Here’s the transcript from Coach Tomlin’s very brief post-game press conference after today’s loss to the Browns.
“That was an ugly performance. That is ours. We own it. When you turn the ball over the way we did today you are not going to beat anybody. That is just the reality of the National Football League. I am surprised it was that close given the turnover situation. We are not looking for comfort. We understand that we are not going to have much support after a performance like that. We probably deserve that. We have to go back to work and get back to playing fundamental football. We were highly penalized; we turned the ball over. When you do those things you are going to lose. I don’t care who’s playing quarterback.”
Can you talk about Charlie Batch’s performance?
“It wasn’t good enough.”
Do you have an injury update?
“No, not really. Woodley had an ankle. Mike Adams had an ankle. I don’t know the extent of those injuries. They will be evaluated. I will have more for you on Tuesday.”
Were you just trying to find a running back that can hold the ball?
“Absolutely.”
Were the problems uncharacteristic or more symptomatic of something else?
“It really doesn’t matter. The reality of it is we didn’t do a good job of securing the football today. We didn’t do a good job of converting third downs. It was ugly.”
Can you talk about the decision to sit Willie Colon?
“He didn’t practice on Friday. He was listed on the injury report. He had pain in his knee. We thought there was a chance it was going to perk up and it didn’t. When he went through warm-ups we discovered he couldn’t do it. Unfortunately for him and us he wasn’t able to play.”
On the timing of the turnovers:
“When you have that many turnovers you can frame it however you want to frame it. There were a bunch of them. Pick one, or two, or three.”
Do you have any sense of getting any injured players back next week?
“I hadn’t pondered that as I sit here right now. Obviously those are top of the week things. Right now I am just thinking about this performance we just put out there.”
On switching running backs because of fumbles:
“They were fumbling the ball. We are going to play people that can secure the football. After everybody does it, obviously there aren’t many choices left.”
Did Mike Wallace give enough of an effort on the deep ball that was picked off?
“Yes.”