Bill Cowher Came Quotations

What the team did in the 1970s was kind of put Pittsburgh on the map. It became a city of champions, and you had the Pirates winning and the Penguins winning.

We had another third-and-12 against Baltimore last week, we kind of stayed back in a basic defense and that was a touchdown. This was third-and-12 again and I was not going to do it again, so we came with the blitz and we were fortunate it worked out.

We had an MRI (Thursday) night and everything came back negative. He'll be fine by Sunday. He was feeling pretty good.

We came a long way. This is a special organization and I'm happy for the players, coaches and the city of Pittsburgh.

If you look at us two years ago, we were 6-10 and probably a lot like Tennessee, where the year before we were in the playoffs. Tennessee is coming off a tough year last year. As I told the team, two years ago they were 12-4 and came up here and whipped our tails pretty good in this stadium.

You just saw an outstanding football game. Unfortunately, we came out on the short end of it. It was a tough loss, but we'll bounce back from it and move on.

The Chicago game was a big game for us establishing ourselves as a running football team. We started to get Ben back at that time, too, when he came back from his (knee and thumb) injuries.

Everything came back negative -- or positive from our standpoint. There's nothing really there. He'll feel better. We'll see how he feels today and monitor how much he does. He'll be fine by Sunday.

It has been a help from the standpoint of knowing how to prepare for these types of games, being in important games and dealing with adversity. I think it is important to appreciate where you are and know where you came from.

There was a little apprehension. But he came in excellent shape with his weight down. He was a little bit better in the last game than the first game and I think he's getting better each day.

This team understands it's a journey. This is the first step. It was almost a battle of wills out there today, like who was going to flinch first. We just came up with a couple more big plays than they did, and that was the difference in the game.

They wanted Jerome to lead the team out. They wanted him to come out first, so they gave him his time, and then we all came out as a team. Joey Porter thought that was important and he told the team that's what we were going to do.

He gutted it out (Monday) night. He was hurting. He came in and we looked at it at halftime and taped it up. He said before we went out there that I'm going to give it a shot, but if I feel like I am hurting this team I am going to take myself out and I want you to know that. I told him I expect you to do that. Only you know where you are at with it.

He felt good about what took place when he came out. We're hopeful to have him by the opening of the season.

His record speaks for itself. We came into the league together in 1992 and I have nothing but tremendous respect for him and what he did in Green Bay and now in Seattle. We served three years together on the NFL competition committee, so I got to know him more as a person. I think the world of him and Kathy and his daughters. It's funny that he's got four girls and I've got three girls, so we've got a lot in common.

Rob had a really good camp for us a year ago. He came in and challenged Jeff (Reed, the Steelers' kicker). We really liked him. Sometimes it just takes being at the right place at the right time.

Mike Logan is a good football player, ... He had some injuries in the past but came in here in excellent shape. You could see that in the spring. He was moving a lot better. He did that in the off-season program. Then you say, 'In training camp we'll see how he'll be able to do.'