- Joined
- Apr 11, 2009
- Messages
- 49,320
- Reaction score
- 7,216
- Points
- 2,244
- Location
- Greensboro, NC
- Military Branch
- Alma Mater
REDSKINS HEAD COACH JAY GRUDEN
On injuries:
"Nothing much. Just really a couple bumps and bruises.”
On the game:
“Thank you, fans, for coming out. We let them down in a big way. I want to congratulate Mike Tomlin and the Pittsburgh Steelers. They did a heck of a job.”
On how to become as consistent as the Steelers:
“We’ll find out. You know, that’s the thing. The Steelers have been consistently good for a long time and that’s what we’re trying to do and we thought we were ready to compete. We competed there for a while and then didn’t make some plays and they made the plays. Great situational work in there, third downs, they converted fourth downs. We didn’t convert and we weren’t very good on third downs. The money downs is a big difference in the game, but overall they just out-coached us and out-played us.”
On if CB Josh Norman should have covered Steelers WR Antonio Brown late in the game:
“I think [Bashaud] Breeland has done such a good job in training camp and Breeland is one of our corners. He’s a good corner and he got beat by a great player today and some great passes that I don’t know what corner can defend. I’m not going to lose faith in Breeland, but there could be merit to that later on down the road. I love our two corners, I like all four of our corners, and they just made some great throws and great catches.”
On Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger:
“Every time I see him he plays like that. He is a great quarterback and loves the show. The… huddle they have going and he’s able to get in the right play. Coach [Todd] Haley did a great job of dissecting our defense and then getting good nickel runs in there against our defense, and then getting some good play actions and some good shot plays. They had a great combination of things working today and they converted, like I said, on some big third down plays and fourth down plays.”
On if QB Kirk Cousins should have played more in preseason:
“I don’t think so. Whether you get a little bit of time against the Buffalo Bills and the first preseason game isn’t going to really carry over to the Pittsburgh Steelers on Monday night, you know? It’s a totally different defense. There could be some merit to that and we’ll look into doing that next year, but we had some plays out there to be had and we just failed to make them. Hats off to Pittsburgh, they made them.”
On getting the running game going:
“Yeah, I think you’re right. I think that’s the one thing we [have] got to really look at. We’ve got to get our running game going to take some pressure off the quarterback. You know, we get a little bit too giddy sometimes with the weapons that we have. You know, you look at Jordan Reed, and Pierre [Garçon] and DeSean [Jackson], and Jamison [Crowder], and Ryan Grant, [Josh] Doctson, and Chris Thompson out of the backfield, you forget about the bread and butter of this football team. It needs to be the running game. We’ve got to make sure we stay balanced and I think that’s my fault tonight. Something we really take a look at and make sure we become a more balanced football team.”
On if enough improvements were made in the offseason to stop the run game:
“Yeah, I think we missed some tackles here and there. We had some good blocking schemes in there. You know, I’ll have to look at the film. I’m not going to point the blame on anybody – defensive line, linebackers – or anything. Let’s look at the film, see what happened. DeAngelo [Hall] ran the ball extremely well, he really did. He broke through some tackles and made some big time runs and we missed some tackles that we normally make and it’s something we have to really look at because we’re playing a team that can run the football very well next week in the Dallas Cowboys. So we better get our ducks in a row or it’s going to be a long one.”
On Cousins’ performance:
“You know, we lost. I don’t feel really good about anybody’s performance including mine when we lose a football game. So, I think we all have to feel that way. We all have to make sure we do whatever we can to make sure we don’t get this feeling too often. And we need to bounce back. We’ve got a good Cowboy team in here playing a lot of big men on offensive line and a good defensive coordinator, a good coach, so we’ve got to get ourselves picked up off the ground and ready to roll.”
On lack of pressure on Roethlisberger:
“Yeah, I think part of the reason, you alluded to it earlier, is they had good balance. You know, we had to play our good run defense and then he pulls it out and then he drops back. You know, on third down some of those third-and-eight calls, he had the ball so dang quick. You know, back shoulder fades or fades to Antonio [Brown]. He was hitting guys in the seams. He did a nice job of getting the ball out and the line did a good job protecting him. And on the flip side of that, our offensive line actually did a pretty good job protecting him. We didn’t give up a sack. He really wasn’t pressured a whole lot, so we have to take advantage of that. But, we’ll take a look at everything. Get some things corrected, settle down a little bit. Don’t get too ahead of ourselves. We got a lot of work to do and we got to do it.”
On what to tell the team heading into a short week:
“They know, they already heard.”
On if there were issues with timing between Cousins and the receivers:
“I don’t know. I’ll have to take a look at it and talk to Kirk a little bit. You know, we had some issues there communication-wise and things that we—you know, these are plays that we’ve run for a long time. So we’ll have to wait and see what happens. Maybe the disguise in the coverage, I don’t know, I’ll have wait and see, talk to Kirk.”
On when the decision was made to play WR Josh Doctson:
“Probably yesterday. Made sure he’s good to go. He had a couple good days at practice. You know, I wanted to get him out here pregame warmup and let him run around, just get a taste of the game. You know, he’s our fifth wideout. We got him in a little bit, sporadically. So we’ll see how he feels tomorrow and hopefully we can use him the rest of the time.”
On the pregame military presentation:
“It was awesome, I tell you what. There was a bright spot. The fans came out in a big way, and the military presentation… that gives you goosebumps all the way. The way the players took advantage, took part in it. That was fun to watch.”
On whose idea it was:
“That was the players.”
On injuries:
"Nothing much. Just really a couple bumps and bruises.”
On the game:
“Thank you, fans, for coming out. We let them down in a big way. I want to congratulate Mike Tomlin and the Pittsburgh Steelers. They did a heck of a job.”
On how to become as consistent as the Steelers:
“We’ll find out. You know, that’s the thing. The Steelers have been consistently good for a long time and that’s what we’re trying to do and we thought we were ready to compete. We competed there for a while and then didn’t make some plays and they made the plays. Great situational work in there, third downs, they converted fourth downs. We didn’t convert and we weren’t very good on third downs. The money downs is a big difference in the game, but overall they just out-coached us and out-played us.”
On if CB Josh Norman should have covered Steelers WR Antonio Brown late in the game:
“I think [Bashaud] Breeland has done such a good job in training camp and Breeland is one of our corners. He’s a good corner and he got beat by a great player today and some great passes that I don’t know what corner can defend. I’m not going to lose faith in Breeland, but there could be merit to that later on down the road. I love our two corners, I like all four of our corners, and they just made some great throws and great catches.”
On Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger:
“Every time I see him he plays like that. He is a great quarterback and loves the show. The… huddle they have going and he’s able to get in the right play. Coach [Todd] Haley did a great job of dissecting our defense and then getting good nickel runs in there against our defense, and then getting some good play actions and some good shot plays. They had a great combination of things working today and they converted, like I said, on some big third down plays and fourth down plays.”
On if QB Kirk Cousins should have played more in preseason:
“I don’t think so. Whether you get a little bit of time against the Buffalo Bills and the first preseason game isn’t going to really carry over to the Pittsburgh Steelers on Monday night, you know? It’s a totally different defense. There could be some merit to that and we’ll look into doing that next year, but we had some plays out there to be had and we just failed to make them. Hats off to Pittsburgh, they made them.”
On getting the running game going:
“Yeah, I think you’re right. I think that’s the one thing we [have] got to really look at. We’ve got to get our running game going to take some pressure off the quarterback. You know, we get a little bit too giddy sometimes with the weapons that we have. You know, you look at Jordan Reed, and Pierre [Garçon] and DeSean [Jackson], and Jamison [Crowder], and Ryan Grant, [Josh] Doctson, and Chris Thompson out of the backfield, you forget about the bread and butter of this football team. It needs to be the running game. We’ve got to make sure we stay balanced and I think that’s my fault tonight. Something we really take a look at and make sure we become a more balanced football team.”
On if enough improvements were made in the offseason to stop the run game:
“Yeah, I think we missed some tackles here and there. We had some good blocking schemes in there. You know, I’ll have to look at the film. I’m not going to point the blame on anybody – defensive line, linebackers – or anything. Let’s look at the film, see what happened. DeAngelo [Hall] ran the ball extremely well, he really did. He broke through some tackles and made some big time runs and we missed some tackles that we normally make and it’s something we have to really look at because we’re playing a team that can run the football very well next week in the Dallas Cowboys. So we better get our ducks in a row or it’s going to be a long one.”
On Cousins’ performance:
“You know, we lost. I don’t feel really good about anybody’s performance including mine when we lose a football game. So, I think we all have to feel that way. We all have to make sure we do whatever we can to make sure we don’t get this feeling too often. And we need to bounce back. We’ve got a good Cowboy team in here playing a lot of big men on offensive line and a good defensive coordinator, a good coach, so we’ve got to get ourselves picked up off the ground and ready to roll.”
On lack of pressure on Roethlisberger:
“Yeah, I think part of the reason, you alluded to it earlier, is they had good balance. You know, we had to play our good run defense and then he pulls it out and then he drops back. You know, on third down some of those third-and-eight calls, he had the ball so dang quick. You know, back shoulder fades or fades to Antonio [Brown]. He was hitting guys in the seams. He did a nice job of getting the ball out and the line did a good job protecting him. And on the flip side of that, our offensive line actually did a pretty good job protecting him. We didn’t give up a sack. He really wasn’t pressured a whole lot, so we have to take advantage of that. But, we’ll take a look at everything. Get some things corrected, settle down a little bit. Don’t get too ahead of ourselves. We got a lot of work to do and we got to do it.”
On what to tell the team heading into a short week:
“They know, they already heard.”
On if there were issues with timing between Cousins and the receivers:
“I don’t know. I’ll have to take a look at it and talk to Kirk a little bit. You know, we had some issues there communication-wise and things that we—you know, these are plays that we’ve run for a long time. So we’ll have to wait and see what happens. Maybe the disguise in the coverage, I don’t know, I’ll have wait and see, talk to Kirk.”
On when the decision was made to play WR Josh Doctson:
“Probably yesterday. Made sure he’s good to go. He had a couple good days at practice. You know, I wanted to get him out here pregame warmup and let him run around, just get a taste of the game. You know, he’s our fifth wideout. We got him in a little bit, sporadically. So we’ll see how he feels tomorrow and hopefully we can use him the rest of the time.”
On the pregame military presentation:
“It was awesome, I tell you what. There was a bright spot. The fans came out in a big way, and the military presentation… that gives you goosebumps all the way. The way the players took advantage, took part in it. That was fun to watch.”
On whose idea it was:
“That was the players.”