Re: Tonight's game:
Well, it's a good win for us, an AFC win. That's the biggest thing for us. They're a good football team. They came into Heinz Field. I thought the crowd was great, and we were a good football team.
What did you see early with Heath Miller?
They gave us a lot underneath stuff. I thought our Pro Bowl tight end did a great job, just looking hot when it was hot, kind of feeling out zones when they gave it to us. It opens up Heath underneath, and I know he had a great game. He is Mr. Dependable. I get the ball close to him and he makes the play.
Did you try to utilize Miller as much as possible?
Well that is a good matchup for us. We feel like our wide receivers are good. We get them on the field. To me, Heath is a lineman in the passing game, blocking, and he is wide receiver when he catches the ball. So if we can get him matched up on linebackers, we feel that is win for us
Is this the offense you have been looking for?
Anytime we convert third downs in we possess the ball, but my stupid turnovers. I knew we had a good group of guys that could get it done. We still have a lot of things to improve on. I could do a lot better. We have a little miscommunication here and there but that comes with the territory. If we can get a win with those things going against us, then hopefully we could strive to get better.
Re: Game planning:
We came in with the game plan of throwing the ball. I felt like we did a good job of that. The line played a good game. Those couple sacks are on me that one series. It's all on me, and at the end you are not going to just throw the ball away, your going to take those sacks. So you get the ball to those play makers, that wide receiver, tight end and running back, and let them do the rest of the work.
Was your goal to control the clock with the passing game?
Well that was big but we came in planning to take some shots too. You would have thought that the game plan was just dink-and-dunk but that is what they gave us. They took away the deep ball. For us, taking away the deep ball, it opens the underneath stuff, and for us you think about possessing the ball, and the time of possession and control. It's running the ball. We kind of showed we can do without always running the ball. We can take the short pass and the screen to the wide receiver, and we can move the ball. When we get in the red zone we have to control the ball and put seven points on the board.
Did your team game plan using last year's game?
We felt watching the film this year and last year, we could take advantage of the past game, especially with the weapons we have and run the ball in the sub package. We went to the huddle a lot in the second half. I called a lot of runs because they gave a lot of looks on runs. And credit the linemen and running backs for making it work, even though it was a passing debt.
Was this a statement game, or is it too early for any kind of statement?
Absolutely, this is just a good win for us. You have to come into a game like this expecting to win. They expected to win, and we expected to win. Therefore you have to take it as that, we expect to win the game, we're happy that we won it, and let's move on.
Is this the best that the offensive line has blocked for you all season?
They did a great job. I think the key for them is staying healthy. When they have the same five guys you get that cohesiveness. I think that they have done a good job in doing that. They take pride in keeping me upright and keeping me clean. As a quarterback, you like that.
Is this the type of offense you envisioned from the preseason with the progressions of guys like Emmanuel Sanders and Antonio Brown have made?
Yeah, I have said a thousand times that the sky is the limit for those guys. As an offense that is one in the same. We can be as good as we want to be. When we don't kill ourselves and stop ourselves, we can be pretty dangerous. There are just a few things here and there that we need to clean up and get on the same page and maybe we can be even more dangerous.
Re: On a performance like this against the Patriots, who are considered the standard for offense?
I think Tom Brady is the best, I told him that after the game. People kept asking all week, are you going to have to score a lot of points, is it going to be a shoot-out. It's a tough question to answer because you are saying yeah, are defense is no good. I think our defense did a great job tonight of rushing the passer, getting pressure, backing off, I just can't say enough about that group as well.
Re: On running the clock down, only leaving 19 seconds.
They just had a great defense. It was kind of a little naked. I wasn't going to through it away, just take the sack. On third down, the clock was running down so fast that there was not much that we could do. It was just another communication error. I thought we could have had a positive gain instead of such a negative. We want to be able to keep our defense off the field all the way; we did move the chains once. I told the offense when they came to the huddle that this game is on us, we can keep the defense off the field and we can win this game. Get a first down, we'd like to just use that 19 seconds. I'm still proud of the way that we were able to burn all of their time outs and in essence close the door.
What was the key on third down conversions?
Identifying, identifying who was up, who was down, who was blitzing, who wasn't, were we hot, were we not, things like that. When you can do that, and pick up the guys that we identify we feel that we can be pretty good.
Moving on to Baltimore, will you look at that first game for anything?
I haven't thought about that game, and I'm not going to until tomorrow.
Controlling the clock with wide passes, is this something that you might use more often?
Why not, if the line gives me time to get the ball off, and I make accurate throws. One of the first passes to Heath Miller actually got tipped and he was able to adjust and make the catch. Those guys make me good. I get it close to them and they make the plays for me.
