Bills - 26, Steelers - 7
MIKE TOMLIN: Not a lot needs to be said. That's an awful performance by us. But it's us. We didn't do a lot well tonight obviously. We didn't possess the ball or maintain ball security on offense. We were highly penalized. We allowed those guys to run the ball. Didn't play 60 minutes of action. Didn't play complementary football.
So we've got to absorb that result. We're certainly not going to feel sorry for ourselves. That's just the business we're in.
Had some injuries. Pat Queen had a contusion. He wasn't able to run, so he wasn't allowed to come back into the game. James Pierre is in the concussion protocol.
Q. Is there anything that you can pinpoint or explain some of the second half issues you've had this season?
MIKE TOMLIN: Not putting together 60 minutes of action. Certainly there are tangible things, things that you and I both see, but we'd better look at it and look at it hard because there's usually something beneath the surface that's producing that, particularly in the consistency with which it is occurring.
The third quarter was awful. It was awful last week. So we've got to absorb the responsibility of that.
Q. This is the third time you guys have led at halftime and then allowed another team to win. What do you guys as a coaching staff have to do better when other teams are adjusting to what you guys do?
MIKE TOMLIN: That's exactly what I'm talking about. We didn't play a good half of football. We turned the ball over, didn't produce scores, and there's nothing mystical about that. It's about the same as last week.
Q. Are you avoiding passing over the middle of the field? If not, how to explain so little production there?
MIKE TOMLIN: There's just not enough production. We're not going to make excuses for it.
Q. Why wasn't a package for Darnell Washington used earlier than starting in the fourth quarter? Two, it seems the schematic for Coach Smith is not beyond 10 yards. I'm just interested in that.
MIKE TOMLIN: All of those questions are reasonable given what we put out there. We've got a lot of work in front of us.
Q. The issues popping up in the run game, do those stem from the lack of physicality? And how do you fix that at this point in the season?
MIKE TOMLIN: I thought it was just as it wore on, the attrition component of it became a factor. I'm not going to say too much tonight. I'll take a look at the tape, but certainly it was below the line and increasingly so.
Q. How much did Derrick Harmon's absence impact you stopping the run?
MIKE TOMLIN: Whenever you miss some people, it's impactful.
Q. Does the solution to turn this thing around exist in this building?
MIKE TOMLIN: Certainly.
Q. What gives you the confidence that they do?
MIKE TOMLIN: Keep watching.
Q. Only 58 yards rushing today. What do you have to do to be effective game in and game out with running the ball?
MIKE TOMLIN: We've got to win possession downs. We've got to maintain possession of it. We can't turn the ball over. It will produce more snaps for us. If we do that, we'll probably have more than 58 or whatever it is that you mentioned.
Q. It seems like you guys kept your safeties back more to stop the pass, and that worked early. What did you guys need to do with the guys up front to stop the run while doing it?
MIKE TOMLIN: We had an appropriate safety allocation relative to the run. We did.
Q. How much was the offense limited by Aaron's wrist?
MIKE TOMLIN: It doesn't matter. It doesn't.
Q. You've had a number of games where other teams have backups on the offensive line, and your defensive front hasn't been able to take advantage of that. Why do you think that is?
MIKE TOMLIN: Good question. I don't have the answer to it. I know they weren't in a whole bunch of one-dimensional passing circumstances today, and that's usually where the backup game shows.
Q. Do you look at game plan or personnel changes offensively?
MIKE TOMLIN: I'm looking at everything.
Q. Also the time of possession, isn't that critical for your defense to get a little rest in terms of that as well?
MIKE TOMLIN: That's what I was talking about when I referred to the attrition component of it.
Q. How do you guys counter teams that kind of commit to the run the way the Bills did? It seemed like a lot of the runs you guys were running were running it into the teeth of them.
MIKE TOMLIN: Run it, pass it, we just weren't successful enough today to sustain any time of ball control or produce enough points to be functional today, and that's just the reality of it.
Q. Did you have a sense for how restless and frustrated the crowd was today?
MIKE TOMLIN: I know how restless and frustrated I was, so I assume they were in the same state we were in.
Q. You had a couple of big splash plays against you early in the third quarter. There was still a lot of game ahead. Do you think you weren't able to find an emotional response to that in addition to the on the field stuff?
MIKE TOMLIN: Forget the emotional response, man. We didn't produce plays. We didn't produce enough plays to put the fire out.
Q. What goes through your mind when the crowd is chanting to fire you in your home stadium?
MIKE TOMLIN: Man, I share their frustration tonight. We didn't do enough. That's just the reality of it.
Q. AFC North, everything for you to win it is still in front of you. What do you have to do to keep this team or get this team going to win some games to possibly win the AFC North?
MIKE TOMLIN: I'm not big picture oriented tonight. I'm just talking about what we did or more importantly did not do tonight.
Certainly we understand where we are and the opportunity that's in front of us from a divisional standpoint, but that -- that's very secondary as we sit here tonight, man. We had a poor performance, and that's where our energy is and should be in terms of the analysis of this.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports