Mike tomlin's press conference on tuesday september twenty first. Yes when i hear that date i think of earth wind and fire but anyway coach tomlin did his regularly scheduled press conference at noon right away he off by talking about what just happened the previous week with the steelers when they fell in defeat in their home. Opener to the las vegas raters. He's one of the big things. That coach tom talked about was playmaking in the second half. He said he talked to a group of players at halftime about how they needed to. Have you know the bigger plays in the second half and that is what happened. What happened is that the vegas raiders made more plays in the second half coach. Tomlin specifically mentioned the sixty one yard touchdown that was obvious To just about everyone that that's the kind of big plays that they were talking about Coach tomlin said that the steelers did not get enough splash in general he said especially on special teams like they did the week before where they got. That splash splash play. Which was the difference in the game. Although he said he was very happy with the good job at the punt team was doing. You just didn't get a big splash play From like the punt return team or things of that nature. He also addressed. You know putting tyson alalu on the i r that That was something that had been reported the day before wanted to acknowledge that as he got into the injuries Talked about t. J. watt with his groin injury and also added. Alex highsmith smith with having a groin injury which is interesting because it's not as much in addition as it is an acknowledgement that it was there in week one and probably hadn't gone away completely so that you got both watt and highsmith with the groin. You've got bush in hayden Working their way back with the groin injuries. So coach tomlin specifically address. Those he also added. Ben rothlisberger to the list with a left peck injury. That could Reduce his time in practice during the week. Which is interesting. Because ben rothlisberger doesn't usually practice on wednesday anyway but it was probably more of you know acknowledging the fact that when ben rothlisberger shows up that he's not practicing on wednesday. It's probably not going to say coach's decision. It's probably going to say Peck injury now. This isn't what coach tomlin said. This was my own inference. That that's something that we will see on the injury report tomorrow whether or not that affects rothlisberger going forward this week Coach tomlin didn't talk about the situation in depth like he was overly concerned about it but he did mention one of the thing that i'll get to after he mentioned one other name of deonte. Johnson says he looks better not great but better So not looking anything. Long-term there but don't know if we'll be able to play this week coach. Tom didn't specifically say anything about this week. But i think that was his way of saying that he looks better but not great. One thing that could shaalan talked about. And this comes back to the ben rothlisberger and all these other injuries is how in game injuries are much harder to deal with than the known injuries as you're preparing for the week i'm gonna you know kinda go off on my own little talk you for for a few seconds about that was also the issue with last week with. Joe haden devon bushes injuries coming on friday. It was the last day of the team preparing and then at the last second. They're kind of scraping together. What they're gonna do not having these guys because they got injured so late in the week so late week injuries in game injuries. Those are tough to deal with but coach tomlin talks about preparing for them. Now makes it a whole different ballgame. He went onto to highlight some things With the cincinnati. Bengals coming up. He talked about their improved defensive interior. And how they have how. They have a lot of depth there. He obviously mentioned the starting safeties. And how. And that's a really good tandem of jesse bateson von bell and the things that they're doing there on offense he talked about joe mixing and now he's the second leading rusher in the nfl right now. also talked about it improved. Run game they got their run game coordinator. I'm pretty sure it was offensive. Line coach ede mentioned the name. I can't remember what it was right now. back to them that he hadn't been there since two thousand eighteen so kind of looks at no gives them a little idea of their philosophy in the run game and he talked about Joe borough in the receivers. He specifically mentioned tyler boyd That's someone that the steelers. He said that they used to want to use to use someone like mike hilton to combat him. But now mike hilton is on the other side line. Even mentioned later on the press conference. Sean davis saw both of those players are now in cincinnati The biggest thing is this is afc north ball. You gotta get ready for afc north ball. It's just a whole different monster. From that point. They moved into the question and answer period of of the of the press conference Coach tomlin of. I'm going to highlight most of these. Some of these were multi part questions and then then he would answer either one part or one way or the other Some of the some of the questions were asking kind of the same thing but to try to give an overall feel for how it all went down. He was specifically asked if there would be any changes to the offensive line and he emphatically said no that was the second part of a two part question and he insisted on answering it. I He was also asked about if he knows exactly. When ben rothlisberger was hurt he said he did not. He's not even sure. If ben no specifically he was asked about the no huddle as Ben rothlisberger made a comment about not having it in the arsenal last week and coach tomlin said that that was last week's plan that know how to something they've done in the past and there's no reason for them to not have it but last week's plan doesn't mean that that's this week's plan He he was also give it another question about banned in the receivers being on the same page. He didn't even let the question finish. He shot that down real quick. Answer that that yeah. He's he's satisfied. With how ben in the receivers are when it comes to beat on the same page I know fans are into fans a little bit more concerned about that but coach tomlin shut that down right away. was also.