Q. Was he healthy? I know he went through some health stuff, been dealing with some back stuff this year. How is he when he's healthy?
TERYL AUSTIN: He's really good when he's healthy. He's an outstanding cover man. He's got length. He's got speed. He gets football. We've got to get him up to speed here in terms of what we're doing, and then we'll move forward.
Q. How is his back now?
TERYL AUSTIN: Seems to be fine.
Q. Does he fit your scheme better than the Washington scheme?
TERYL AUSTIN: I don't know what they're doing in Washington. All I know is what we do here, and we feel he fits what we're going to do here.
Q. How would you evaluate the play of your corners and how has injury played into that factor?
TERYL AUSTIN: Oh, it's obvious. We've got to play better, and you could say maybe just the corners, but we have to play better overall, and I think really the big thing that's been missing is we've been in position to make a lot of plays and we haven't made them, so the bottom line is when we get in those positions, those are the plays that we have to make.
I'd be really concerned if there was a lot of just bone coverages and guys weren't around people, but we're around people, and we've just got to figure out how to finish them.
Q. When you guys lost TJ Watt you knew that was going to be an issue. What hasn't happened to allow you to navigate that a little better? Why was he such a jagged piece?
TERYL AUSTIN: Well, you know, TJ is TJ. He's a guy that would be -- I put it similar to a great receiver. If you don't take care of him and let him wreck the game, he will. He's kind of that guy for us. If they don't take care of him on offense, he'll wreck the game. So obviously they can direct their energy somewhere else when he's not in the game.
We just have to do -- we obviously didn't do a good enough job when he was out of creating some energy, creating some turnovers and creating some rush and doing that stuff, and so obviously that falls on me because we didn't get it done. But we're glad to have him back, and we're going to go from here.
Q. Seems like you tried some different stuff, the three defensive linemen, one outside linebacker, three inside linebackers. Do you feel like you looked under every rock?
TERYL AUSTIN: We tried. Yeah, we did. We did the things we thought were appropriate and that would give us an opportunity to generate some different looks, some different pressures without him in the game, and obviously I failed at it.
Q. The other guy, Kazee, looked like he was going to have a role in preseason -- how disappointing was that that you didn't get to use what looked like to be a find?
TERYL AUSTIN: Oh, I'm really disappointed. He's a really good football player, and he's been working these last couple weeks, so hopefully we'll have him back in the fold, and depending on his fitness and everything, we'll find a role for him, but he's a really good football player and I'm glad he's back.
Q. With a new corner in the mix, what are some demands of playing corner in the Steelers' system?
TERYL AUSTIN: As you know, we like to get after people. We like to pressure. So that's going to put you in a lot of one-on-one situations outside, which is the hardest thing in the world. They know where they're going, you don't, and you've got to guard them all over the field. That's really the unique thing about it. If you're going to play corner here, you've got to be able to cover outside. The other thing I think that's unique to Pittsburgh -- maybe not unique to Pittsburgh, but we'll play the corner (indiscernible) cover corner, cover corner (indiscernible) keep everything else inside. We expect our corners to tackle, get guys on the ground and be physical football players.
Q. How close was TJ to playing in Philly and how close to being that game wrecker is he now?
TERYL AUSTIN: Well, I'll let TJ answer his health status or Mike answer that. I'm not going to answer that.
But he was pretty close. He was champing at the bit to play. I know that. Obviously just wasn't ready, so we decided -- Mike decided to wait and we'll get him back after the bye and we'll go from there.
Q. Is there enough time for Jackson -- could he start for you next Sunday?
TERYL AUSTIN: I think anything is feasible. He's a veteran. He's been in the league. He understands football. I think it all is going to depend on obviously the practice next week, how comfortable we feel and where we feel he is, what he does with playing time.
Q. The other guy you lost was Leal who looked like he was helping a great deal in the early stages of Watt's absence. How big a deal was that?
TERYL AUSTIN: Yeah, I think we missed him because you got to see the growth of a young football player, and he was starting to grow, and this kind of slows it down. He wasn't going to replace TJ, but he did give us some really good things, and we got a chance because of TJ's injury, and that's moving some things around. We got a chance to see him probably a little more than we anticipated early, but the returns were good. Now we've just got to get him healthy again.
Q. Is that three inside linebackers thing, does that have a shelf life after Watt comes back? Has it been effective?
TERYL AUSTIN: It has been effective. I'm not sure how it's going to be moving forward. We'll figure that out, but I think it's all specific to who we're playing, and if it does give us the best chance to win.
Q. Instead of rotating, you kind of found a role for all three of them?
TERYL AUSTIN: Absolutely. I think that was the proper thing to do. You have three guys that can play, and you thought that hey, after you lose a couple guys, maybe these are the best guys on the field, and you try to put the best guys on the field all the time.
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