Bill Cowher Hal Quotations

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.

This will be a good barometer for us because this is by far the best team we've played and maybe will play. They are a football team that is not used to losing at all. For them to come off a tough loss against Carolina has really probably compounded the challenge that we have.

Our defense just, they stepped up when they had to, they really did. I thought the biggest thing was the first half. I don't know if we got a first down until the second quarter because we could not get anything going offensively. So, when we come out of the first half to be up 7-3, that was a good thing.

We certainly have to play better than the last time we played them. It's going to be a challenge for us.

We kind of weathered the storm. We felt like at halftime we had kind of taken their best shot.

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.

We've got a big test ahead of us with this team, ... They lost and they're going to come in with a big chip on their shoulder. It's going to be a big challenge for us.

But our players know. This is still Baltimore. They still have some good players, and their coach challenged them and they responded.

It's a legitimate question, ... As the second half unfolded, unfortunately we did not have Jerome in the game. I wish I would have gotten him in. He was not in the game in the last series of overtime because he had not been in the game in the second half. That's a decision that I am responsible for.

There will be a lot of excitement in that stadium, their first playoff game in a long time. It's a big, big challenge for us.

I think throughout the course of these playoffs, I think we're a football team. We have had really great weeks of work. We're playing our best football at the right time of the year. It was tough to do what we had to do to go to the three places and win those games. They were all challenges in themselves.

It's not like there haven't been times when we have brought in other long-snappers. The guy we brought in is good. He's the best guy we've brought in to challenge Mike.

He's a great ambassador for the National Football League in terms of how to be a professional, both on and off the field. The guy, without a doubt in my mind, is a Hall of Fame player.

This was a big challenge for our team coming in and kind of weathering the storm early in the game. These are two very evenly matched teams, as was proven this year. We're fortunate and feel good about moving on.

No team has ever been where we are. That's not going to discourage us. Does it make the challenge great? Absolutely. But at the same time, we have to seize the opportunity.

There's a fine line between going in there and being emotional and allowing it to have an adverse effect, which I think happened to us last week. We settled down more in the second half of that game, but we lost our composure at times. I don't want us to lose our emotion, but we can't lose our composure. There's a fine line and at times we kind of crossed that, but we have to play with that same emotion, that same level of desperation or else we are not going to move on.

I remember the game very vividly, and I'm sure Dom recalls it as well. You always remember your first win. It was always a big challenge to win in the Astrodome. Not many teams did.

I didn't get out of coaching to get back into it. This is my next challenge and I'm planning to work hard at it.

This will be our third time playing them. They're explosive. They played well defensively down the stretch. There will be a lot of excitement in that stadium. It's a big challenge for us. We certainly have to play better than the last time we played them and better defensively than how we played today.

People can look at our run-to-pass ratio, ... but I will say this: Watch us in the first half (this season) because we're still a balanced football team. But when we get a lead, that element is taken out of the hands of the quarterback and we will run the ball. So, we just shut it down. It distorts the numbers a little bit, so talk about the numbers in the first half.

They're just as hungry as we are. It's a golden opportunity for us, but don't underestimate the challenge that's in front of us. ... You realize how hard it is to get there, but don't lose sight that the goal is to win a championship. Nobody remembers that you lost a Super Bowl. They remember who won a Super Bowl.