Pittsburgh Steelers Media Conference

Sunday, October 29, 2023

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA

Trevor Lawrence

Visitors Postgame Press Conference


Jaguars 20, Steelers 10

TREVOR LAWRENCE: ...find a way. That's the worst going into a bye week, losing. You have two weeks to think about it, get ready for the next one.

Feels great where we're at. We also understand that we haven't won anything yet. We're 6-2, a great spot to be in. We've been on a great run. But we got to keep carrying that momentum when we come back.

Q. You don't expect to have a lot of games when you have three turnovers on offense.

TREVOR LAWRENCE: Yeah.

Q. How do you feel about that?

TREVOR LAWRENCE: No doubt. I mean, it's a testament to us just making plays when we have to. I mean, that's never the formula. We talked about it a lot going into this game. This team that we're playing, the Steelers, they're really good. If you have more than one turnover, if you give up more than a sack or two, if you don't score, I think it's 23 points at least. Their record is really, really good when those things happen.

We didn't do anything by that formula today. I mean, we scored 20 points, had I don't know how many sacks, a few, three or four, had three turnovers in positive territory.

It's a testament to our defense for one, then our offense being able to make the plays when we need 'em. We moved the ball consistently all day, which is great against a really good defense.

But we just got to find ways to finish those drives. I had a bad play down in the red zone. That can't happen. That took off seven points, but at least three points off the board for us. I think they went down and scored on that drive. That shouldn't happen. I can't let that happen being the quarterback. I got to be smarter there.

All in all, it's a great win. You're always going to take wins in this league. It was great to see us battle through the adversity.

Q. The touchdown to Travis, great read, what did you see?

TREVOR LAWRENCE: We were in empty. I don't know if we ever have thrown that ball to the running back out there. Honestly got to give a lot of credit to Travis for staying ready, knowing what the look is. They played covered two. The corner jumped out, Calvin at number two, the corner jumped that. Travis was rolling down the sideline.

The safety, instead of getting high over the top, he drove as well. I think he thought I was throwing it to Calvin. Got fortunate because I put enough air on it, because that could have been bad. He had a jump on it if I threw it flat.

Travis making a great play down the field. That's a tough play for a running back. Him being able to haul it in, go finish and go score. That was a huge play for us after I think we turn it over right before that. Defense got a big stop. We went and had that play, scored. That was a big swing for us right there.

Q. Did you ever hit him like that before?

TREVOR LAWRENCE: No, never. That's got to be the longest we've hit, for sure.

Q. Last October you guys were 0-5. Since then it's been 13-4 in the regular season. Undefeated October. Talk about that turnaround. Did it happen quicker than you thought? How far have you guys come?

TREVOR LAWRENCE: We've come a long way just really in every area. I wouldn't say necessarily it happened quicker than you thought. We have just been so caught up in our process every week, turning the page, just finding a way. When Sunday comes, whether we play great, we don't play great, we have turnovers, we play clean, whatever it is: How can we find a way to win the game? Whether that's our defense picking us up when we need it after a turnover, or us going and scoring after the defense gives up a touchdown. Doesn't matter.

That mindset has given us a lot of confidence. We've seen ourselves win these tight games, win the games that aren't clean, we've won games when we're behind. Found a way to win last week in New Orleans when they tied it up. Got a big touchdown. Got a stop on defense.

All those things just pile on top of each other and build a lot of confidence in a team. We got to keep playing with that, clean up some of the mistakes, like always. But I love where we're at right now.

Q. The little terrible comment was taken out of context in Pittsburgh. What did you make of that? What was it like playing in this environment, hostile environment, you come out with a win?

TREVOR LAWRENCE: It's good. I mean, came out with the win, that's the main thing. It went well for us.

I don't really care about... Fans do that. It's part of what makes this game great. You use fuel. You want to hate your opponent when they come in, make it as hard as possible on them. I totally understand that. I hope our fans do that in Jacksonville, too. I thought we played pretty clean in the noise minus a couple things. I thought we communicated really well.

Great environment. The fans were loud. They did a great job, too. Just found a way, so it was great.

Q. As soon as you released the red zone pick, did you think...

TREVOR LAWRENCE: Yeah, yeah, I knew. It was just a bad play by me. That wasn't the look, wasn't the coverage, the look that we wanted for that play.

When I got to the top of my drop, I saw one and two weren't open, I should have just thrown it out the back of the end zone. I think it was first and five and five or something like that. Should have thrown it away. I tried to scramble, tried to throw one late to Calvin in the back of the end zone. Kind of double covered there.

That's one that I know better. In that moment I tried to do too much.

Q. Your team has the best record in the AFC. What does that say about this team? In your mind, is this team a Super Bowl contender?

TREVOR LAWRENCE: It means we still have more to work for. We're still not the best team in the league. We still got more out there for us. That's all we know. Doesn't matter. 6-2, played eight games. We got nine left.

It would be great if this decided Playoffs and all that right now, but it doesn't. We know we got nine games left. We also know last year, what were we, 3-7 going into the bye. Won a Playoff game.

This honestly means nothing. It means we got a great start to the season, in a good position going forward. We got a lot of big games ahead of us after this bye, a lot of really good teams, too.

We're just getting started. We know what's in front of us. We can't look too far ahead and think we've done everything.

Q. This team has figured out to win ugly games. What goes into that? How did you figure that out?

TREVOR LAWRENCE: I'm not sure. I don't know the answer to that. I think the best thing I can give you is that we've done it. We've been able to do it so much in the past that I think we have that confidence of whether you talk about the Playoff game last year, the Dallas game before that, even this season New Orleans, not playing great, they kind of have all the momentum at the end of the game, we find a way to score, like I just said.

Trying to think of the other games. Buffalo was a little different. One-score game. Found a way to win. Had a turnover in the red zone, a couple fumbles. Stuff like that.

I think we've just realized. Also, too, this league is not ever going to be perfect. I think teams that understand there's going to be adversity, it's not going to go clean. You can't get thrown off when something doesn't go right 'cause, I mean, there's great players on every team, great coaches. There's going to be things that aren't going to go perfect for you. You're going to make mistakes.

You have to be able to fight through it, battle back, play the next play. We've gotten good at that. We have to continue doing that while cleaning up the mistakes because you can't always rely on the ability to overcome 'em because you're not always going to be to do that. Some teams some weeks are going to play good enough and clean enough to beat you. You got to clean it up, but I love the mindset that we have.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
138646-1-1004 2023-10-29 21:13:00 GMT

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