Steelers 24, Vikings 21
Q. Carson, was there a problem with your left eye?
CARSON WENTZ: Yeah, for a moment there it was tough to see. Got gouged in the eye. But we're fine.
Q. Overall what was is it like to be under that amount of pressure?
CARSON WENTZ: Yeah, they're a good team. We got down early so we ended up throwing the ball quite a bit, so it's always tough on the O-line and everything.
There was definitely times I could have got rid of the ball quicker and gone through my progressions faster.
Yeah, shout-out to that team. They play hard. They play physical. They made it tough on us.
Q. Justin (indiscernible)?
JUSTIN JEFFERSON: Yeah, it was a little slippery out there, but it's not really something that we would put blame on or criticize. At the end of the day, we've still got to go out there -- we were aware of the surface, and it just was a little tricky sometimes just trying to put your foot in the ground and grass coming up.
I feel like all in all, we still got to be able to run our routes and still won a good bit on our routes. It's not really something that we really put focus on, for real.
Q. (Indiscernible)?
JUSTIN JEFFERSON: Oh, for sure. For sure. Just leaving me one-on-one with 41, definitely wish I could get that one back. But just got to move on to that one and on to the next play.
Q. How difficult was it out there without a play clock in your direction?
CARSON WENTZ: Yeah, it was weird. I'm not going to lie, it was weird looking behind me, looking over my shoulder on the side. I thought we handled it okay. Obviously got us at a very bad time of the game, unfortunately. But yeah, that was a little different.
Q. Were you guys hoping for a reset of the play clock there after the spike? It looked like you were kind of --
CARSON WENTZ: Yeah, that's on me. I've got to be quicker in and out. I think I just kind of lost sight of it, obviously physically, and was kind of back of my mind, so I've got to be better.
Q. Carson, big picture how --
CARSON WENTZ: Yeah, I've got to watch it back. At the end of the day, we lost. That's all I care about. That's all I'm concerned about. Got a bad taste in my mouth. The defense stepped up when we needed them in the end, got us the ball back.
In those situations it pains me to be left there out on the field with a chance and come up short. I'm not here to evaluate the rest of the play. We had some chances. A couple tipped picks; those suck. I'm not going to lie; those are tough. They kind of derailed I thought we had some decent momentum going on on a couple drives.
So, yeah, that was tough, but at the end of the day, we lost, and that's all that matters.
Q. Justin, four games in, how do you evaluate the offensive execution overall?
JUSTIN JEFFERSON: Yeah, we're still figuring it out. Just dealing with different circumstances, injuries, people having to step up in different spots. It's difficult. This game of football is not really predictable, and a lot of things can really jump at you when you're really not expecting it to.
But at the end of the day, just like you said, we lost. It's not really -- we've got to look at the film to really digest it for real.
But yeah, definitely a sick taste in our mouth, just hurting ourselves really, just shooting ourselves in the foot and just giving them more opportunities to really get points or gain that momentum.
It's just something that we've got to lean in on ourselves and really understand what we really want to accomplish.
The penalties, we've got to get rid of the penalties, pre-snaps. That's definitely something that we've got to lean into. But it definitely was a great defense out there. They're a great team, and they made plays at the end of the day.
Q. What's going through your head when you see Brian O'Neill down on the field and the medical staff coming out to attend to him?
CARSON WENTZ: Yeah, immediately just start praying for guys, obviously. That's all you can do. Injuries are unfortunately a part of this game. We've both been there.
It's one of those things you just kind of pray for these guys. Obviously as a leader of our team, that means something to everybody.
I thought Justin did a great job stepping up, Justin Skule there when BO went out. That's obviously always tough with a leader of your team in that situation.
But it's always a next-man-up mentality. Injuries are part of this game, and praying he'll be back soon.
Q. Carson, how did you feel about the pressure from the D-line?
CARSON WENTZ: Yeah, like I said earlier, it's tough. When you get down, you dig yourself a hole like that, the D-line kind of pins ears back and rushes and we're throwing time and time again. It's a good team, a good D-line. Hats off to them. They play hard.
So we had our chances. I can be better, get the ball out quicker too. But yeah, it always makes it tough, and they did a good job today.
Q. Did you feel the pressure from the public?
CARSON WENTZ: The crowd was -- honestly if that's what you're asking, the crowd, the atmosphere, it was fun, honestly. It was my second time playing overseas, so I thought it was a good experience, good turnout. It sucks to lose, not going to lie, but I thought it was a cool atmosphere and tough one to lose out there.
Q. Justin, you spoke a little bit about cleaning up the pre-snap and post-snap penalties and getting in a rhythm again. What is the difference that when you guys have your back against the wall? What is the difference that you guys can somehow overcome some of those?
JUSTIN JEFFERSON: Yeah, we've just been in those different positions too many times, honestly. We just kind of understand and we kind of lean on each other to pick it up. At the end of the day, we weren't really losing by much. We was only losing by two possessions, two scores.
It's all about one play at a time, defense getting us that stop and allowing us to go down, score, and get it within three, and then getting a stop again, allowing us to get the ball back, and go take a shot at either tying the game or winning the game.
So it's just all about just keeping our heads up and just keep fighting at the end of the day. I feel like we've definitely been in those positions too much to really love it, but we also understand that we have a team that fights and don't really hang our head until 0:00 is on that clock. We've been doing it time and time again.
Even last year, this year. We've just got to really figure out how to not be in those positions and not allowing ourselves, because it's really ourselves that are getting into those positions, not really the other team outplaying us or out-coaching us.
We've got to look in the mirror. We've got to look in the mirror and figure out how we're going to stop that from happening, how we're going to come out fast, swinging like we did last week and just carrying on that same consistency.
So that's pretty much the main thing.
Q. Did this feel like a road game? Did it feel like something different? Obviously they were the home team officially, but what did it feel like being out there?
JUSTIN JEFFERSON: Yeah, I mean, it felt great. They definitely had some Steelers fans out there. They had some crowd noise, and it definitely felt electric, I would say.
But at the end of the day, we expect that. We kind of understand that it still is their home this game, and any circumstances we're really ready to go out there and perform no matter the crowd noise, no matter the atmosphere. It's just on us to go out there and still perform and communicate like always.
Q. Justin, you were saying you were sliding. Do you think you would have benefitted from coming a day or two earlier?
JUSTIN JEFFERSON: I don't really know. That's a great question. But I don't really know. I mean, just being out there and -- it's not really, like, overly slipping. It was just slipping on -- just here and there on these little routes. Maybe I'm overextending a little bit too much, and I've just got to understand the surfaces and understand that I've got to get my feet below me instead of out wide.
That's something to think about, but that's not really something that I put blame on or I criticize. At the end of the day, whether it's raining, snowing, we've still got to go out there and run good routes and get open for the quarterback.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports