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HEAD COACH TONY DUNGY (general comments)
"As we said yesterday, it is very disappointing when you lose any playoff game, but especially when you lose at home it's even more. I talked to the players today about differentiating between disappointment and discouragement. We have a lot of people disappointed today. There are probably eight or 10 teams that didn't make the playoffs that won their last game of the season and they feel better than we do today. That's just normal. We have to use the disappointment to fuel our fire for next year, and we have to look ahead and see what we can do a little bit better to get ourselves in position again and then take advantage of it. I have to give all the credit to the Steelers. They came in and played an excellent game. They didn't have many mistakes or penalties, and they had two big turnovers, but their defense was able to hold the fort. They played well enough to win. [Sunday] we didn't play well enough to win, but I thought we played hard all the way through. We never gave up. That's a tribute to us. The way we play, and we played that way all year. I don't think we have major changes. We have to put ourselves back in this position next year, which is not easy. It's tough to make the playoffs year after year, but that is the mentality that we have to have. We have to start April 3rd in our offseason program and we have to work the same way we worked this year. As I told the team when they left this afternoon, I'm very proud of them and I'm proud of the type of guys we have and the type of team we have."
HEAD COACH TONY DUNGY (on if this season is a failure)
"Well it is in many ways. You come in and your idea is to get to the playoffs and to win the Super Bowl. We got there and didn't win in the playoffs, so that's a disappointment. It is a failure because you come up short of your ultimate goal. We did a lot of good things. There are a lot of building blocks. We found a lot of players that I think are going to help us in the long run. The ultimate disappointment is going to be there."
HEAD COACH TONY DUNGY (on why the Colts were so affected by the Steelers' rush)
"They did a good job. They brought people and they came very aggressively. We got them blocked a little bit better in the first game and this game, we didn't get them blocked as well. We had a little bit of miscommunication on some things, but some of it may just be them coming a little bit harder and playing at a faster pace."
HEAD COACH TONY DUNGY (on their adjustments towards the blitz)
"I think they executed a little bit better. It wasn't anything new that we hadn't seen. They're overloading different sides and you have to change your protection and get it communicated. And they did a good job with it."
HEAD COACH TONY DUNGY (on the protection of the QB being a problem in their losses)
"It is and that's where everything starts offensively and defensively. If you can pressure the quarterback, then you have a chance to be effective on defense. We pride ourselves in protecting well and we're at the top of the league every year in the least amount of sacks. When we don't do it well, it's hard on us. [Sunday] was not our best day of protecting the passer and that hurt us."
