Steelers' Foster Says No Jawing With Bengals This Week
PITTSBURGH (93-7 The Fan)- Steelers guard Ramon Foster was held out of Sunday's game against the Buffalo Bills due to a chest injury. But not as a knock on Foster and more to the credit of the Steelers offensive line and guard B.J. Finney who filled in, you could hardly tell Foster was missing.
Pittsburgh won its fourth straight game and sprung running back Le'Veon Bell for a franchise-record 236 yards rushing on the day.
Foster joined "The Fan Morning Show" on Tuesday and first, his health has improved.
"My health is good, I'm ready to roll this week man," said Foster. "It was in my best interest that I stay out last week. [It was a] coach's [head coach Mike Tomlin] decision, he knew he couldn't leave it up to me for me to say whether I was going to play or not going to play so they made the decision for me."
Foster couldn't help but be impressed by fullback Roosevelt Nix who often led the way for Bell's record-setting day.
"He was amazing, man, and I'm glad to see him bounce back the way he has this year," said Foster. "He missed a few games with some injuries and then, you know what, at that position, fullback is one of those positions where it can easily be written out of the offense and Rosie has come in these past few games to be honest, and he's done a great job on special teams and on offense so, man, I'm really happy for that guy for not shutting it down because there was a lot against Rosie at some point in time this year."
Although he didn't play in Sunday's game where the Steelers' offensive line dominated the defensive front of Buffalo, Foster knows the signs of when the opponent knows they are being beat play after play.
"Sometimes I'll say before a game, 'Let's make them look down at the ground,'" said Foster. "And what I mean by that, when you look over at your opponent, they're not looking at you or you look at them and they duck their head, that's an accomplishment right there because you've gotten the best of them. You'll see that, or you'll see them getting in a huddle, giving a pep talk and that's a type of game that the guys played this past weekend. They were playing lights out to where they were just trying to figure out anything to get a stop."
Earlier in the year, Foster was very straightforward about Bengals linebacker Vontaze Burfict and how the league needed to step up and do something about his questionable actions toward other players on the field. Now that the Steelers have him next on the schedule, Foster just wants his team to focus on winning.
"What I don't want it to turn into is what it was the last time we were there [in Cincinnati]," said Foster. "It's one of those silent things where we just know we have to play our game and as well as we're playing right now, we just have to stay on that streak, that we can't let any other things take away for what we are doing whether that's penalties whether that's getting into other altercations with guys, or just not being in it immensely because the game of football is what we are there to play. We can't play this back and forth jaw-jacking stuff with Cincinnati and hopefully they are over it just like we are, too."
What about Burfict specifically, will he try anything funny?
"I don't know that guy is uhh...I hate to call him unpredictable, but we'll see how he's going to play. We know his style of ball, that's number one," Foster said. "He plays a type of ball that everybody around the league knows, our job is to, like I said, just stay on track and keep our goals in mind because they're whatever they are, 4-7 right now and we just have to do our job and we take the AFC North."
You can hear the entire interview with Foster on "The Fan Morning Show" below.
