Steelers 37, Jets 15
MODERATOR: All right. We'll just open it up for questions.
Q. I got one. Brandon Marshall here, "I Am Athlete." Hate to open up this way because I know you so well, but I want you to take us through your mindset coming into the game, being booed, then Justin Fields' name being chanted. How do you stay steady-handed to go then put up 37 points? How do you work through that?
RUSSELL WILSON: Yeah, it's a great question. You know, first of all, I really believe in being neutral, you know, not being too high, not being too low. My old mental coach who passed away a couple years ago used to always say, you know, stay the course. I think coming into this game, you know, we had a couple things earlier that we could have had. I felt like it was playoff baseball out there in the sense of I start off 0-2 and -- but it felt like I was going to get hot. I kept telling Coach, hey, I'm going to get hot here and sure enough we did. We did a great job. The guys did a tremendous job up front giving me enough time to make throws. Guys made plays down the field and else and I think it's just the love of the game, you know. I played so many games and you know that every game is different. Every game has its own story and every game has different moments in it and you catch the wave and once you find it, you don't let go. I think the biggest thing is just knowing who you are, knowing the belief you have in yourself and knowing also, too, it's my first time back and I was like okay, I'm starting to feel it again. Here we go. It's just -- it's been a while. It's been six weeks from really playing and I'm just grateful to my teammates, man. These guys did so much. They did so well. We all just gave our all. Defense was lights out against a really good quarterback, obviously, and I think we made a lot of plays. I think that crowd was unbelievable. I just think about the moments, just the moments being locked in the moment of time of saying this is my first game here, man, how special is this? I thank God for it, so that was a blessing itself.
Q. Russ why did that connection work so well with George tonight?
RUSSELL WILSON: You know, George is so talented, he makes it easy on the quarterback. He knows how to get open. He knows how to make plays, his ability to make contested catches is remarkable. We got a lot of confidence in all the guys we have, man. I think Calvin made a huge play near the end. Pat Freiermuth on the big third downs, we started making some big-time plays and I just -- with Van Jefferson getting in the endzone there, too, you know, when it all works together as one, when the offensive line is doing a tremendous job like they did tonight, I think it's the second straight game for Naj going over a hundred plus, I mean, it's just we're doing some good things and the reality is there's so much more out there. That's the good news. There's so much more out there and we'll get better as we go. We're going to keep working. There's a lot more football left, but to be where we are is a good place.
Q. Russ, you mentioned wanting to remain neutral but it seems like there are emotions, obviously, that come with being able to get in the game, especially after dealing with the calf injury and everything else. Just what are you feeling right now?
RUSSELL WILSON: I feel a sense of just unbelievable gratitude. I think all the people that have helped me along the way just even transitioning here, just coming to an amazing place, when Coach Tomlin called me and Omar, I knew it was here. When I talked to Cam Heyward and T.J. Watt and Minkah, I knew it was here. The men that we have in that locker room, the bible studies that we have, the communication that we have on the field, the time that we share together on the trobe. Even though I was down and out a little bit there, just sitting on the back porch talking life, talking ball, talking moments. All that I think was in a way played into tonight in just the belief.
My favorite scripture, one of my favorite ones I have been sitting on is just Hebrews 11, just by faith. It says by faith. By faith. I think we just got a lot of faith in who we are, where we're going, what we can do, but we got a lot more work to do and that's the fun part about the journey, that it's never easy and you got to embrace it, you got to love it, you got to go for it. We went for it tonight and we got it done.
Q. What about this passing game opened up for you guys in the second half, especially. You're distributing the ball to several different guys, different guys making plays at different times?
RUSSELL WILSON: I thought Arthur Smith did a great job letting me cut it loose and guys getting open and guys moving around just making tremendous plays. I thought he called a great game. He helped me get into a groove. We talked about it earlier in the week and at the end of the week he said it may take a second, you know. I never believe that, but it did. (Chuckle) And then we caught a groove. We believed in it and we just -- the line was giving me enough time to make all those throes and just, you know, you got play-makers like we have, anything is possible. So like I said, there's still more out there too. We'll make sure that we get better as we go.
