODD BOWLES: We could not get one yard on third and fourth and short. We got stalled in the red zone. I don't think we coached it well. I don't think we played it well.
Q. But, defensively, third and long had been a problem in the past. They had four conversions on third and eleven or longer. How does that happen?
TODD BOWLES: We didn't get off the field to make plays. We didn't make plays. We got to make plays. We can't let the quarterback out of the pocket and scramble. Trubisky did a good job buying time and it turned into a scramble on the back end and he found the guy that was open.
Q. Coach, on the long pass play to Hayward, that kind of set up the Steelers' last touchdown. It looked like Lavonte was trying to call time-out. Was there a miscommunication there?
TODD BOWLES: No. He tried to. He saw too many guys on the field. And he tried to call time-out. And in turn, the guy got left open. And it was a bust all the way around. Like I said, we didn't coach it well and we didn't play it well.
Q. I think they were down their top three corners, Minkah Fitzpatrick, as well. Was there any reason there wasn't a more aggressive downfield passing to maybe test backups that are playing there?
TODD BOWLES: No, they did a good job mixing it up. They did a good job protecting them over the top for the most part. But we got outplayed. We had injuries last year and we had more guys down. We didn't worry about that. We knew it was going to be a tough ball game and they did a good job beating us.
Q. Tom was 6 of 12 targeting Chris Godwin. That not something you typically see. Was there anything they were doing defensively that was disrupting that connection?
TODD BOWLES: They played well. They played a team ball game. We did not play well all the way around.
Q. Coach, overall, still a good season so far for the defense. And seen som schematic changes the last couple weeks. More cover one on first down. More two-man on third down. I was wondering if you could talk about some of the philosophy on some of those changes.
TODD BOWLES: Just a matter of who we're playing, what they're trying to get away with. It'll change every week. Again, still not good enough.
Q. Where's this team right now? I mean, you were heavily favored in a game like this against a rookie quarterback in a team who lost four in a row. Do you have trouble getting that message across to your team, not to take guys lightly? I mean, what has happened?
TODD BOWLES: No, we didn't take them lightly, No. 1. No. 2, I think guys that are living off the Super Bowl are living in a fantasy land. And you got to get your hands dirty and go to work like everybody else.
And we've been working hard and we got to work harder. You know, because nobody's going to give us anything or feel sorry. So we got to go back as coaches, as players, and the time for talking is over. You either got to put up or shut up.
Q. Are there people on your team, players or coaches, that you think are still living in that fantasy land?
TODD BOWLES: No, I didn't say we were. I'm just saying, you get patted on the back so much, just you got to relive. Every year and every week, you got to go out there and earn your pay and earn your keep. And if you don't live like that, then it's going to be a result like today.
Q. How frustrating is it to get so close, get within the 10 a few times and just kind of have to settle for field goals?
TODD BOWLES: We got to find a way to score in the red zone. We got to find a way to score in the red zone. More importantly, we got to be better at short yardage, third and one or fourth and inches. We got to find a way to get better.
Q. Todd, it seemed like well into the second half -- on the first half you kept running -- not you, yourself, but a lot of times to the left. And all day long, it seemed like the run game wasn't there. Was that part of your game plan? Because as Greg pointed out, their secondary is decimated.
TODD BOWLES: They did a good job schematically of disguising and getting us into things and coming up and making plays and showing us something else. We got to do a better job approaching it.
Q. Todd, what's massage going forward to these guys?
TODD BOWLES: If you're hurt, go on into the training room. If you're not, show up Wednesday ready for work. The time for talking is over. We got to show -- we got to put in work. There's nothing to talk about right now.
Q. Todd, Tom Brady had skipped over the team drills on Friday night. In terms of what he missed, is that a factor at all in the play today?
TODD BOWLES: No. He didn't miss anything. He had a full week of practice.
Q. Do you think that in any way impacted the team's struggles in the red zone today?
TODD BOWLES: Absolutely not.
Q. Just what was that like seeing Cam go down and he was on the field for eight minutes and being attended to by all those trainers.
