Pittsburgh Steelers - 20, New Orleans Saints - 10
MIKE TOMLIN: At home in front of our fans, appreciative of the efforts of everyone. A lot of positive contributions in three phases. Obviously things we can do better and things we need to work on. It's good to work on those things with the win. And so we'll take those lessons and move forward and get ready for our next opportunity. We'll be right back here next week. We've just got to keep digging.
Appreciative of the win, appreciative of the efforts. A lot of fun in the locker room, man. It's good to get the job done. We don't take it for granted. We appreciate it. We understand it's not anything mystical. It's good work. It's minimizing negativity, staying on schedule on offense, possessing the ball, running the ball, winning possession, downs on defense.
We left some points out there in the kicking game today. We'll get back to work with Matt Wright and company. Operationally, it could have been better in some of those things, but we're always going to fall short of perfection. It's good to win, though, in the process. I'll pause and open it up for questions.
Q. Mike, a lot of chunk plays, 20-yard plays today, something you haven't had all year. Any reason or difference for that?
MIKE TOMLIN: We're just working, man. We're going to keep working.
Q. Did anything change with Kazee taking over for Minkah at the last minute?
MIKE TOMLIN: Not schematically, no. I thought all those guys did a nice job. We got multiple packages and so forth, and it was Kazee primarily but, you know Minkah is a versatile chess piece, man. It was a lot of people, man. Norwood and others too.
Q. What can you say about the running game overall, not just the running backs?
MIKE TOMLIN: Quarterback mobility is a component of it. I thought Kenny did some good things with his legs. The runners ran hard, and we came off the ball as bigs up front. We ran off the ball, and so we'll just keep building.
Q. Seemed like it was a good balance between Warren and Harris in terms of your usage and down and distance and that sort of thing. With that be said, unofficial running back committee you guys might continue?
MIKE TOMLIN: We've been talking about it. Jaylen has been playing well and deserving more reps, and what transpired today was reflective of that.
Q. What did you like about Kenny in the second half?
MIKE TOMLIN: First and foremost, we took care of the ball. As a young quarterback in competitive circumstances, that's a difficult thing to do. We don't discount his ability to do that. Take care of the ball, give yourself a chance to win, and make yourself a tough group to beat. So it started there for us.
Q. Your thoughts on your pass rush and the pressure on Dalton, even with the return of, of course, T.J. Watt?
MIKE TOMLIN: We were more concerned about minimizing Kamara and some of the things they did with Hill and the wildcat things. I thought we did a great job of minimizing those things, and it cleared out the clutter for to us do other things. The rush was sufficient, but anything we did defensively started with working to minimize Kamara and the things they were doing with 7 at quarterback.
MIKE TOMLIN: Was Myles Jack held out because of his knee?
Q. We had him ready to go. He was willing to go. We were going to be prudent about his usage. As the game unfolded, we liked the mix of the guys. We were getting off on third down so conditioning and things of that nature didn't become a factor. We were able to keep him out of the mix, which is a good thing.
Q. What did you think of Rob Spillane's day specifically?
MIKE TOMLIN: Rob's a starter-like dude. We feel like we got a pair and a spare there. We got three starting inside linebackers, and he proved that today. I think he's continually proved that for some time.
Q. Mike, when you look at the way the team performed today, you said a couple weeks ago you're going to be staying focused on winning every Sunday's game. Seeing the way the team performed today, is this kind of the model? Your team made progress and won.
MIKE TOMLIN: That's the job. That is the job. Thank you.
Q. What did you like about Matthew Wright that you wanted to get him and maybe talk did some of the things.
MIKE TOMLIN: We've had success with him. He left here and had continual success in the league. I think he was 21 of 24 in J'ville. He's been successful in the league. We were comfortable with that information not only in terms of what he's done in the National Football League but what he's done here with us. So it wasn't a long or significant discussion. Not necessary.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports