Injury Report: "(LB) Akeem Jordan will not practice today and (DT) Derek Landri will not practice today. Everyone else will be out there and go through practice."
Opening Remarks: "We look forward to the challenge of playing Pittsburgh. It's a great atmosphere for football at their place. Again, it should be a heck of a football game with two good football teams playing in it."
On what type of injury Landri has: "It's a knee. It's just swelling in the knee. He should be fine."
On where Jordan is in terms of his rehab: "He's close. He's running, but he's not quite there yet."
On the decision to release LB Brian Rolle: "I had an opportunity to fit in someone else. Brian is going to hook on with someone else and do a good job. Just with what I was trying to get done here, it wasn't the right fit."
On whether T King Dunlap will work in with the first team: "He's going to work today. I'm just going to see how he's feeling. He'll work today and see how everything works out there."
On whether he has a starter at left tackle in mind between him and T Demetress Bell: "The one positive is that Bell really played well in our game. That bides me a little time to see how King is doing."
On why the offensive line was able to play so well in the second half against the Giants: "We had a good mixture. We were in rhythm and had a good blend of run, pass, play action, movement and all of those things. I think everybody just kind of settled down and played well."
On what the difference is between the fourth quarter success this year and struggles last year: "It comes down to attitude and the push of the trust in one another pushing forward through the tough times, and knowing each other like the players know each other now. We had a lot of moving parts last year. They weren't as comfortable with each other. I think that would be the primary thing."
On whether WR Riley Cooper will be able to play Sunday: "He's making progress. He practiced fully last week and we'll see how he does this week. He's getting confidence as we go."
On whether there are still issues with his collar bone: "No, it's strong enough. He's got a plate in there, so it's a matter of just him trusting it and feeling comfortable with it."
On whether he is worried about how the team will respond coming off of an emotional win and facing a team that is coming off their bye: "You just go out and play. We've been in that situation before so you just go out and play. You have to take care of what you can control and that is yourself and your team in that case. That's what we do and that's where our focus is – getting better. We know we're playing a good football team and we know we are a good football team, and that's how we're going to prepare ourselves this week."
On facing the next four teams as they come off of their bye weeks: "One of them we're working off of a bye, too. I don't worry about all that. You go play, that's what it is. You don't worry about all that."
On what he attributes the mental toughness of this team to: "I think it's the core of the players. You have some tough kids in there who trust each other and challenge each other. That starts in your locker room. They worked hard. You saw a tough training camp, and nobody complained. They came out and practiced hard every day. If they were injured, they tried to fight and get back in there – good competition. I would tell you that (with) the players, I'd put that right there."
On how much he factors in the Steelers having S Troy Polamalu: "He's a heck of a player. You're talking about a Pro Bowl player. You have to know where he's at. (OLB James) Harrison, you have to know where he is at. They've got a lot of good players. You go play, that's what you do. Those are two good football players."
On what challenges QB Ben Roethlisberger presents to the defense: "The one thing he does a great job with, well he does a lot of things well, is that he extends plays. He's very strong in the pocket, and he has mobility. He always keeps his eyes down the field. If you have that one quality that is a little different than some of the other quarterbacks, he keeps every play alive. As a secondary player, you better continue to cover your player until the play is history and it's over, or he's going to make you pay for it."
On whether they pay any extra attention to that during practice: "Absolutely. You do anyways, but you do. You know he's very good at that."
On whether it would have made sense to put Cooper on the Injured Reserve/Designated to Return list at the beginning of the season: "(WR) Mardy (Gilyard) has done a nice job with stepping in and giving us some good special teams snaps. You saw he had two-three tackles last week on special teams. He understands the offense. It allows Riley to get out there and practice, and that's what he needs right now. He just needs to continue to do that and we'll see how he feels this week. I'll evaluate it as we get further into the week."
On how good LB Adrian Moten is on special teams: "He was good in the preseason. He did a nice job for us. That's one of the reasons that he's back because of that. He did a pretty decent job for us."
On how Roethlisberger's torn rotator cuff is affecting his play: "It doesn't look like it has hurt him a bit. He's playing very well."
On whether WR Jeremy Maclin is still bothered by his hip injury: "I wouldn't say it was his hip that was bothering him. It was just how things fell. He had a few plays that were dialed up for him and they had that area covered with their zone coverage. So, you had to go a different direction. That was just by chance. Jeremy, he's fine. He had that one nice catch there that he ended up breaking to get us a first down. He's okay."
On whether it is hard to evaluate past performances of players like Polamalu and Harrison because now they are hampered by injuries: "Sure. These guys have played a long time. If they are back in there, then I'm sure they are going to be 100%. I'm sure that is how they're going about it. You take care of what we're doing first, and they haven't really changed their scheme at all although they have some good football players."
On the similarities between the defense they play this week and the one they faced in Arizona: "I'll tell you that both offensively and defensively, they have some similarities. They're similar defensively, I'm sure that's where you were going with it, but yes both offensively and defensively they are similar."
On whether the offense generally gets better in the red zone as the season goes on: "Well, we started out fast with it, and did well with it. Then, the past couple of games we haven't done so well with it. We've got to go back and make sure that we get in. You want touchdowns, not field goals. We have a good field goal kicker but you'd rather see him out there kicking off than kicking field goals."
On whether he sees red zone struggles going back to past seasons: "There are things we can do both ways. Both execution and play-wise, we can do some things."
On what distinguishes Pittsburgh's defense from Arizona: "They're similar. (Cardinals defensive coordinator) Ray (Horton) comes from that (Steelers defensive coordinator) Dick LeBeau school. They are good friends and they talk and share ideas with one another. They are very, very similar to each other defensively."
On whether it is hard to cover a team that mixes the pass and the run very well: "They have a good blend. They have done a good job with that. Their short and intermediate games are good. They do a lot of quick screens and you have to be aware of those. They get everyone involved - you see the number of receivers that he's utilized over the last few games. He does a good job of that."
