We came out and threw the ball six times to start. I thought the third-down conversions we had some opportunities. I thought the protection was good for the most part throughout the evening, starting with the first group. It's a starting point. I think our pad level was high on offense, so those are things we'll look at tomorrow in the film. We have work to do.
Overall though, you're pleased to come back to Pittsburgh and get the win?
It's important to win, you know winning is important. That was obviously our goal when we came here. The focus for our football team was to come out and play a physical football game against a physical football team. I think we accomplished that. We talked about ball command, ball extraction with the defense with the turnover ratio. Offense did not give the ball up, and I thought that was the key to the game. I saw a lot of positive things out there by our football team, but we still have a lot of work to do.
How did Brandon Jackson do?
Brandon Jackson - I thought we got him going there in the third quarter. I don't know if he had a whole lot of running room frankly in the first two quarters. I think he showed what he's capable of doing. He has excellent burst and quickness. He is definitely a threat when he gets to the second level. I thought he had some nice runs. I thought he played physical. From what I've seen, I thought he did a pretty good job in the pass protection, so he's a young man that needs to play.
What did you think of Aaron Rodgers' performance and can you see him making strides?
I thought Aaron Rodgers had a nice evening. I thought he did a lot of good things with his feet, thought he was composed in the pocket, thought his ball accuracy and decision-making for the most part was good. I was impressed with him in the two-minute drill and actually gave him another two-minute type situation at the end of the third quarter. I thought he did a nice job with that. The biggest thing with Aaron is the tempo getting in and out of the huddle, handling different situations. I think you see a young man that is getting an opportunity to play, and I thought he had a nice night.
Any injuries?
Yes, Marviel Underwood had a hamstring, and Ingle Martin took a blow to the head.
Did that happen on the play on the sideline?
Yes.
Would you rather have him just get out of bounds there?
I think he was trying to get out of bounds.
Can you make any assessments of your offense and defense at this point?
I'm not going to make any assessments. We'll watch the film. We have a lot of positive things to build off of and plenty of things to work on, and that'll be our focus. Offensively, I think everything that happened out there in the negative category is definitely fixable.
Your starting safeties weren't out there very long.
Well, frankly just for playing time. We wanted to take a good long look at the younger guys. I think we accomplished that. We had some targets we wanted to hit, particularly at safety and corner, and I think we accomplished that.
What coverage were you in on the touchdown?
I can't tell you - I think we were in quarters. I think Bigby was in quarters and the backside safety Underwood - his play on the ball could have been better. The film will tell me the final say on it.
How did James Jones look tonight?
I thought he did some good things. I thought he got gassed in the two-minute drill, and it showed up on the competitive ball down the sideline. He's a strong young man. I thought he did a nice job with yards after the catch, so thought he did some nice things.
And Harrell?
I didn't watch him specifically but obviously he flashed. I thought he had some good pass rushes there at the end, was very physical. I think as a whole our line did a number of positive things. We have to continue to get our pad level down. At times I felt our pad level was up on both sides of the ball, so those are some things we need to work on.
You came out throwing - was that something you scouted?
No, I had a couple of thoughts going on particularly with the younger group. I thought it was important for Brett to get some reps with the younger receivers. We actually did some run-pass things at the line of scrimmage. They went to press so we ended up leaning towards the pass. There were a couple of different things I wanted to see, and we accomplished them. Our execution wasn't what we probably would have liked, obviously, but I thought it was a good night's work.
