Mike Tomlin

But as I mentioned, in this setting, it was reasonable to expect us all to be better.

the players themselves, us as strategists, and I think we displayed that.

And so hopefully returning him to the fold, we get the benefits of all the things that I've just discussed, our adaptability, the growth of individuals, the growth of continuity and new individuals, and you couple that with his presence, hopefully we're all continually, collectively better.

I know it's going to be required.

You know, certainly relationships and trust and the ability to anticipate and work with others at the quarterback receiver combination is significant.

And so it's not only, you know, DK missing games, but he missed practices and those balls go elsewhere daily in practice.

And so certainly I'm sure there was some residual benefit in terms of him doing so, not only in the two games, but in the two weeks.

Let me be clear.

I've mentioned this several times, but you guys don't seem to hear me.

We didn't do anything uniquely against the Cleveland Browns from a protection standpoint that we don't always do when we play the Cleveland Browns.

We did the same thing the first time we played Cleveland.

We won the game.

We scored more points.

He had zero sacks.

And so there was no significant sea change.

We certainly got a challenge this week because they have a formidable tandem.

But as I mentioned, we better do a really good job of minimizing the amount we're in those one-dimensional circumstances.

Do they move those two guys around a lot, or do they tend to kind of be where they are?

They move them around, but, you know, they move one to one side, they move the other one to the other side, and so it's still big issues.

I think there's no price that you can put on rush.