TOM BRADY: Yeah, tough sport. And we all love him to death. We all hope he's okay. And we'll get reports hopefully pretty soon.
Q. Tom, why can't this team get in the end zone more regularly than it has?
TOM BRADY: It's just execution, you know? Just all got to do a better job. Go back, watch the tape. And, obviously, a lot to correct.
Q. The Steelers' secondary was pretty decimated by injuries. Tom, what did you see when you were out there coverage-wise?
TOM BRADY: They did a good job. You know, the guys that were in there did a good job for them. They tackled well and limited some run after catch. Just missed too many opportunities in the red area.
And, you know, it's a game of scoring points and we just didn't do well enough on third down and in short yardage situations and certainly not well enough in the red area.
Q. Tom, we heard from some of the guys in the locker room seeming to say things along the lines of like findings their identities or this team has to find its identity. Why has that been difficult to sort of put a finger on the pulse of this season?
TOM BRADY: I think it's execution. We have to play a lot better. It really doesn't matter if you run it, you throw it, if you throw it outside, if you through it inside, run it inside, you run it outside. This is an execution game. You either make the play or you don't. So there's too many plays we're not making.
Q. How frustrating is it to kind of get the push, you know, you were inside the 10-yard line and you had a couple times, at least two, and just to kind of settle for a field goal? Even on the two-point conversion, you get in a chance to tie the game. How frustrating is it just to kind of get so close to not be able to get over the hump?
TOM BRADY: Yeah, it's just not doing a good enough job down there.
Q. It seemed like today was just a day that nothing really went right. Like, the quarterback sneak that, you know, was kind of becoming your trademark, even that. I mean, does that just kind of sum up how maddening the loss was for you guys today?
TOM BRADY: I think, you know, we didn't earn it. We didn't earn the win. It's a game of earning it and it's a game of playing well and performing well. And we're just not doing a good job of that.
I don't think we've done it for six weeks. I think we're all playing less than what we're capable of and we've all got look at ourselves in the mirror and figure out why.
Q. Tom, your first two losses are the Packers and the Chiefs. This was a 1 and 4 team and you lost by 35 last week. How much more concerning is losing to this team?
TOM BRADY: I think losing comes down to, obviously, scoring less points than the other team. And you evaluate why you scored less points than the other team.
It doesn't matter if it's the Steelers or the Chiefs, right? So you can look at this and say, Well, why didn't we score more points? Well, we didn't do well in the red area, first of all. We didn't do a good. We were second and goal on the one and we didn't do a good job there.
We had opportunities on third and short to extend drives. We didn't do well there. So it doesn't matter, you know, who you're playing if you're not making the plays, then it doesn't matter if it's the Steelers or the Chiefs or the Packers or the Saints. It's you either make the plays or you don't. It's a production business.
Q. (No microphone.)
TOM BRADY: It's all of us. It's the whole offense. It's the whole offense. We have to do a better job on the run game, the pass game. Everyone's got to do a better job. Obviously, there's no position that's performing at an elite level right now.
Q. Tom, there was a play on the first drive of the second half where you hit Godwin on the seam, it looked like sort of single high zone with the free safety right there but you fit it in anyway. I was wondering what you saw on that play.
TOM BRADY: Chris ran a good route and I just gave him a chance up the middle of the field. So he made a good catch coming down with it. And we just got to make more plays like that.
Q. You were 6 for 12 for targeting Chris, which that's not typical. Was there anything the Steelers doing anything defensively that was making that connection a little more of a challenge?
TOM BRADY: I think everything -- honestly, everything was a challenge today. There was nothing that was not challenging to our offense. We have to do a lot better in every area.
Q. Was there something that you thought you could gain from going into the game -- (no microphone) -- a new wrinkle here, the two snaps?
TOM BRADY: Yeah, it's just a different formation variety. So we'll see if we can make some yards out of it.
Q. What is your message moving forward to get better?
TOM BRADY: We got to score more points. Pretty simple. Thank you, guys.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports