Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin held a press conference following Monday’s win against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Here’s a breakdown of of the coach’s comments about the game.

Opening Statement

Man, that was a tough, hard-fought game. I appreciate the efforts of the guys, and I thought we played extremely hard. I thought the penalties kind of marred the game, there were a lot of penalties on us and on them.

We’ll look at it and learn from it, but I thought the guys played extremely hard. We’ve got to learn how to play hard and smart as we move forward, but I’ll look at the tape and look at some of those penalties and analyze it and see where we can get better. We’ve always worked hard to play within the rules, it was a tough time tonight, but we really appreciate the efforts and we made the necessary plays, really.

Tip of the cap to a lot of people, all 53 in there fought through a week and came into a stadium primetime on the road and got a necessary win. No time to pat ourselves on the back – we’ve got AFC North football in Heinz [next week]. We respect and understand what that’s about.

We didn’t give a good accounting of ourselves the last time we were home, so we’re excited about getting back into Heinz Field and performing for our fans. [Cornerback] Mike Hilton is the only injury to speak of, he had a significant elbow [injury], wasn’t able to come back into the game. He’s being evaluated and I’m sure I’ll have more for you tomorrow when we talk around noon.

Play of the Steelers’ defense

I thought they played hard, and when you play hard you create opportunities for yourself. I still thought we could be better down the field on some instances, guys have got to make those one-on-one plays, those 50-50 plays.

We didn’t make enough of them, they made too many, and I just thought it didn’t reflect the overall performance when you’re giving up chunks like that. We’ll keep working in that area, we’ll keep working and playing guys until someone shows themselves, you know, in terms of being solid in that area.

I really appreciate how all of those corners played tonight, Artie Burns and Coty Sensabaugh and those guys. We just have to have better play in terms of not giving up the big play down the field in one-on-one circumstances.

Game plan with rotating the cornerbacks

Yeah. We’ll play all the guys. Until we find rhythm we’re going to play them all.

Offensive boost from tight end Vance McDonald’s touchdown

It was a big play, but it was so early in the game that we knew we had a lot of ball ahead of us. He’s capable of that, no doubt, and we appreciated it, but there was a lot of ball left after that.

Forcing turnovers in the second quarter

It’s always the case. We turned the ball over in Cleveland and you saw what happened. You win that battle and you give yourself a chance, no doubt.

Going down the field in the final two minutes of the first half to respond to the Buccaneers’ field goal

We like two-minute, we work it a lot. You guys know in the pros we work it a lot. We’re very comfortable in those circumstances, not surprised by that performance.

Performance tonight after going winless in their first two games

We had a game to play, Monday night ball. They answered the bell and now we move on to Baltimore. I’m always appreciative of their efforts.

Wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster’s game improving

He’s just taking that natural progression in terms of being a second-year player. We expect those guys to take significant steps.

Guys like he, T.J. [Watt] and James Conner, we expect them to be central figures to what we do because they’ve been a part of it, they’ve been a lap around the track. if you will.

They know what lies ahead, they’ve had a good offseason within the system in the program. I’m not surprised by the performances of second-year players.

Whether opposing defenses will shift their focus to both Antonio Brown and Smith-Schuster

We don’t control what opposing defenses do. We just try to move the ball around and ring up the scoreboard.

If there are any concerns with kicker Chris Boswell

No. We missed a couple kicks tonight, we’ll take a look at it. He’s our kicker, he’s a heck of a kicker. We’ve got to make the ball go through the uprights.

Transcript provided by the Pittsburgh Steelers.