Marvin's opening statement:

"The main thing we'll deal with as we go through the week is got some guys banged up, particularly on the offensive line, with Andrew Whitworth and obviously Levi didn't finish the game at full strength. We'll have to deal with that as we go through the week here, and gain some replacements that way. Antonio Chatman spent the evening in the hospital and should be released here I think pretty soon. He seems to, as we thought yesterday, should be fine. It was a bad stinger. We want to make sure everything is fine before they release him from there. Everything so far has been negative with that. And I think the other one was Abdul Hoge, who sustained a triceps injury."

Chinedum Ndukwe?

"Chinedum has been dealing with that plantar faciitis on his foot and he actually tore that, which is a good thing. He's pretty sore today and we'll see how he goes through the week. If you end up with that and have an issue with that, what they actually do is go in and surgically do that. He did that on his own, which we have had a couple of players do through the years here, Rashad Jeanty a couple of weeks ago. So the body performs surgery on itself. So then you just deal with the soreness of it."

So will Levi Jones and Andrew Whitworth play?

"I don't need to make that determination now. It's a short week. We'll see."

(Which means no, says I)

Will the replacements be from the roster or outside?

Anthony Collins was inactive yesterday; was he hurt?

"No, he wasn't hurt. I had Andrew Crummey up and active. Those were our 45 spots."

Would you have handled the injuries on the line any differently if Collins was available?

"We'd have done it the same way."

Does it seem like a Steelers week?

"Yeah, it will, once we get going. We're still kinda trying to get through yesterday. But for me, at least, yeah, it will once we get going. I had a chance to see the end of their game yesterday on TV. They're still playing well on defense, as you can tell, and they're doing the things on offense they need to do to win. That's the biggest thing: They come up with the big drive and score to win the football game at the end. That's the important thing."

How does the short week change your routine?

"It changes everything we do. It's hard to play an NFL game in seven days, let alone play a game in five, or 4 1/2, whatever we have. It's very difficult. It's not a good turnaround for the players. It really is a difficult thing for the players."

Do you basically have all walkthroughs?

"Well, how we practice and so forth, we cater to what we have and what time and so forth, and obviously we'll adjust a little bit more based on our health."

It looks like you will face the Pittsburgh defense with either some banged-up linemen or some inexperienced linemen; do you have to change your plan to account for that?

"Well, we have to make sure we do things that we feel good about to both run the football better than we've done and obviously throw the football. We'll have to make some adjustments. We've got to do some things. Some guys will have to step up and play. Some of our other players who are healthy have to play great. That's important, that they pick up the slack."

So eight sacks? Was it all the line or a combination of things?

"It was. It really was. It was a combination of things -- of field position and not wanting to make the bad throw and so forth, and we got bumped off the protection, we got beat twice, and we had the fumbled snap which led to one. So there really was a combination of things. And I think a couple of times Ryan pulled the ball down a little early and kind of ran up in there, and it cost you a 1-yard sack. So it was a combination of things."

That last punt, you figure you'd get the ball back?

"Yeah. I was right, huh? It worked out good. I answered you that last night, these guys would have had it all ready for me. Yeah, I felt we would get the ball back as we did, that we'd have an opportunity to get it back and we could pin them down and they'd had a difficult time moving the football and we'd have an opportunity to get it back. We still had the two timeouts left, so I thought we had a great opportunity to get the ball back, as we did. In that situation, we would get it back with just two minutes to go, so that was a good thing. And we've been very good at our one-minute offense all season, with Carson, with Ryan, so I also felt confident in our ability to move the football in that situation like that and be able to be productive."

So, Watson on third-and-7?

"Actually, I think it was on second down when Kenny carried it and on third down I’m not sure who the back was but, yeah, we ran the ball…"

So, you thinking you'll go for it on fourth?

"Yes… The quarterback had the control of it and he had the look where he was directed to run the football based on what he got from the defense so he put us in the play he thought we’d be most productive in and ran away from their blitz instead of trying to drop back and throw into their blitz. They blitzed off the other side and we ran the football away and didn’t pick up the yardage we needed to pick up. If we get a little closer then I have a decision to make whether to punt it or not."

A fake punt?

"I didn’t see a fake punt. That was just Brad (St. Louis) direct snapping it to John (Busing) after the play…"

So the look wasn't there?

"Was what there? … No, we just got a delay of game on that punt unfortunately. We wanted to take it back five yards anyway before we punted it."

Any changes you'd like to see in the NFL's overtime policy?

"There are a lot of questions we don’t answer in the NFL, and anything with rules and things like that -- why would I pontificate on at? It doesn’t matter. No I wouldn’t want to see any changes, actually, because they played long enough yesterday. There is no need to play any longer. You risk too much injury, we obviously have to turn around with a short week and, so, that’s difficult."

(This is where I say, 'Thank you for answering my question that you weren't going to answer')

So, unlike Mr. McNabb, you knew there was a tie.

"I did know the rule. I was involved in that. That’s why when I saw Andy calling timeouts there in order for him to get the ball back so I’m shocked to find out that some of the players weren’t sure. I think our players were pretty sure about what was going to happen."

Chad didn't...

"I’m sure he said he didn’t know after somebody else said he didn’t know. It made more news not knowing."

If Anthony Collins gets a start, it's a tough debut against the Steelers?

