NFL: Pittsburgh Steelers share thoughts on Thursday night's battle vs. the Patriots

With the first regular season game mere days away, the Pittsburgh Steelers began commenting on the upcoming battle against the New England Patriots in Foxboro.

According to Steelers.com, DE Cam Heyward said, "We just have to focus on the task at hand. We know we are going into a hostile place. We know they won a Super Bowl last year. They are the reigning champs. You want to knock them off their throne."

Center Cody Wallace addressed the obvious distractions surrounding this epic matchup: "We just have to go there with the mindset to win and not let all of the outside stuff get to us. It's prime time, fans are going to be into it, but just try and wash all of that out and go out there and play football like we always do."

One of the newest members of the Steelers squad, running back Jordan Todman, knows he has something to prove, but indicated he is up to the challenge, saying, "I feel like three days would be enough time and it's on me to showcase that to them and have them believe in me to  put me in the game on Thursday and be successful and do what is asked of me." Todman came to the Steelers from the Panthers just a few days after he played against his new teammates in the last preseason game of the season.

Another new addition, CB Ross Cockrell has a lot of catching up to do. Let's hope he can do it quickly. He said, "I have to study... I have to study a lot."

Meanwhile, coach Mike Tomlin is busy coming up with the best combination of players for a successful season, saying, "We are trying to find the best combination that's going to help us win this week."