Mangini Talks About Loss to Steelers in Morning Press Conference

(Opening statement)- “Good afternoon everybody. In looking at the tape, talking to the team, I really feel that what I saw, or what I talked to them about after the game is pretty consistent. I thought that it was another example of playing hard throughout the course of the game. I thought the best examples of those were, we had the turnover, then were able to generate a turnover in our area. We had another turnover, we were able to generate a turnover after that, then be able to have the drive that we had, leading to what would have been a one score game at that point. Those things are good, and that’s what I expect each week, regardless of what the situation in the game is, for us to be able to deal with adversity, come back from it and then respond to it in a positive way. I thought another good example of that was when we went down 14-0, came back with a kickoff return for a touchdown or come out after halftime and have the drive that we had and score points and make it a three point game. Those things are positive. Things that we have to continue to address, and what hurt us this weekend, were the turnovers. It’s hard to turn the ball over and be successful, and defensively, some of the big plays. Unfortunately, Ben (Roethlisberger) was able to do some of the things that he’s done to a lot of people. I thought we had some good answers for that, but they weren’t quite what they need to be, whether they be scheme or execution or other. We’re going to correct those things. I think that the style of play is moving forward. The execution needs to continue to get better. We’ll watch the film here today. The guys are in the process of doing that now, then we’ll move on to next week.”

(On using the Wildcat formation and if he is hesitant to let Josh Cribbs throw the ball)- “With that, it’s been part of our package. It will continue to be part of our package. How much we use it each week will vary. I’m not gun shy in terms of him throwing the ball. It’s like anything else, you take calculated risks. If it’s not there, him keeping the ball is never a bad option.”

(On the flu is going around the team)- “Kamerion (Wimbley) was sick on Saturday. We were hoping that he’d be okay for Sunday. We kept him as isolated as we could. He just wasn’t able to go. Big Baby (Shaun Rogers) started feeling it on Sunday morning. Those are the only two that we’ve had. We’re taking every measure we can to make sure that we stop it at that. I talked to the guys about that, how important it was to continually wash your hands, continually sanitize, all the things that we all know about trying to prevent things like that. Anytime a player has those symptoms, we’ll try to get them the rest and the care they need and not put them in a position where they could potentially pass it on or someone else can catch it.”

(On if another player was sick early last week)- “[It was] not the same thing. It wasn’t the same. It happened and then kind of got through pretty quickly. It wasn’t the same.”

(On if flu shots have been given to the team)- “We’ve had flu shots available. I think it was a couple weeks ago. It’s that time of year. Everybody just has to be extra vigilant with passing, whether it’s picking it up, cleaning their hands. I’m not an expert on it, but some of the things we can do, we need to do.”

(On if he can order players to get a flu shot)- “I never have advocated that. I think it’s one of those things that you have to make a decision on, and everybody is different. Some people feel like when they take the flu shot, they get sick. Other people feel like it’s the greatest thing. I just try to educate them on it and let them make the decision.”

(On if the quarterback needs to be on the field in Wildcat formation)- “No, he doesn’t necessarily need to be. Miami does it sometimes where there’s no quarterback on the field. You can do it however you want to do it.”

(On why Derek Anderson was on the field in Wildcat formation)- “I think it just disguises the fact that it could be that or could not be that. When you break the huddle, depending on how many seconds, it may be 20-16 seconds, usually a huddle breaks somewhere around there. That’s different then the 45 seconds or the 50 seconds, however it works out.”

(On if Anderson calls the plays on Wildcat plays)- “Yes, he’ll call the play.”

(On if he is hesitant to reach a new deal with Josh Cribbs because he does not want to set a precedent)- “With all those contract things, those are internal. Like I said, I really like Josh. I think he’s done a great job. I like him, obviously, for his special teams value, but the things that he’s able to do, offensively, I think, have been very good. I’ve liked the way he’s worked at wide receiver as well. You really haven’t seen as many numbers there, but it’s not something that we’ve stopped working on. He’s still working on that and I think he’ll continue to develop there.”

(On his thinking behind keeping Derek Anderson at quarterback)- “I think that there have been times where we’ve moved the ball really effectively. I think the drive that we had at the beginning of the second half is indicative of things that we can do. We have to do a much better job of not stopping ourselves, whether it be with the dropped balls or some throws a little bit off. It could be tightening up the protection or tightening up the routes, all those things. I think we can get better at that, but there are some positive things I’ve seen throughout the course of Derek working at quarterback that I think will get better.”

(On what they can do to stop dropped passes)- “It’s like any skill set, you have to keep working at it. Something’s not just solved by doing it a little bit, it’s deliberate practice. It’s consistent. It’s every single day. It’s not focusing on the end result, as much as it’s focusing on the process to get to the end result and not getting tied up with, ‘We’ve had this many drops, that many drops.’ It’s, ‘Okay, what can we do to practice that skill?’ It’s like tackling, defensively. We do the tackling drill every week as a group, offensive and defensive guys together. We’ll do it towards the start of practice, you guys have seen that a bunch of times, and then guys will do it in their individual periods as well. It’s such a fundamental skill, but you have to keep sharpening the saw with something like that. Blocking, hand placement, all the fundamentals, it’s easy to get away from those things, especially in pro football, where your time allocated to that stuff isn’t probably as large as it would be in college football, but it’s not any less important.”

(On what he does when he believes dropped passes are more mental than physical)- “I think sometimes it’s understanding where you have to improve. You saw Mohamed (Massaquoi), where he had some outstanding catches yesterday and then there were a couple of them that I think he was looking to run before he actually got the ball. That’s something that you can’t do. You take your eyes off the ball for a split second, or start thinking about the next step before you finish that step, and you don’t get a chance to get the next step without being able to get the ball. I thought Brian Robiskie had a couple of nice catches yesterday. His first one there on the in cut late, the one on the sideline, he wasn’t able to come down inbounds, but it was pretty close. Those things are positive. I think as we go and continue to work together and continue to get opportunities and really continue to work on the process, that’ll help.”

(On who he attributes the dropped passes to)- “I think everybody can improve. I think there are some things we can do with ball placement that can get better. You work on that with the quarterbacks and you work on the things you can work on with the receivers with them. Everybody isolates the things related to their area to get better.”

(On the progress in the secondary against Pittsburgh)- “There were some big plays that shouldn’t’ have been nearly as big as they were. They had an opportunity on Santonio Holmes’ catch, we just didn’t execute the tackle after he caught the ball and he picked up another, whatever it was, 15 or 20 yards. Even on Hines Ward, Hines’ catch, where he kind of stepped in front of Santonio on the over. We had a couple guys there. We didn’t quite leverage him correctly. Those are all passing yards. The catch is one element of it and you want to get better at stopping that and then the second element is tackling once he’s in space. We can improve the consistency of the pass rush. I thought there were some times where he was able to step up and get the ball off. I’d like to see us take better advantage of some of the opportunities that we had. Brodney (Pool) had the interception and I think we had a chance for another one, it would have been tough, but had a chance for another one there. Linebackers play a role in that, too. A lot of those plays, some were zone, some were man. In zones, everybody has to be in the right spot.”

(On if Brandon McDonald’s shoulder bothered him during the game Sunday)- “He and I didn’t talk to about it, specifically to that. We’ll see where he is. I think everybody has got some nicks here as we go. We’ll see where he is for Wednesday, but I anticipate him to be able to practice.”

(On D’Qwell Jackson’s shoulder)- “We’re going to find out a little bit more here today. I have to see where that is.”

(On Bernie Kosar’s role with the team)- “I’ve enjoyed getting to know Bernie and spending some time with him. I really like some of the insight that he’s able to give, whether it be from a quarterback’s perspective, and talking about it in that context, from an offensive perspective, or even better, to talk to him from a defensive perspective on things that maybe were frustrating to a quarterback. There’s a lot of different ways that our conversations have gone. He gives some good insight and I’ve enjoyed spending some time with him.”

(On if Kosar will be in meetings regularly or work with the quarterbacks)- “No, that’s not really what it’s been. It’s more informal than that.”

(On developing chemistry between Derek Anderson and Chansi Stuckey)- “Chansi’s caught a lot of balls from him in practice, in the short time that he’s been here. I’d say with all of our third down routes, we can sharpen those up and do some things to improve there. We’ve had some good opportunities on third down; some we haven’t converted on, a couple were batted. I think there’s a lot of room for us to continue to improve there. Sometimes it’s reading the coverage and being able to understand exactly where you have to fit. There are signs of things that I like and stuff that still has to get fixed.”

(On if it seems like Mike Furrey has dropped off)- “No, not at all. Mike probably didn’t play as much as he should have this weekend. He still works on both offense and defense. I anticipate him playing more between the two this week.”

(On if he will call the NFL to get further explanation on the fourth-down measurement call during the Pittsburgh game)- “I think the official talked about it after the game. It’s his call.”

(On if he can ask the NFL to review the measurement call)- “Yes. We’ll get some more clarity on it, but nothing can change. Nothing can really happen from that. You just deal with the next situation and move on.”

(On if he has looked at the measurement on film)- “The coach’s copy, you don’t have the measurement on it, so it would just have to be off the TV copy. I haven’t watched the TV copy of the game, so I’m not sure. I don’t know if you guys have watched it or not, but what do you think?”

(On if he anticipates any moves before the trade deadline)- “I haven’t really been looking at any of that. I really haven’t. This morning’s been all Pittsburgh and transitioning to Green Bay. There’s nothing, I’d say, that’s imminent, but you never know. Things happen. I’m not saying that it isn’t possible, but like anything else, a call comes in and we listen. I’m not out there pushing forward with anything specifically.”

(On if Corey Williams could be traded)- “Corey’s played more and more as we’ve gone here, not just in sub, but in base. I think he’s done a good job with the things that we’ve asked him to do. Like I said, [there is] nothing imminent.”

(On what the team needs to fix immediately)- “What I’m looking for is continually focusing on us. That’s been something that I’ve been emphasizing over and over again, is that we understand what the game plan is, we understand what we have to stop from our opponent, and those two things are huge, but it’s how we execute. It’s the things that we need to improve on. Some of that could be catching the ball better. Some of that could be continuing to improve the communication with protections, things like that, the adjustments, defensively. As we make strides within the room, then the other things are better and better. You have to understand those two things, those are key to winning the game, but we also have to keep improving the areas where we need to improve on, whether it’s third down offensively, third down defensively. We actually got third down-and-one stop and we were pretty close on that fourth-and-one stop. That’s an area that we hadn’t been effective in, in the early part of the season, so minor progress there. [We] continue to have very limited penalties, which is something I’m looking for. [We] did a better job turning the ball over this week, than we had been doing, and that’s positive. We had three sacks, but I think there were some sack opportunities that if we had just done it a little bit differently. Even right at the start of the game, I thought we had a great opportunity, just weren’t able to close the offensive tackle down enough to let the edge rusher come clean. Instead of that being a sack, it’s a 25-yard completion. It was just that much of a difference in the detail. If we had just shortened that edge and let the guy come clean, which he would have, we had held the guard long enough, but the tackle was able to pop out, get a bump on him, the guard recognized it late, came off and Ben (Roethlisberger) was able to step up. That’s the difference between a sack and a 30-yard completion. Those small things become big things. We’ve addressed a lot of them, and there’s been progress in a lot of them, but it’s constantly making progress in all those areas. It doesn’t happen overnight, but we have to keep going forward with it.”

(On if the team has the talent at wide receiver to have a productive passing game this season)- “Yes, I think that we’ve shown, [at] a lot of different points, that we’re able to do some things effectively in the passing game. I thought even the drive towards the end of the game there, four-out-of-five of those plays were plus-10 plays. They were all passes and they were all positive passes. The start of the second half, things like that, you see those things, everybody sees those things, but now it’s being able to do those things.”

(On if using Hank Fraley as an eligible receiver limits what Anderson can do)- “There are pluses and minuses. One of the plusses is you get a more efficient blocker. You get a bigger body. If you want to run the ball, those two things are positive. It’s more of an indication that you’re going to run the ball, so play-action tends to be more effective. A lot of times, with play-action passes, you’re not releasing multiple receivers, you’re really trying to get the defense to come up and bite on the run and you’re looking for the separation between the linebackers and the safeties. Having a bigger body in there sells that more. It gives you some more options in the running game. If you did want to get everybody out, Hank’s caught the ball a couple times, but he wouldn’t be the first option.”

(On if Steve Heiden aggravated his knee)- “To me, it’s a good example of kind of how the injuries go during the week. I really thought that he’d be able to go, or hoping to, and just wasn’t able to when we looked at it. I thought the situation with Kamerion is a really good example of how things can change dramatically in a hurry. He just came in, was sick, and suddenly Jason (Trusnik) and Alex (Hall) have to pick up the slack there. Big Baby, that was not a predictable thing, but it happens, right on down the line. A lot of young guys had to play a lot yesterday. There were some young-guy mistakes. The good thing is they get some experience and grow and if they have to do it again, hopefully, they’ll be able to take advantage of the opportunity even better.”