PITTSBURGH STEELERS 16, JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS 15
MIKE TOMLIN: Man, just like I told the team, I told them at halftime and I told them after the game and it was true in both instances, they control the football game. But we won the game. And so we've got to take responsibility for that positively and negatively.
Down in and down out, we didn't perform well enough, we didn't perform at a high enough level to control the game. I thought their defensive front in the environment in particular controlled the game.
I thought we had some blown assignments on defense that cost us from a field positioning standpoint. But when you looked at it, the weighty downs -- oftentimes, we talk about downs aren't weighted the same. And that's where we were able to win the football game. We won enough possession downs on defense, particularly when the field got short. We made them settle for three a couple of times. We functioned in two-minute offense. And it was great because we put an extra emphasis on 2 minute offense in preparatoin for this game. And so it's good to see time spent pay off.
Seven shot football won the game for us, 4th down and 2 there at the end. And we're appreciative of that. But down in and down out, not good enough by any stretch. But it's good to learn with a W. Football is our game, our business is winning. And we've got to find ways to win even when we win poorly. And make no mistake, we won because we won the weighty downs. They won significantly more downs than we did.
So it's good to learn with a W. And hopefully we'll do so. But obviously we've got some correcting and some things to do based on that performance.
Questions.
Q. Mike, did you see what Kenny did? And was that all you planned to play him?
MIKE TOMLIN: Yeah. That was all I had planned to play him. I would have liked to possessed the football more in the first half and thus have a bigger body of work. But some things are outside of your control. We've got to get first downs in order for that to happen. Oftentimes when you're not possessing the ball enough, there's not enough snaps to go around for everyone. So it could be said for some of the offensive people we wanted to take a look at, a lack of conversions limits some of that.
Q. Mike, what is it about him that he's able to produce those last minute touchdowns like he's done the last two games?
MIKE TOMLIN: You know, it's probably who he is. I know he did it next door. He probably did it in high school. He probably did it in little league. Some things people are born with.
Q. You mentioned was that kind of an extension of what you saw in Saint Vincent with him moving the offense?
MIKE TOMLIN: I just think largely as a collective we put time into two-minute football. You guys have been at our training camp practices. You know how much we devote to that. I think it paid dividends in the stadium, not only at the end of the half but at the end of the game. We were in 2 minute there when we went down the field with Rudolph and Vaughn
Q. Coach, from what you've seen from Kenny over the last two preseason games, has that done anything to change where he sits on the depth chart?
MIKE TOMLIN: We'll address depth chart related things over the next couple of things as we zero in on our next opportunity. I don't make knee-jerk reactions or statements following a performance.
Q. How did you think Mitch played overall?
MIKE TOMLIN: I thought Mitch played well. I thought he created and extended some things when there wasn't much there. We've got to do a better job in protecting him and having some semblance of a running game if you want a fair evaluation. And I'm just being bluntly honest.
Q. Mike, Mason is playing with the 13 but he comes down the field and makes a big pass too. I'm just curious what you thought?
MIKE TOMLIN: I thought he looked like a varsity guy in a JV game. And I told him that. It was reminiscent of when we had Charlie Batch and Braylon Heard up as backups. When you've got a veteran guy like that late in the preseason game in the quarterback position, he should be the best player on the field. It should show. And I thought it did.
Q. Coach, if you've got to pick something from tonight's performance from your team to say this is a building block we can carry into the season, what would it be?
MIKE TOMLIN: I don't know that I'm looking for that type of comfort. We didn't play well tonight. They controlled the game, and so we've got some work to do.
Q. Did you come out of it clean from an injury standpoint?
MIKE TOMLIN: To the best of my knowledge. But the upcoming hours and days will tell that tell.
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FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports