Steelers 34, Bengals 12
Q. In the pick 6, did your arm get hit?
JOE FLACCO: I don't know if my arm got hit. I just got hit, you know. I was trying to wrap it around that guy. Kind of saw him sitting there and felt like there was a lot of room in the middle of the field trying to wrap Tee in there. And maybe it's out in front of Tee or not. I thought there was room in there, and I kind of got bumped and couldn't get the ball where I wanted to.
Q. What will linger from the missed opportunities offensively today?
JOE FLACCO: Go watch things and clean them up. Obviously, your thoughts are going to be, you know, are going to be with you for a little bit, and you've got to find a way to move on and watch the film and see what it really was and take care of it.
Q. Given where the division is, did today feel like a huge opportunity, potentially, to really gain some momentum coming out of the bye week?
JOE FLACCO: Listen, we're halfway through the season, basically. A little bit more now. But it really is so tough to look at it that way. I think it's easy to get caught up in that stuff. But, you know, I really try to remove myself from those situations and just go play football. And I think if you do that, that's when you give yourself the best chance to be in the best position you want. Obviously, that's there lingering and you know the opportunity and all that stuff.
But you've got to try to avoid getting caught up in those things.
Q. Have you tried to manage the pain in the shoulder? How much worse did it get after the late hit by T.J. Watt?
JOE FLACCO: Listen, that's football. He did a good job. He buried me in the turf. But I felt good all game.
Q. Did they change the way they attacked Ja'Marr today?
JOE FLACCO: I think they made sure that they probably did it more. They probably had a couple guys on him more often than they did in the first game. And, you know, that's why they're a good football team. We knew they were going to make adjustments and come in here and play better than they did the first time we played them, and we've just got to match that.
Q. Two of the safeties (no microphone). Did that change much?
JOE FLACCO: Listen, I think everything they did, we kind of had a plan for and could see, you know, why they were doing it and the fact that they were going to do it. You have to ask them, I mean, in terms of what they feel like they can do and, you know, I know those guys are good players. Anytime you get your best players out there, you feel like you've got a good thing going.
Q. Did you feel like there was a miss in terms of when they lose their safety in the situation? They're already down to the secondary.
JOE FLACCO: I just think the way they were playing, that stuff mattered. Obviously, it matters over the long haul. The way they were playing and trying to double guys and doing those things and trying to get pressure with their front, I don't think it was one of those things where you could start drawing stuff up and take advantage of because guys were out. I think they were still sticking to their plan and doing what they were going to do against us.
Q. You've been in so many of these games here. When did you begin to think they might be putting their foot in the ground?
JOE FLACCO: Well, no. I mean, listen. These games, you know they're going to be battles. Even though this looks like a lot -- it looks really bad, it's one of those typical games that you come play in here. All of a sudden, it breaks loose and goes the other way.
But you felt it today. It was a hard, physical game. You knew they were going to make it tough for us, and we just didn't come through in those couple little moments. They got two touchdowns on defense and got everybody excited and were able to pin their ears back and do their thing.
That's what this game comes down to. It's one or two plays that you can look back on. Obviously, there's more than that and just the consistency of it. But there's always those plays, and it comes down to just playing winning football and kind of waiting for your opportunity and not letting yourself get too far out ahead of yourself and trying to make things happen when they're not going to.
I don't really think we were doing that today, but we obviously, you know, just we weren't able to wait, wait, wait, wait, and strike. We made mistakes, and they capitalized.
Q. (No microphone).
JOE FLACCO: I don't think so. I don't think so. I didn't pay much attention to it during the game, but it was windy out there. You could tell pregame, the ball was moving around. I don't think I've seen it like that before.
Q. Did it affect you?
JOE FLACCO: I don't think so. I think during the game it didn't really end up being a huge factor.
Q. Joe, did you feel like your defense put the team in a --
JOE FLACCO: I thought they did a lot of good things today. It's just a shame the way that when we're kind of not matching each other right now and playing both sides as well as we can at the same time.
Q. I know you're worried about your job when you're on the sidelines, but to the extent that you got to see the defense if at all, was there anything to your eyes that looked different about what they were doing well today versus --
JOE FLACCO: It looked like they were pinning their ears back a little bit more and playing with some confidence and playing with some speed so they were able to break through the line a little bit and get into the backfield a little bit more. It just looked like they were playing faster.
Q. Thank you, Joe.
JOE FLACCO: Thanks.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports