Jacksonville - 20, Pittsburgh - 10
MIKE TOMLIN: Disappointing result for us. Didn't do enough over the course of the 60 minutes to secure victory. Thought we were closing the distance in the second half. Had a miscommunication and gave up a long score. We turned the ball over on the other side.
You're not going to close distance and finish ball games giving up chunk plays and turning the ball over. So that was a major component of it.
From an injury perspective, Minkah has a hamstring, wasn't able to return. Kenny had a rib injury, wasn't able to return. Had some other bumps and bruises, but I think everybody else returned. Diontae returned, Dan Moore returned.
We don't have a lot of time to absorb the result of this. We've got a short week. So we'll do so quickly and quickly turn our attention in planning toward Tennessee.
As unfortunate as the outcome of this game is, man, it is final. We'd better turn our attention toward the next opportunity on the short week, and those are our intentions.
Q. Any idea how bad Kenny's hurt or going forward?
MIKE TOMLIN: I don't have any understanding of that, no.
Q. At halftime they said he was going to come back. Then he comes out and warms up, and then he doesn't.
MIKE TOMLIN: I don't know who they was. I didn't say that.
Q. On the long score, were you out leveraged on that side? What happened?
MIKE TOMLIN: Miscommunication.
Q. Kenny did come out and warm up. He was throwing on the sideline in the second half. Did he report additional pain that made him unable to go?
MIKE TOMLIN: Him warming up is not reflective of intentions.
Q. What led to those first half struggles offensively?
MIKE TOMLIN: We missed a big play down the middle early. We missed another corner route early. We've just got to execute better at the early portions of football games obviously.
Q. How much do those early three and outs set a tone? Including having your defense --
MIKE TOMLIN: The early portions of the game doesn't decide the outcome. It doesn't. It usually doesn't. It didn't today. Obviously you want more fluid starts, but it didn't determine the outcome of the game.
As I mentioned, I thought the critical things were the things that transpired in the second half. The long score, the turnover, the things you can't do as you're leaning in on the last portion of a football game.
Q. Losing Minkah, how much did that affect what you guys were able to do defensively?
MIKE TOMLIN: It didn't schematically. Obviously he's a quality player, but I don't know that it reduced us schematically in any way.
Q. Do you think that, if Mitch exhibits just a little bit more patience, he'll be able to turn it over because he had some open short that may have resulted in a different outcome?
MIKE TOMLIN: I may have a different perspective after I review it. It wasn't the case as it unfolded.
Q. What did they tell you on the offsides call, and what was the impact of losing those three points?
MIKE TOMLIN: I didn't get a lot of dialogue. I hadn't seen that called in 17 years of standing on the sidelines. Offsides, aligned offsides on a guard, on a field goal protection.
So it didn't matter what they said. I have never seen that.
Q. What about why you needed to use the timeout when Kenny got hurt? Ten seconds were off. Did you get an explanation of that?
MIKE TOMLIN: It was an injury within the two-minute.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports