A: I think there is some linger hard feelings. They're keeping their mouth shut this week about it. I think there's probably some with Antonio Brown, too. I just heard an interview that he gave a radio station here back in January and he was saying 'They tried to kill me. They're after my livelihood.' And stuff like that. I'm sure that hasn't disappeared, that feeling for him. But how would things have played out? I don't know. Without Antonio Brown, without their two running backs they were really behind the 8-ball and probably still should have won it. But they should have lost the Bengals game, too, and they had Antonio Brown for that one. So I'm not going to say they would have beaten the Broncos.
Q: You mentioned how they're staying quiet this week, and it's been the same thing here in Cincinnati. Do you expect to see a different type of atmosphere on the field Sunday, or do you think it's going to be a nasty affair once again?
A: I think you'll see some hard play. I don't know that we're going to see a lot of after-the-whistle stuff. That stuff's hard to predict, though. The (Ryan) Shazier hit last year, which wasn't penalized, kind of set the Bengals off. Even the Le'Veon Bell hit was legal but it set the Steelers off because (Vontaze) Burfict celebrated. Who knows? It could be one little thing that just lights the match. I've seen that with Baltimore many times between the Steelers and that team, too.
Q: The Steelers ranked 24th in total defense last year in Keith Butler's first year as coordinator, but their top three draft picks and four of the first five were on that side of the ball. Do you seem taking a big leap this year defensively?
A: 'Big leap' may be too strong of words because their first-round pick (cornerback Artie Burns) was injured a lot and just finally got into some play in the last preseason game. He didn't practice much with a thigh injury. Their secondary may be a little better than it was last year, and if that's the case, they will be better. Their other No. 1 pick from last year, Bud Dupree, is on IR right now. He can come back on the short-term thing, but he's gone for half a season. They were third in the league with 48 sacks last year. They did a lot of blitzing. They'll need to get that many sacks again this year to at least improve without all that blitzing. Because if they keep blitzing a lot, they're going to put a lot of pressure on that secondary. I don't think they blitzed at all in that first game against Washington.
Q: From the outside Ben Roethlisberger still looks like the same guy at 34 as he was at 24, but as someone who has watched him daily his entire career, have you seen an evolution in his game and do you think he's still ascending talent-wise?
A: I don't know about ascending, but he's at the top of his game right now. The one big thing they did — and this is why they booted (former offensive coordinator Bruce) Arians, or did not return his contract, however you want to look at it — they thought Ben was getting hit too much, that he was holding the ball too long and as he was turning 30 they wanted him to get rid of it quicker, stay in the pocket. He's still pretty good at avoiding the rush and things like that, but they wanted quicker passes and stay in the pocket. Over the last few years under (Todd) Haley, he's been able to do that. Also with that, they use the no huddle much, much more now. Ben called it their base offense, and if you watched Monday night's game, that's all they used. They'll use a muddle huddle here and there, but that was on the road. I imagine you're going to see nothing but no huddle here on Sunday. Those three things kind of combined and he's gotten better because of experience, too. And he's taken care of himself better in the offseasons as well. He used to have a tendency to get heavy and play more in the offseason and now he buckles down and works out and comes to camp in pretty good shape.
Q: As impressive as it was to dismantle a playoff team on the road Monday night, is there an area where you think the Steelers need to get better to win the game this week?
A: Both Cam Heyward, the defensive end, and Mike Tomlin said they need to get better pressure on the quarterback, which they did not do much of. They had no sacks. Of course (Washington quarterback Kirk Cousins) had a three-step drop. He gets rid of it pretty quick, but still that's one of the areas they really want to improve right there. I don't know if they can do much more on offense than they did. They converted a ton of third downs, 2 for 2 on fourth down, 38 points. I would say a better pass rush.
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