Tomlin's Press Conference: Forget the "broad brush"

Per his normal response after a loss, Tomlin immediately acknowledged that the team didn't live up to the only standard that matters, the winning one.

Tomlin knows his team didn't play well enough to win, but that they have to accept it to move forward. Remaining "collectively unwavered" was the theme.

"We have work to do," Tomlin said. "We don’t hide from that. We accept that, embrace that and understand there is a certain amount of misery that comes with the position we are in. We’ll wear it. We won’t like it, but we’ll wear it. More importantly we’ll continue to work and get better as a football team and particularly with our next opportunity."

Interestingly Tomlin chose not to fully explain the confusion that took place shortly after David Paulson's catch that should have initially been ruled fumble. Immediately after the play, Ben Roethlisberger seemed to be leading the team to snap the ball quickly before the Bengals could challenge the call on the field. However substitutions were sent in from the sideline which delayed the Steelers just enough for Marvin Lewis to get the word from his coaches in the booth and challenge the play. Tomlin simply acknowledged that whatever Ben saw on the field was different from what was being seen on the sideline, and that either way it was a fumble.

Still, with all that has happened so far, Tomlin still believes the answers to the questions are within their own locker room. When asked if rookie Markus Wheaton may be one of them, Tomlin simply said that he would be.

When asked about his offensive line, the 7th year head coach would only acknowledge that although they fought, they still weren't good enough to live up to the standard and fulfill their duties to the team. When asked if he saw any progress in their play, he refused to look at their performance in a manner that may be considered acceptable, just because it may have been better than the previous week.

In the eyes of the coach that leads this team, this week's performance was nothing to take any pride in. The next step is to focus on Chicago team scheduled for next Sunday night.

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