Head Coach Mike Vrabel 9/21: "We have to execute and make great decisions"

Mike Vrabel (0:02)

Fire away.

Chris (0:07)

I don't care, who starts?

Mike Vrabel (0:08)

Somebody starts.

SPEAKER_3 (0:10)

Mike, obviously, lesson learned here with the turnovers. You guys had lots of...

Mike Vrabel (0:16)

Yeah, obviously. No, I mean, we don't need to learn a lesson. We don't need to learn a football game to know that turnovers are very hard to overcome. So, they erase all the good things that you do. They take away momentum, they take away points, give them field positions. So, we didn't need to turn it over as many times as we did to learn a lesson. I think we knew that before. So, it was very unfortunate.

Come on.

SPEAKER_4 (0:54)

To what do you attribute the turnovers, penalties, self-inflicted penalties?

Mike Vrabel (0:58)

I mean, the penalties, I mean, we clean them up, but the penalties, like, you know, there's called a couple, you know, defensive holds, they call it on them, like, you know, I mean, you'd have to tell me that that penalty to, on Carlton Davis is actually defense of past interference. That's new for me. And again, I think that the turnovers are much more critical than the penalties, much more critical.

You know, ball security comes down to technique. It comes down to other people protecting the guy with the ball, second guy in. Those are all things that we continue to talk about, have talked about, and we'll talk about. And decision making. Decision making when you have the football in your hand, whether that's a quarterback, whether that's a player that's reaching it and it gets knocked out. So, we'll watch the tape and we'll clearly address the ball security. And we got to move on. Fix it and move on. Chris, in the middle and the back.

Chris (2:02)

Mike, is this a game where you felt like you kind of beat yourselves and put yourselves in a position to win, but the turnovers obviously did away with that?

Mike Vrabel (2:13)

I think it just, I'm not going to state the obvious, man. We just have to not give them so many chances with turnovers, take care of those things and there's a lot to clean up. A lot of good in there, but unfortunately, just not enough to get us to win, to get us to, you know, really have any sort of advantage in the football game. Every time I felt like we were going to take the momentum and be able to score and move forward in the game, and the defense did a great job there. Unfortunately, they just got to be one too many opportunities on their part.

SPEAKER_5 (2:53)

There's someone on your right.

SPEAKER_6 (2:55)

Sorry, I came in a little late if you already talked about it, but just kind of a quick post-game feeling about Drake and what you saw today, you know, a lot of good versus bad.

Mike Vrabel (3:05)

Yeah, a lot of good and unfortunately, some decisions that have to be better.

I'm sure we'll have to protect them better. And just understanding that you don't have to win it all in one play. There's opportunities to move on and save the day, the next play. And you just can't put the ball in harm's way at that position, but, you know, certainly Drake wasn't alone. But there's a lot of really good things in there. His ability to extend plays, scramble, pick up first downs for us, run a multiple plays inside the pocket, outside the pocket. So, there's a lot of good things in there. And just some decision making that we need to have be better for us and for himself. Mike, please. Followed by Sophie Willard.

Sophie Willard (3:51)

Mike, the sequence at the end of the second quarter, you're getting close. What was it about the Steelers defense that made throwing the ball three straight times the right call?

Mike Vrabel (3:59)

Yeah, just loaded up, you know what I mean? Just loaded up and really just gapping you out, you know, going with, you know, bigger personnel. And again, we like some of them, you know, we like some of the plays and, you know, when they don't work and we don't execute them, certainly always room for second guessing. So we, whether we run it in or throw it in, we have to execute and make great decisions and we didn't. But, you know, that was something that we felt like we felt good about those plays and we just, again, weren't able to execute, probably were able to, you know, slip a run in there on fourth down. We had timeouts, some opportunities to call it based on the look and then, you know, let the quarterback make a decision. So some of those are two-way calls that go in when you're down there and trying to just get the best play.