TITANS VS STEELERS
Sunday, Oct. 25, 2020
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Q. You took a couple of shots into the end zone that turned into interceptions there. Were those what was called for in those plays or was that maybe you getting a little greedy in those situations? What happened there?
BEN ROETHLISBERGER: Yeah, obviously the one at the end of the half, we kind of threw it up and the guy made a play. It's kind of one of those plays that happens. And then the last one was, I'll take my -- I'll take JuJu down the middle on a linebacker. I've just got to get it about six inches higher on his back shoulder. And you don't expect the ball to get tipped up in the air and intercepted. You hope it falls incomplete, but they intercepted it and that's on me.
Q. How important were those opening possessions to score and take as much time as you did? And did you go in thinking you would throw that much in a game where you had a lead and even a big lead?
BEN ROETHLISBERGER: We didn't -- I think we scored on the opening drive, so you got -- everyone can stop talking about scoring on opening drives and things like that. But I came into this game and told Coach Tomlin, We're going to take the ball. We're not going to defer. We knew that they would probably defer. So we knew we were going to have the ball first and I told the guys last night, This is what we're going to do. We're going to have the ball. Let's go down the field. We knew our top 10, obviously, was going to be a lot of throws. And we went down the field and put together a pretty complete drive there on that first drive.
Q. You had such an edge in time of possession in that first half, do you feel like you passed anything up just to keep the ball and keep moving the chains and keep being methodical?
BEN ROETHLISBERGER: We feel that -- we were just talking -- we're exhausted right now. Felt like we must have run a hundred plays. But that's what happens. I think the first half -- I haven't looked at any numbers, to be honest with you, so typically the reason that drives last that long are because you're converting third downs and I know we had some third down conversions in the first half that we didn't quite do in the second half. We would like to have a complete game, we would like to have a second half like that first half, but they're a professional team, they make adjustments and they made some and I didn't make enough plays in the second half.
Q. You said that you said that you want to take the opening kickoff or the ball, was the reason for that because you were very confident in that open script or I mean the first 10 plays, as you said, and I believe you did throw eight of the first eight plays.
BEN ROETHLISBERGER: Yeah, I mean it was kind of a combination of feeling good about the script, the first few plays, but also knowing that they're a team that kind of lives by time of possession, lives in that kind of playing from the lead. And so we wanted to take the ball and do everything we could to go down and score to give our defense kind of a leg up in terms of what they may do on offense.
Q. Were you thinking overtime when Gostkowski lined up there? What was kind of running you through your head?
BEN ROETHLISBERGER: Yeah, just getting a plan together for overtime and figuring that we were going to have to go down the field and score.
Q. Can you speak to your receivers, the combat catches they made and some of the way they were able to get first downs for you, especially in that first half?
BEN ROETHLISBERGER: Yeah, super impressive. Once again, didn't look at the numbers, but I'm pretty sure a lot of guys got involved, a lot of guys caught passes today. That's what we specialize in, that's what this team is about, is everyone being involved. I don't even know how much catches Chase (Claypool) had, but it didn't feel like he even did a lot today, but everyone was involved, everyone made plays and that's what's fun is that we got a lot of guys that contribute to us winning.
Q. Along those lines, was it the plan going in to get JuJu (Smith-Schuster) and Diontae Johnson more involved, especially Diontae missed a couple games, JuJu hadn't been super involved in the last couple weeks, was that a concerted effort on your part?
BEN ROETHLISBERGER: Nope, not at all.
Q. How much does a win like this speak to your guys' resiliency and what do you take from this moving forward here?
BEN ROETHLISBERGER: Yeah, really proud of the way that this team came down here, went on the road, against a really, really good football team and found a way to win. It wasn't always pretty, there were times that it was, but three interceptions is unacceptable on my part, so I need to clean it up and be better. But defense came through in the end, missed field goal at the end of the game and just kind of everything played itself out and at the end of the day we got a win against a really good football team at their place.
Q. Nobody on this team, playing anyway, was alive the last time you guys were 6-0, yet everybody in camp seemed kind of ticked off for lack of a better phrase. Does that sort of speak to the level of expectations you guys have set for yourself, not just to win but to maybe play a way that breeds winning football?
BEN ROETHLISBERGER: We feel we have a really good football team, right? We feel that it could be very special and we're happy with where we are right now, but that's going to be a short lived happiness because we know what's coming up next.
Q. I was going to kind of ask you somewhat the same thing, looking at the big picture what does 6-0 say to you?
BEN ROETHLISBERGER: It feels good. Obviously you want to be in this spot, you want to have these wins when you can. Obviously a lot of our games have been at home which you expect to win, but to go on the road twice and to come here to an AFC team that's undefeated as well and play them, it feels really good. But we know what's coming up next week, we can throw the records and all the other stuff out the window, because we got a team coming off the bye that's one of the best in football.