"Well, guys make debuts all the time. You know? There’s no better debut than against the best, and I think they’re still leading the league in defense, or one or two, whatever they are. So, there’s no better time to do it than the present. If Anthony’s our guy come Thursday night, he’ll be up and ready to go and excited about it. You can’t pick and choose who you debut against. So, there’s the old story of Wally Pipp, right?"

Have you liked what you've seen from Collins this year?

"What Anthony has done for us this year, I’ve been very impressed with. I took the liberty to have a backup center for the first time this year in a while and I took that liberty for the first time since Dallas, I guess, yesterday as far as the inactives go."

Do you regret not challenging the Rucker TD?

"Oh, I’m so glad I didn’t. Have you looked at the tape? You see his knee is down about a foot from the goal line? Heheh. I really don’t understand why we ask these questions when we know the answer."

What happened after you claim Rucker was down?

"I didn’t claim he was down, he was down. The officials ruled him down."

So, what happened when you have first and goal from the 1?

"Well, we didn’t execute on the first run and we didn’t make it. Then second down was incomplete and third down was incomplete. Other than that, we didn’t score. We didn’t score a touchdown and only got three points out of that."

"Anything else? All right."

 

 

After Sunday's game with the Chargers, Hines Ward was asked the first of his many questions to come this week about the Bengals.

"Trust me, I'll be just as fired up to play them as they will be to play me," Ward told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

The Bengals moved behind the Chiefs -- or ahead, depending on how you look at it -- for the third pick in the draft by percentage points.

The Bengals have a .150 winning percentage, while the Lions (.000) and Chiefs (.100) would pick before the two if the draft were held today.

Three other teams have a .200 winning percentage (Seattle, St. Louis and Oakland).

The last tie in the NFL was Nov. 10, 2002, Steelers and Falcons, 34-34 tie. Tommy Maddox and Michael Vick.

* Antonio Chatman has been hospitalized and will stay there overnight for observation. He has movement in his arms and legs and initial X-rays were normal.

* OG Andrew Whitworth left with a right ankle injury and had a boot on his foot and walked out of the locker room on crutches.

* OT Levi Jones was "struggling a little bit with his leg," Marvin Lewis said. "He felt like he was having trouble getting set in there, and so we needed to make the change. And then Andrew has an anke sprain and he wasn't able to finish and we had to go back there (with Jones). Levi was hobbling around there, but he was able to finish the football game."

* Whitworth said: "I think it's a pretty bad high ankle sprain, but I don't really know yet. I'll come in (Monday), get a chance to treat it a little bit and get myself healthy."

"I had the foot planted and I think someone swung around after making a tackle and landed on the back of my legs. It rolled up pretty good, so we'll see."

* From Shayne Graham: "There’s not much to say right now, just a lot of disappointment. You know, all I can do is ask my team for a chance. They gave it to me. I’m really disappointed. We’re all disappointed, but I don’t think there’s anyone -- a fan, anyone -- more disappointed than myself. Knowing that I just feel like I’m better than that. It’s just frustrating because  I’ll have a lot of time to think about that."

"I can’t let this get me down, it’s over with, there’s nothing I can do about it now other than come in this week and get some good work in and be confident for the next game. There’s no way I can make this into making me less confident than I am. Confidence is key, if you lose it, you’re finished."

"I thought I hit it good, it started out inside the uprights and once again, I guess I didn’t play the wind good enough. It’s hard to explain. I didn’t make the kick, but that’s what I’m supposed to do. I’m disappointed. I feel bad for these guys because they fought hard today and our defense did a great job and just knowing I had a chance -- I don’t get many chances -- but I had a chance today and I didn’t come through on it. It is what it is, we didn’t win the game, we didn’t lose, but sometimes tying stings a little bit more. It’s bitter right now. We’ll just have to get past this and move on to the next game."

* Bob Bratkowski on the third-and-7 from the 47 in overtime where Kenny Watson ran for no gain: "Marvin had said we were in four-down territory. What we had was a run-pass audible. So, if they were pressuring us, we were going to throw it, if they laid back in a zone, we were going to run it with the thinking if it’s four-down territory and you get four yards, it makes it fourth-and-3 and we’re going to go for it on fourth down. If we would have gotten a couple of yards, we would have gone for it. We should have gotten yards, I don’t know what broke down on the play, but that was the look you would want on the run, and I’m not sure what went down on the play."

* Chad Ocho Cinco on overtime: "It feels like a loss. I didn’t know, I thought you went until someone got a field goal or something. This is my first time being in this and I’ve been playing Madden for this, I haven’t even ended on Madden like that. I asked Coach Lewis if he’d ever been in this situation before. He said yes."

* Donovan McNabb on overtime: "When the game was called, I kind of figured, 'There's ties in the NFL.'" He said he didn't know there were ties.

* Frostee Rucker on his recovery: "“I really thought I was in (the end zone) on that one. You can’t lunge and do too much more than that, but they said it was down, so you’ve just got to take it. ... All I know is I saw that line and I was jumping. I thought I was in."

Lewis was asked about a challenge there: "I did not (think Rucker scored). One of the side officials came over and said it was a good non-challenge. He said he thought his knee was down. I am thinking if he isn't in, the ball is on the six-inch line and we had to get it in."

Antonio Chatman has movement in his arms and legs and X-rays were normal.

Chatman was carted off the field in the second quarter of Sunday's game with the Eagles.