PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – Steelers lost 48-37 at home to Cleveland in the Wild Card round of the playoffs. Here is some of the reaction following another 40-spot was put on this team at home in the playoffs.
Mike Tomlin
“Not a lot to say. We didn’t perform well enough tonight. Not coaching, not playing.”
“There wasn’t a lot to say, our performance speaks for itself.”
“Hurt for the guys in the locker room that not only but forth great effort tonight, but put forth great effort all year. There is pain associated with where we are right now. That’s football and that’s life.”
Not going for it on 4th and 1 from their own 46
“We had some stops. Wanted to pin them down and maybe provide the short field for our offense. We had had two or three consecutive stops. I just wanted to keep the momentum going in terms of field positioning. We weren’t good enough in terms of doing that.”
Question from Jim Colony-How accountable should you be for recent playoff losses?
“It is what it is. Our record is our record. Our performances are our performances. Don’t run away from that.”
JuJu Smith-Schuster
On what he said about the Browns
“I don’t regret what I said. I said the Browns are the Browns. They came out and played a hell of a game. Hopefully the same Browns will show up against the next opponent and go out there and do the same thing they did tonight and have a hell of a game.”
Offensive struggles last month plus
“We just weren’t executing. I think it was a lot of miscommunication and little details here and there. We just weren’t clicking. We tried to put it together going into the post-season. We just started off very slow. Turnovers killed us.”
His future
“I would love to stay in Pittsburgh. I built a strong foundation and fan base. I love Coach Tomlin. I love our coaching staff, Coach Ike. Everybody who I’ve been around. I don’t want to have to go to a different organization and change the ways of how I am. I would love to be a Steeler again.”
TJ Watt
“We didn’t execute, as simple as that.”
On season, winning 12 games and AFC North Division
“We’re going home right now, so it wasn’t good enough.”
Last time with a few teammates
“I just got off the field man. I’m just very, very disappointed with what I put out there on film. What our team put out there on film. We had a lot of high expectations for this group. We’ll address that other stuff as it comes up”
Cam Heyward
“The question is what went right? We didn’t stop the run early on. We didn’t execute at a high level. The quick passing got the best of us and then yards after catch. Our tackling was poor. It all was terrible tonight.”
“We blew it. I can’t sugarcoat it. As a defense we gave up too many points. As a leader, as a leader of the defense. I failed, miserably.”
“There are things that have to be addressed. We had one of the worst showings we had all year. It starts at the top with me. It was not acceptable. I don’t know what it is, but we did not play well.”