Q. How do you make that decision of when to give George the shot down the field or maybe this isn't the right time?
RUSSELL WILSON: There's a time and place for everything. The good thing is we got play-makers on the left and the right and you're looking, assessing at everything and just those opportunities that you get, you want to give him as many chances as you can because you know he's going to come down with them, you know, and so he's just -- you know what's been amazing about George. I know he went through oh little up and down and that's just part of this game sometimes, it doesn't always go your way right away. It was cool because George and I had a cool conversation a couple weeks ago and just not giving up on stuff and just believing in himself, believing in us, believing in the journey and just continuing to do what he does best, man. God gave him a tremendous gift and one of the things about George is when he catches that ball, he's got a light to him, the whole stadium feels it. There's an energy to him. That's what makes him the superstar that he is and there's more work to be done and we're going to get better as we go.
Q. Russell, I want to make you a little bit uncomfortable again because you hate talking about yourself, but I want you to take us to the moment where you were like, okay, like I'm here. Like today, right?
RUSSELL WILSON: Yeah. You know, I think throwing that first touchdown to George was the moment. I was like all right, there's going to be a lot more of these, I believe. Just sometimes it takes that first home written, that first double off-the-wall, whatever it may be. Obviously it's October so I'm talking baseball, but (chuckle) I just think that when you put all the hard work in and guys are doing the work and at some point it's going to turn in your favor and it did tonight. We did a great job and I'm excited about our football team.
Q. Is there a balance to this offense you feel like you guys are still unlocking as far as Najee on the ground, George, everybody else in the ground that makes you guys more dangerous?
RUSSELL WILSON: Yeah, you know, the thing is that I feel like we have this young offense, young players that are so talented and we're just, like, we're right on that edge of getting really good and being great and we got to keep searching for that edge. We got to keep learning and studying and spending the time on it and -- our defense every day who is top of the game, you get to see guys like T.J. Watt and Cam and Minkah and we're all learning and watching Alex and these guys, PQ and E. Rob and those guys, just the edge that they play with and they come to work with and for us as well on the offensive side, we get to see that, we get to experience that. We get to be that to and we have that in our locker room.
Part of my job I believe, sitting here in 13 years in the game is to make sure I take guys to that edge and understand that we got to go there and we can't wait and so that's the biggest thing right now is there's a lot more room that we can grow and we're going to go for it and we're going to celebrate tonight, but when that clock strikes in the morning, when that sun comes up in the morning, we got to get better.
MODERATOR: Last one here, we got two more guys waiting.
Q. Russ, what does it mean to you or say to you that Mike Tomlin, despite all the outside noise, everything else going on was very firm in sticking with, hey, you're going to get a chance. I have to -- there's a quarterback who's playing that has done a good but not great job as he said that he made the move to go to you?
RUSSELL WILSON: You know, we are in a tremendous situation where we are. I think there's a lot of outside noise that makes it seem like it's a negative thing and this rivalry internal and it's not, man. We just want to win. That's what we're focused on. I got to give Justin fields credit, man, all the things he was able to do, how great he's been playing. He inspires me every day how he works, vice versa. We have a great relationship. He's a tremendous quarterback. He's a franchise quarterback. He's a leader, he's got all the intangibles and whatever I can give to him and show him and just be around him, that's part of my job, you know. I really believe that. Just being the second Black quarterback to ever win a Super Bowl, there's an obligation to make sure that I help him and not just him but everybody that I encounter, man, I love this game and I'm passionate about it. When you give, it comes back in return and just -- I think that we're just having fun winning. We're having fun playing ball. We're having fun going to practice. We're having fun being around one another and Coach Tomlin believes in all of us and he does a tremendous job and this guy's a tremendous football coach and we trust him and we know who he is and he's very transparent and everything else with us too. We just love winning and we love being part of the process.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports