Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Three two one. Pull up SteelersNation. It's Tank and Mike for Steelers
Chuk Talk. It is a foggy, ominous day here in Pittsburgh. You
know, Mike, it would bea great setting for an AFC championship behind
us in ac Resuore Stadium this weekend. Not gonna happen. All the eyes
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of the world this week. Ifyou love football, this is your weekend,
the NFC, the AFC. Youknow, Mike, there's not a
lot to talk about with the Steelersright now, yep. A lot about
who the OC is gonna be,what's going on the big press conference,
about how there's gonna be changes nowif you watch the show, you know,
for I got nuts over the offensiveline that's been horrible since Mike Munchek
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left. Mike, I'm gonna askyou a question. I think I know
who your favorite coach was ever inthe NFL. Who is it? Oh?
Are you talking position coach? Headcoach all time? That's hard?
Got rid of mustache, looks likeAndy Reid said? Okay, Andy Reid,
So why do you like coach readWell, he's just very creative with
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the offense. It's never gets stale, never just spin around last. Constantly,
he's constantly trying to uh remain onestep ahead of the competition. And
what he does a lot of timesis he goes back and watches old films,
back from the fifties and sixties becausenow, you know, it's kind
of like a rotation, is kindof like style. You know, you
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look at the eighties style and thenineties the bright neons, and it kind
of comes in rotations, the bellbombs and then eventually comes back in style
again. So the off the footballoffensive wise, a lot of the you
know, you got to the spreadgame, but now all of a sudden,
these guys are going to the hybridlinebackers, these faster linebackers. So
how do you combat that. Youget back to the run game. You
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pound the football, and you gotto get the creative. Now they don't
have the Tyreek Hill the Chiefs,you know, so now they got to
get creative. They have Isaiah Patakiowho runs great, but they become a
more balanced team than they have inthe past five years. Okay, I
like that. I like that assessment. What makes a good coach? You
know, I've asked this question toyou know, guys that played eighth grade
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football, high school football along theway, it could be baseball, wrestling.
You know, we all remember ourgreat coaches, like Mike did.
He actually had a rolodex to gothrough. You know what are bad coaches
stick out with us too? I'mnot gonna go through my litany right now.
There's one guy in particular, andMike, I'm sure if I said,
who's your worst coach ever, he'sin there. Well, you're not
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gonna name, you know, buthe's in there, right, Yeah,
of course why was he a badcoach? A lot of times it's just,
you know, it's a little bitstubbornness. It's my way or the
highway. They don't know how toget their players to play for them,
play for them. You know,you look at Dan Campbell coming in with
the Lions. He changed the culture. You got the team and it's not
fake with Dan Campbell, He's verypassionate about it. The player can tell
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if it's fake or if it's truepassion, and so that's why they are
playing it the way they're playing.Coach Tomlin does a great job of motive,
motivating the men. However, youknow, he's more of a defensive
mindset and he can motivate the guys. However, he needs a guy offensive
wise that can kind of put thosepieces together, be creative and keep defenses
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off guard, and you know,change a little, you know, a
couple of wrinkles week to week.Be creative with the pieces you have.
You got two running backs, NauseHarris and Warren. You've got Pickens,
You've got Deontay Johnson. You're patBryermouth. He should be He's extremely talented,
but he should be touching the footballa lot more similar to the way
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Kittle Kelsey Laporta up in Detroit.You got to look at those guys and
and you look at the even theteams that are left the final four.
You got Laporta for the for theLions. You have for the Niners,
you had Mark Andrews, who's comingback from injury, but Isaiah likely even
stepped into that rule for them big. And then you have Travis Kelce.
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So the tight ends are very goodin the last final four teams. Pat
Ryermuth has that talent. You gotto get him involved in the offense.
So what I was going at wasthere's good you going yeah, well,
no, you know, you gotto think through these things. There's good
coaches, there's average coaches, andthere's great coaches. One of them has
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his name on the Super Bowl Trophy, a guy named Lombardi. As you
assess the Steelers' offensive needs going intotwenty twenty four, we keep hearing a
lot. Something's gotta change, something'sgot Obviously. Now, I'm not gonna
go in like I always do aboutTodd Haley, Randy Fiekner and Matt Canada.
Those experiments have failed for the lastten years. So Mike, if
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we're going to reach out and youwent through, I mean we're loaded at
offensive time, yes, skilled positions. If Mike McMahon is head coach the
Pittsburgh Steelers right now, what areyou looking for in an offensive coordinator?
Who ain't your best buddy, ain'tyour friend from college, didn't matter that
he's stunk, but you wanted togive him a job anyway, Or you
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hired within the organization because you can'tyou're cheap and won't hire somebody if I
gave you a blind check, isSteelers head coach? What he not?
Who are you looking for? Whatare you looking for? You know,
I'm looking for a guy that's creative, that has a little bit of a
run game background. I know they'vetalked about Cliff Kingsbury coming back from the
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Arizona Cardinals and from the USC lastyear. He was an analystic QB coach
with the USC last year as thehead coach with the Cardinals. But you
you know, and I think he'she's a good coach, but if you
look at their past and what they'vedone, yeah, they put up some
points. However, you know,he's more of a system type coach that
you know, was a disciple ofMike Lee, which is typically more of
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a college style system. And thenthe next guy you hear they're looking about
is the the Carolina Panthers, Pantherscoach from this past the offense Quiney from
this past season, And when youlook at them, like, I don't
know if that's the answer, becausethere was one of the bottom offenses in
the league, you know, youknow, taking that look, I'm not
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sure I'm gonna go And I'm gonnalook to one of the younger guys that
learned underneath Shanahan. And I'm notjust saying just not only Cal Shannan,
but Mike Shannan. You look whatMike Shanahan has done. You know,
he's got his son Cal, hehas Sean McVay, he has Matt Lafleur
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the coach. He has Mike McDaniel. So when you look at that,
Okay, so you got Mike McDanieldown in Miami, you had Sean McVay
in Los Angeles, you have CayleShanahan and San Francisco. You have Matt
Lefloor, who is in Green Bay. All four of those teams were in
the playoffs past year. Okay,the Rams started off ugly, but they
found a way to get in andnow they're not there now. Mike McDaniels
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in Miami, he was one ofthe most explosive offenses. Now they lost
to the Chiefs. But my pointis is those guys are very creative offensive
ways. Now they became head coaches, you got to go find a guy
that maybe learned underneath them, thatkind of has that. Okay, how
did this coach think, How doesShanahan think, How does the Floor think?
How does McDaniel think and McVeigh andhow do they decide to design a
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game plan? How do they goin each week? A guy that's worked
with them for two, three,four, years and has been underneath them.
Well, that starts to rub off. Okay, you start to realize
that you'll get even Andy Reid.Andy Reid has a coaching tree. Went
up against his, you know,former coach last week, Sean McVay up
in Buffalo, or not Sean McVay, I'm sorry, Sean McDermott up in
Buffalo. He was a d guyunderneath Andy Reid, and now all of
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a sudden he's going up against anotherformer coach of his, John Harball this
week of the Baltimore Ravens. That'sa Andy Reid coaching tree. So these
guys that are in the playoffs andthat are doing well typically come from a
tree of some sort. You gotto go find one of those guys that
have learned it and then be willingto give them the reins to go,
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Hey, this is what I needoffensive wise, this is what I want
to do. These are the coachesI want. I want to bring this
guy in to coach my own line. I want to bring this guy in
to coach my quarterbacks. I wantto bring this guy in to coach my
receivers. And you have to givehim full reign because you know, I
love coach Tom and I love howhe's motivator, but he does stay away
from the offensive side of the footballa little bit, and he needs to
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give that power. He's got togive that power to the OC. But
that OC, he's got to becomfortable in doing what he's doing. You
know, one of them, AndI agree with you, Mike. One
of the most important things for youfootball wongs out there, the exes and
those people. Mike mentioned a word, and it's a huge word because it
contrasts with another word you mentioned.A system coach. A system coach,
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a coach that brings in his systemas opposed to what would be the word
a creative mind. Yeah. Soso with the creative the difference is a
guy, huge difference. You justhad a guy in there trying to run
it off his failed system with MattCanada, which was garbage. So what
you got is when you guys,when you got a system coach, they
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learned the system. However they stickto that system and they stay with it.
They don't know how to adapt offof it. Just when when the
curve ball is thrown at you,when the defenses start making adjustments, you
have to have a guy that canlook at it and be like, Okay,
this is what they're doing. Now, let's get creative. Let's get
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bunch sets, let's get motions.Hey, let's instead of motion across the
formation or short motion down in andcome across, let's motion from inside and
motion out with Tyreek Hill and havethem on an explode motion. That way,
they can't double team of there's there'sthings going on in the game.
That's a lot of these guys aredoing because they're getting creative. It's not
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because it's some of the stuff youhaven't seen before. It might have been
done years ago, but a lotof stuff you don't haven't seen that McDaniel
McVeigh, Lafleur, Shanahan and evenBen Johnson in Detroit, a lot of
these guys, you haven't seen thisstuff. And even you go look at
what the Ravens are doing. Andwith Todd Monkin and in Baltimore with Lamar,
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Yeah, they were running. Theywere running Greg Roman system. There
was more of a college style.But now they've evolved a little bit.
Got that passing game going a littlebit better in Baltimore, which helps Lamar
and now he's not taking quite asmany hits he's still running. But it's
it's it's kind of a it's kindof a gel, a transformation of multiple
systems, and you have to beconstantly being creative disguising things, because if
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you just line up and play theway they do in the college game,
you're gonna get dusty. Just getbecause the hashes are narrower, you have
to be creative. Faster ball ends, an extra lineman, and you're like,
Oh, they're gonna run it.They're gonna run it. Then all
of a sudden, they shift andall three tight ends run out into a
wide bunch. And now because theyshift, they brought in all these tight
ends and the extra lineman. No, the defense, No, the defense
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brought in the heavy personnel defense.And the one thing that Detroit has is
some tight ends that cannot only block, but they can run routes. And
you look at the porter, sothey shift them out wide. Now they
got linebackers out there covering Laporter runsa glance or a post route on the
linebacker, and it was a itwas a gimme. It was fourth down
and three and they're thinking, oh, we're fourth and two and we're gonna
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pound it. They shift in thedefense, and now all of a sudden,
Laporta catches in the back of theend, but the linebacker can't cover
them. So it's being creative,knowing your players talents inside and out and
then constantly keeping the defense guessing.So you can have your system and you
can come in with it, butyou better be it. To be productive
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in the NFL, you better becreative. You look at the four teams
that are there now. Shanahan withthe Niners very creative. You've got Dan
Campbell, who allows Ben Johnson,who is probably the most sought after head
coach right now. He's very creativewith the offense in Detroit. Then you've
got Baltimore, and you've got KansasCity. Okay, you know Todd Monkin
with the Ravens offense, Andy Reidwith the Chiefs offense. Gone are the
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days of the two thousand Ravens whenthey had Trent Dilfer and they just hey,
let's just pound it, let's relyon our defense, let's not make
any mistakes. You could go backto the Patriots when they won their first
Super Bowl with Tom Brady as ayoung quarterback. He didn't go out and
do anything crazy. They say,hey, Tom Just don't lose the game
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for us. Okay, you don'tneed to go out and win it,
just don't lose it. We're gonnapound the rock, We're gonna do certain
things. So the Patriots had thedefense when they first won their Super Bowl.
The Ravens had their defense with RayLewis with Trent Dilph as the quarterback
when they won New Super Bowl.Then you even go to the Tampa Bay
Buccaneers with Brad Johnston is the quarterbackand they relied on Warren Sappa and that
great defense to Tony Dungee. Butthey didn't do anything great offensive wise.
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But gone are those days, becausenow the game is about scoring points.
And yes, there's some great defenses. Baltimore has one of the best defense,
San fran has one of the bestdefense, Kansas City not so much,
Detroit not so much. However,all four of those offenses are explosive,
and Detroit's top five offense, SanFran is, Baltimore is, and
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Kansas City is. So you look, you have to be able to control
the football, be creative, scorepoints, and in control time of possession
with that offense, and all fourof those teams can run the football,
and they all can they can theyscore like that and they can. Well,
if you go back, if youreally want to look into football,
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the number one stat between wins andlosses is all versus turnover takeover. Yeah,
so not turn the ball over,take it away. Okay, that's
the number one stat. Number twois third down conversions? Can you convert?
And the way the game has betternow, But the way the game
has gone, all these coaches areyou know, the analytics and analytics are
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coming in. Everyone's going for iton fourth down now or they're not afraid
to anymore. You have to beaggressive. You know. The old days
were like, hey, let's puntit, let's rely on the defense.
Now it's like no, well gohorrible, but that's gone. But what
I'm saying now is the way therules, the rules favor the offense.
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Now. You know, you can'tdo certain things. You it's you can't
play as aggressive on defense. Sonow these offenses are like, hey,
it's more beneficial for us to gofor this, and you know, if
they don't get it, maybe wecan hold them to a field goal.
Right. So system system coach likingMatt Canada as opposed to a creative coach.
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Mike explained it for you very wellthere as the Steelers look at the
offensive coordinator and I'm not going tothrow names out there, but it is
hugely important that you don't get anothercollege system coach. You get a creative
guy that comes in, which MattCanada never did, and says, what
do I gotta cook here? Whatdo I got? I got two great
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running backs. He kept Jalen onthe bench to start. I have two
great wide receivers in Deonte in George. All he could figure out to do
with George to start the season wasrun him down the sideline and throw over
the shoulder. You're getting the pointswell, And that's the thing. So
when you look at offensive coordinators andyou look at the game of football,
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the one thing is college football isfar closer to the high school game and
it is to the NFL game.Those hashes make a big difference. High
school is the widest. It kindof condenses the field for that boundary side,
and even in college so much.But once you get to the NFL,
everything is equal. In the middleof the field. There's talent across
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the board. You can't hide guyshere and there. The game is different.
Okay, it's just flat out different. You have to treat the players
differently. They're grown men. Yougot to respect them, but you may
take a time out there. Yougot to keep rules, hold on,
but you got to keep rules.But my point is is the offensive game
is completely different. But the pointis, and I'm going to go harken
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back to the locker room after KansasCity with ab several years ago when coach
Tomlin join in with the all famousTikTok video we've seen now and none of
them should have been celebrating. Inmy opinion, the game was won on
Boswell's foot. All athletes, allsoldiers, all cub scouts, all girl
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scouts want, all children want discipline. People that are high achievers respond to
and respect discipline. So one ofthe problems, and you talked about that
in the wide receiver room the lastcouple of years is the inmates run in
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the asylum, the children running crazy. I want all great athletes want to
be disciplined. All great fighters loveto be disciplined by a good trainer.
How important is it for Mike Tomlinto quit being friends with these guys and
get a reign of a disciplinarian.I don't know about that, because I
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think I do. Look at thewide receiver room, he's dancing with ab
and then Boswell saved the game.Well, you know, Well, here's
the thing when you when you winin the NFL, it's hard to win,
whether whether the kicker wins it,whether your your corner intercepts one a
sack fumble, whether you're a quarterback, it doesn't matter. When you win,
you win. It's very tough todo. You ever, dance in
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the locker room. You have tocelebrate this. No, we didn't do
dancing in the locker room back then, however, No, so you got
to. You gotta be able tocelebrate those wins. And it's good to
do that. That's there's nothing wrong. Pull up Steelers Nation. It's Tank
and Mike for Steelers chalk talk.A lot of conversation going on right now
about Mike, this coach, thatcoach. Steely mcbeam needs a new coach
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because Steely lost his enthusiasm last year. How are you gonna take over for
him? I'd love to be Steelymcbeam for one year. Maybe i'd lose
a lot of weight, get downto like one fort They scare of the
kids. I terrify the kids.There's no doubt about that. All Right,
I want to talk about the offensiveline play again at nauseum. Since
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Mike Munchak left, it's been indisarray. I don't know if you remember
when Adrian Clem Adrian and Clem wasso bad two years ago, three years
ago, they sent him packing beforethe season was over and said, kid,
you're not ready for prime time andthey sent him out to Oregon for
the Ducks to coach. Now,Coach Ron, your current offensive line coach.
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I've met him. I like theman. I'm not saying that this
is not a personal attack. However, there were rumblings this week, how
you don't think, guy, Therewere rumblings this week that the Steelers are
gonna keep Pat Meyer. You can'tdo it. You shouldn't do it.
Now. I heard a lot ofguys say this week in the media,
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well, you know, the offensiveline got better this year, they got
a little bit better. We shouldkeep Pat Meyer. You sure did,
because Progerick Jones is a talent.Okay, However, I think you need
a complete You gotta get a MikeMunchik back in here. They are so
off in their fundamental skills. Mike'sheard me go through this litany many times,
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how important it was when you're playingfor the Lions or Eagles or Vikings
for that offensive line to keep youruniform nice and code. Well, everything
starts with the with the old line. And that's where they say that again.
That's where everything starts with the oldline. Say it again. That's
where you win the games. Youand and back when I played our Lions,
our offensive line was not very goodand it made things. Weren't they
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good? Uh, numerous reasons.But now they've got Now they've got one
of the best old lines. They'regood with the talent they have, they're
good with the scheme they have,they're good with the technique they have.
And Uh, and they drafted well, they drafted well and and develop those
guys. But when you look atit, you know, the steel what
they did improve the last three fouror five weeks of the season. They
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definitely improved running the football. Uh. But I'm not so sure. You
just got to go out and findan O line guy. I think you
got to and you don't have toget rid of the guy right now that
you have. Uh, you know, you got to go out and find
the O C that you want andand then the OC's got to be like,
look, this is what I wantto do. We want to be
a little bit more of a powerteam. We want to be a little
bit more of a zone. You'retalking sea side zone out, you're talking
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scheme, but you got to talkingfundamentally. You've got to have a guy
that can coach the scheme with thefundamentals with in that scheme. Okay,
So with that being said, maybeyou keep them as an assistant. I
mean, look, there's a lotof teams out there that have assistants and
assistants and assistants. Maybe that stillit's time to do. Is bringing an
O line guy that you're like,all right, this is he does well,
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but now I'm gonna go get aguy, another guy that helps out
with him and can maybe give bea little bit more pure technique type stuff.
You can't have enough guys to helpout with the old line because you
know, it's one of the biggestunits on the field. You got five
of them on the field at thesame time. There's no other you know,
position group unless you're going corners withthe you know, nickelbacks. And
safeties and stuff. However, uh, the O line is one of the
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most important positions in all football,and so you have to have a guy
that's confident in coaching the technique,within the scheme get the OC wants to
go. So once you hire theOC, now it's his decision on who
he wants to keep or who hewants as his O line coach. And
quite honestly, he's gotta sit downand he's gonna have a trust in him.
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He has to know that that guyknows that scheme inside and out,
because he can't be going back andforth to the QB because the OC is
gonna be he's gonna spend some timewith the qbs, he's gonna spend some
time with the receivers. You know. He doesn't want to be going back
and forth to all these different rooms, the old line room. So he
has to have a guy he cantrust. If he does, then great,
But if you're going to force himto keep a guy that maybe he's
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like, yeah, I don't knowif i'm that offensive coordinator, I'm a
little hesitant to take that job becausenow, all of a sudden, when
the old line is not performing tothe standard, that you expect him to.
You can't do the things offensive wisewith the skill guys that you want,
So ultimately it's gonna come down towhoever you hire as the OC.
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Is he comfortable with the new withthe with the old o line coach.
Does he want to go get anew guy. Does he want to maybe
keep him as an assistant to thenew guy. I'm fine with that,
but it's gonna ultimately come down tothe uh, the offensive coordinator, And
I hope Mike is right about that. Again, the delineation is the scheme
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compared to the fundamental skills. Idon't even see the fundamental skills. I've
gone through it with Mike several times. Ron Meyer, the offensive line coach,
isn't even teaching the basic techniques theway I understand them. It's got
to start with your feet. It'sgot to start with your hands. Your
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head is always on a swivel,you know, when you guys are watching
the game and alignment are pumping backand are pushing off like this. Too
many times the Steelers stay locked onto the man in front of him.
Your head has to be on aswivel. You pass people off as a
linebacker, coming is at safety,coming up the a gap. They don't
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even do the fundamentals correctly. I'mall about what you said. Let THEOC,
if he's a good one, comein decide if he's gonna keep the
offensive line coach, which I don'tthink he should. But seriously, if
you want to really get this teamto the AFC Championship, Mike said,
the offensive line is the most importantunit on the offense out there. Ain't
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the quarterback. If we ain't gotno line, their technique is horrible.
Please Pittsburgh Steelers, call Mike Munchak, pay them whatever you want, Get
Russ Grimm down here, put themon a golf cart, because both of
those gentlemen are old school techniques.I'm out passing game going a little bit
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better in Baltimore, which helps Lamar, and now he's not taking quite as
many hits. He's still running.But it's it's it's kind of a it's
kind of a gel a transformation ofmultiple systems, and you have to be
constantly being creative disguising things because ifyou just line up and play the way
they do in the college game,you're gonna get dustin. You're gonna get
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get because the are narrower, youhave to be creative. Faster balls almost
always in the middle of the fieldin the NFL, so you have to
be able to explode from tight sets, come up and come out wide,
shrink it down in use multiple guys. You look at Detroit last week,
they had three tight ends. Theygo for it on fourth down. Shouldn't
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have spuffed that cigar. Pick itup with three two one tight ends,
So you know, you got tobe creative with the tight ends. You
look at you know Detroit, youknow two weeks ago against the Rams,
they they go goal line, it'sfourth down. They come in heavy with
three tight ends and extra linemen andyou're like, oh, they're gonna run
it. They're gonna run it.Then all of a sudden they shift and
all three tight ends run out intoa wide bunch. And now because they
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shift, they brought in all thesetight ends and the extra lineman. No,
the defense, No, the defensebrought in the heavy personnel defense.
And the one thing that Detroit hasis some tight ends that cannot only block,
but they can run. And youlook at the porter, so they
shift them out wide. Now theygot linebackers out there covering Laporter runs Atlance
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or a post route on the linebacker, and it was a gimme. It
was fourth down and three and they'rethinking, oh, we're fourth and two
and we're gonna pound it. Theyshift in the defense and now all of
a sudden, Laporta catches in theback of the end and the linebacker can't
cover him. So it's being creative, knowing your players talents inside and out
and then constantly keeping the defense guessing. So you can't have your system and
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you can come in with it,but you better be it. To be
productive in the NFL, you betterbe creative. You look at the four
teams that are there now. Shanahanwith the Niners very creative. You've got
Dan Campbell, who allows Ben Johnson, who is probably the most sought after
head coach right now. He's verycreative with the offense in Detroit. Then
you've got Baltimore, and you've gotKansas City. Okay, you know Todd
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Monkin with the Ravens offense, AndyReid with the Chiefs offense. Gone are
the days of the two thousand Ravenswhen they had Trent Dilfher and they just
hey, let's just pound it.Let's rely on our defense. Let's not
make any mistakes. You could goback to the Patriots when they won their
first Super Bowl with Tom Brady asa young quarterback. He didn't go out
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and do anything crazy. They said, hey, Tom, just don't lose
the game for us. Okay,you don't need to go out and win
it. Just don't lose it.We're gonna pound the rock, We're gonna
do certain things. So the Patriotshad the defense when they first won the
Super Bowl. The Ravens had theirdefense with Ray Lewis with Trent Dilph as
the quarterback when they won new SuperBowl. Then you even go to the
Tampa Bay Buccaneers with Brad Johnson asthe quarterback and they relied on Warren Sappa
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that great defense to Tony Dungee.But they didn't do anything great offensive wise.
But gone are those days, becausenow the game is about scoring points.
And yes there's some great defense.As Baltimore has one of the best
defense, San Fran has one ofthe best defense, Kansas City not so
much, Detroit not so much.However, all four of those offense are
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explosive, and Detroit's top five offense. San Fran is, Baltimore is,
and Kansas City is. So youlook, you have to be able to
control the football, be creative,score points, and in control time of
possession with that offense. And allfour of those teams can run the football,
(28:21):
and they all can. They canthey score like that and they can.
Well, if you go back,if you really want to look into
football, and the number one statbetween wins and losses is all turn First
is turnover takeover, so not turnthe ball over, take it away.
Okay, that's the number one stat. Number two is third down conversions?
(28:41):
Can you convert? And the waythe game has better now, but the
way the game has gone, allthese coaches are you know, the analytics
and analytics are coming in. Everyone'sgoing forward on fourth down now or they're
not afraid to anymore. You haveto be aggressive. You know. The
old days were like, hey,let's punt it, let's reli on defense.
Now it's like no, well arethe les horrible? But that's not.
(29:07):
But what I'm saying now is theway the rules, the rules favor
the offense. Now. You knowyou can't do certain things. You it's
you can't play as aggressive on defense. So now these offenses like, Hey,
it's more beneficial for us to gofor this, and you know,
if they don't get it, maybewe can hold them to a field goal.
(29:27):
Right, So, system system coachlike in Matt Canada as opposed to
a creative coach. Mike explained itfor you very well there as the Steelers
look at the offensive coordinator and I'mnot going to throw names out there,
but it is hugely important that youdon't get another college system coach. You
(29:49):
get a creative guy that comes in, which Matt Canada never did and says,
what do I gotta click here?What do I got? I got
too great unning backs? He keptJalen on the bench to start. I
have two great wide receivers in Deontein George. All he could figure out
(30:10):
to do with George to start theseason was run him down the sideline and
throw over the shoulder. Well,you're getting the points. Well, And
that's the thing. So when youlook at offensive coordinators and you look at
the game of football, the onething is college football is far closer to
the high school game than it isto the NFL game. Those hashes make
(30:33):
a big difference. High school isthe widest. It kind of condenses the
field for that boundary side, andeven in college so much. But once
you get to the NFL, everythingis equal in the middle of the field.
There's talent across the board. Youcan't hide guys here and there.
The game is different. Okay,it's just flat out different. You have
to treat the players differently. They'regrown men. You got to respect them.
(30:57):
But you may take a time outthere. You gotta keep rules,
hold on, but you got tokeep rules. But my point is is
the offensive game is completely different.So if you're gonna go out and find
an offensive coordinator that's gonna turn thisthing around, I would totally advise going
for a guy that has been inthe NFL for years as opposed to a
(31:18):
guy that's been successful in college.I agree with you. The reason I
time timed you out there. Holdon, it's like I'm been drinking at
the bar. I do this allthe time. Rules run, yeah,
discipline three to one. The reasonI timed Mike out there, And I
agree with you. I mean,you're grown men. You better be at
(31:40):
this point. You're a professional athlete. But the point is, and I'm
gonna go harken back to the lockerroom after Kansas City with Ab several years
ago, and coach Tomlin join inwith the all famous TikTok video we've seen
now, and none of them shouldhave been celebrating. In my opinion,
the game was won on bos Wellsfoot. All athletes, all soldiers,
(32:04):
all cub scouts, all girl scoutswant all children want discipline. People that
are high achievers respond to and respectdiscipline. So one of the problems,
and you talked about that in awide receiver room the last couple of years,
is the inmates running the asylum,the children running crazy. I want
(32:30):
all great athletes want to be disciplined. All great fighters love to be disciplined
by a good trainer. How importantis it for Mike Tomlin to quit being
friends with these guys and get areign of a disciplinarian. I don't know
about that, because I think Ido. Look at the wide receiver room,
(32:50):
he's dancing with Ab and then Boswellsaved the game. Well, you
know, all right, three twoone, hut up Lions Nation. It's
Tank and Mike for Lions chalk talk. It is a foggy day out in
the bouts. But I tell youwhat it's gonna be foggy in San Francisco
too, is a Lions roar intoSan Francisco. Mike, you excited for
(33:12):
the game? No, i am. The fog should be you know,
worn off by three by three,you know, by six thirty pm kickoff,
So it should be good. Weathershould be decent, you know,
so they shouldn't have to worry aboutyou know, the reporter down in Tampa
asking about the weather fact. Yeah, yeah, yeah, right, but
you know it'll it'll be similar.I'm not quite the Dome atmosphere. However,
(33:35):
I'm excited for the Lions. Ithink they have a great opportunity ahead
of them and this is just onemore step in the right direction to get
to the ultimate goal, Lion's Nation. This is what you've been waiting for
for thirty years. And kudos tocoach Dan Campbell and the leadership there in
Detroit. You know, Mike,coach Campbell got a great award today,
(33:57):
but you don't think he's done yet. No, you know, he's got
obviously the NFC Coach of the Yearaward. I think he's deserving of the
NFL Coach of the Year award whathe's done with Detroit in the past three
season and how he's changed things,how he's changed the culture, how he's
got those guys believing, how he'staken on the identity of the city in
itself. That's why the Detroit fansare so proud of their Lions. The
(34:22):
whole team has completely taken on thatblue collar work ethic. Yeah, it's
not gonna be pretty, it's notgonna be perfect, but we're gonna keep
on going. We're gonna keep onputting one foot in front of the other
and just finding a way to getit done. All right, As we
look at the match up between theforty nine Ers of San Francisco and yep,
Detroit Lions. This explosive Detroit Lionsoffense, well, Mike, it's
(34:46):
literally a battle of number two andthree of the best offenses in the league.
How do you see the Lions offensematching up against Well, Well,
you know they've got They've got,you know, one of the best d
lines, one of the best passrushes in the Lake. You got you
know, Bosa and newly acquired ChaseYoung. Uh So, what you're gonna
(35:07):
need to do is you're gonna haveto get that ball quick. Also,
potentially the best NFL linebacker in thegame with Warner. Uh he is.
You gotta let you know. Youlove his style play, You love how
he plays the game. He studiesthe game. He's a natural leader.
Uh. He's a guy that couldtotally suit up for the Detroit Lions.
(35:28):
Uh. You know, he wouldtake on that identity and be a perfect
guy. How do you neutralize him? Mike, You gotta you gotta get
that big ol'd lineman getting on there. Make sure that you uh you,
you gotta get to that second levelin the blocking. Last week when the
Lions played the Bucks early in thegame, you saw a penalty and I
was like, wait, what isgoing on? What they called defensive holding,
(35:53):
not on a pass play, buton a run play. And then
they show it and the d linemanwas grabbing the center of guard. Forget
who it was they were grabbing,not trying to not allow him to get
up to the linebacker to that secondlevel. That's what I think san fran
Is gonna try to do. Youhave to be able to slow down that
(36:15):
pass rush, So either run rightat Bosa, run right at Young,
but at the same time get upto that second level and try to get
a body on Fred Warner. Youdon't want him running free. A guy
can run sideline and sideline, hecan cover, he can do it all.
However, you got to utilize thatplay action pass. You got to
get one or two steps for himto step up. Think it's run.
(36:38):
You got to get that run gamegoing early. Make sure he jumps in
there. Hey it's running. Nope, now you pull it out. Now
you got Amaran Saint Brown on thatsecond level in between above the linebackers in
front of the safeties, or yougot Jamison Williams blowing off the top coverage.
You got Josh Reynolds, you know, kind of you know, just
(36:59):
weaving his way through the coverage.And then you got Sam Laporter working through.
So you got to get that rungame early, going early, and
you have to utilize the play actionpass. And one thing the Lions do
is when they utilize that play actionpass, one that slows down the pass
rus But Goff does a very nicejob of coming off that fake and then
still getting the ball out quick.He doesn't hold on to it very long.
(37:21):
So I think that is the keyis getting that ball out quick slowan
then that pressures kind of kind oftaking away the Moraley like, I'm gonna
get a sack. I'm gonna geta sack. I'm gonna get man,
he's getting the ball so quick.What's the point of me rushing? And
then eventually then you can take yourshots downfield. But it's gonna be a
tough task. But I think theymatch up well. You got Montgomery,
(37:42):
he's a little bit of a thumper, the pounder. Then you got Gibbs
and you saw what he can do. Oh you get that little one on
one on the safety. That safetyhad no chance. Gibbs just you know,
a little shake and he's gone andyou can't catch him. I would
love to see with Jamison Williams andGibbs maybe in the off season. I
would love to see a chair,you know, one hundred yard dash between
both of them because there's so muchspeed on that team. But again,
(38:05):
back to the run relyne that Oline. You gotta love what Ragnell did
this past week playing on a hardpure harmdl pure hard and then the fight
on the goal line on fourth andone for fighting and so that's old school
football, but that's that's the identityof the Detroit Lions. And when you
do that the whole team. Thatjust lifts them up to another level.
(38:30):
Love Jared Goff how he's playing.I love what he's been through and just
never complain and keeps on and keepson playing hard. Uh. Even drafting
a guy hand to hooker in thethird round to maybe develop it for the
future didn't faz him. I'm gonnacome out, this is my team and
I'm gonna take this team to thesuper Bowl. When you look at the
matchup, I think it's the matchupof the week. Mike's talking about the
(38:52):
front rush of the forty nine ersagainst the arguably the best offensive line in
the league right now. You know, we all love the pass game,
we all love the splash play,but the old tanker here I love now
getting in there fighting with the offensiveline. To me, that's going to
be the art form that defines thisgame for the Lions offensively this week.
(39:15):
Hopefully raight Now is healthy going intoit. Laparda seems to be getting healthier
every week. But that battle upfront this week is going to be absolutely
epic. As Mike mentioned, gettingthose play actions, it's almost an art
form for golf. The way hedoes it, it is so smooth.
(39:35):
Well, most teams when they dothat play action, Yeah, in fact,
they hold the ball, they pushthe ball downfield a little deeper.
Detroit will take their shots down thefield and they will do those chunk plays,
you know, twenty thirty forty yardsdownfield, those deep crossers. They'll
go for their post shots. However, they will still utilize the play action
and then take maybe a ten oran eight yard stop route, dig route,
(40:00):
and a spear route quick quick inbreakingroute, he gets his eyes around
so fast and he knows where thatreceiver is going to be. It would
that does is that it forces theother team's safeties to come up inside.
And then what that does is openup the top with Jamison Williams or Josh
Reynolds or a guy like that.You know, before we went on air,
(40:22):
Mike and I were talking about thenecessity of a very creative and innovative
offensive coordinator. I mean, he'sgot it going on. Man, He's
got all the tools there that heneeds to cook with. But that is
one smart cookie. I love whathe's doing. Last year, he had
some head coaches interviews that eventually hestopped and said, you know what I
(40:42):
want to be a part of theLions organization. I want to stay here.
I want to see this through.I know he's kind of the hot
name right now, as well asAaron Glenn. I'm hoping that no one
tries to steal them or pluck themaway because I love this staff. I
love the coordinators. I love whatDan Campbell has done. He's got a
(41:05):
lot of former players. I lovethe creativity across the board on both offense
and defense, and how they bothmix things up. You know, two
weeks ago against the Rams, yousaw the Lions do a lot more heavy
pressure with Aaron Glenn. This weekthey did a little bit more too high
safety to try and confuse Baker takeaway those receivers. Tampa didn't have the
running attack that other teams have.So I love the creative I just hope
(41:29):
they keep them around and potentially,you know, get to the Super Bowl
this year, maybe win it,but then build off of that for the
next few years to come. I'mnot ready for those guys to leave town
yet. Hopefully, hopefully they seetheir value as well. You know,
there was a rumor that Ben Johnsonwill ask for fifteen million to become a
head coach he should be asking fortwenty million because the Lions should just up
(41:53):
his salary a little bit. Howmuch money do you need if you're coaching
football and you love the game everyday. Yeah, you're gonna take care
of your family. But you know, let's give him a little extra.
Let's give him a little extra change. Keep him in Detroit, you know,
for the next four or five years, and eventually down the road he
can leave. But right after wehang the World Championship, huddle up,
Lion's nation. It's Tank and Mikefor Lions. Chock talk all right,
(42:15):
the Buccaneers, the sheeps from LAI advised you that if I was the
DC, how to win both thosegames. And I'm gonna polish off my
lion's hut because I was correct.I told you you had to get Stafford
off his mark. That came trueat the end of the game with that
Aaron throw. I was sure thatif you put the pressure and doubt up
(42:39):
the bliss packages on mister Baker there, that he was gonna crumble. I
loved that defensive performance last week.Well what they did, though, was
they mix it in well with sometoo high safety look as well, forcing
him not be able to bush itdown the field. But then you saw
a lot of those little slot blitzerin and credit the defense for timing that
(43:00):
up and hitting it at the righttime. It worked a couple times to
stop the run. It worked acouple times. Baker was like, I
own to no where to go withthe football. They were just getting in
their way too quick timed up.It was so it was late enough that
the O line couldn't make the adjustment, but it was quick enough before he
could get the football off. Soit was perfectly timed. Brilliant defense.
(43:22):
Brilliant defense by the Lions to getthem into the NFC Championship game. Well,
let's be frank about it as welook at this high octane San Francisco
forty nine ers offense ranked number twoin the league this year for offensive performance.
They've got all the weapons. Whoin the NFL wouldn't love to have
Christian McCaffrey on their roster. So, Mike, I'll throw it to you.
(43:45):
If you were the quarterback of theforty nine ers this week, what
would you be going after on theLions defense? Would you pound the ball?
Would you go downfield? Would youattack the flats? Would you attack
the post or would be a myriadbecause they are a symphony of an offensive
times. Well, I don't believeit's necessarily gonna be the quarterback that's attacking.
(44:07):
I think what you're gonna do isyou're gonna get the little You're gonna
get the mad scientists, you know, with Kyle Shanahan, you know,
trying to dictate things as far aswhere that ball is gonna go. Obviously,
they're gonna try to get Christian McCaffreytouches. They're gonna try to get
(44:27):
mismatches with him. I think theLions need to try to stop the run
with McCaffrey. Don't allow any bigexplosive plays there. The key though,
is stopping him in the past becauseif I'm the Niners, I would try
to get McCaffrey singled up on oneof those linebackers. Now, he's a
running back. However, he isgood enough to run with a few dvs.
(44:50):
Do you really want that? No, however, can he do it?
Yeah? He might win here andthere, but you don't want to
get him matched up on a linebacker. That's where it can get trouble.
So you might have to combo hima few times, maybe get a safety
helping over it. I would takemy chances with the secondary. Now.
I know they've got Ayuk. Iknow Debo's fifty to fifty right now.
(45:13):
Hey, I'm hoping maybe he youknow, it's a little no fracture right
now, but maybe maybe just ading you know, like a little ding
up. Like nothing that's gonna takehim out, Nothing that's gonna take him
out and have to require surgery,but something that's been like it's an owl,
and I got to sit out thenext three quarters because you know,
when we saw green Bay last week, and once Debo got out of the
game, Green Babel was able todo a few things. Green Bay looked
(45:37):
great, like they did green Baylook great. I love Jordan, love
me, but the Lions are gonnahave to be able to I would love
to see them get a hot startlike they typically do, get off to
that hot start offense. So maybeget yeah, get off to a hot
start early and then be able tokeep that mix going. They do a
great job of putting together drives,controlling the clock, letting shortening the game
(46:02):
and not allowing uh obviously, Imean the Niners are number two in offense.
The Lions were number three in offensefor the regular season this year.
But I think it's doing large partobviously to McCaffrey. You've got Deebo it
depends if he plays or not,a Yuk and then you've got George Kittle
as well. So it's a toughbut you're gonna have to get creative,
(46:23):
you're gonna mix things up, andyou're gonna have to get pressure on Purty
because I think as a quarterback,when you get pressure, that's it's it's
a lot easier to play when youhave all day back there and if you
can get pressure earl, not notlate, but early. You know,
remember a couple of years ago whenSam Darnold played for the Jackerson by somebody's
(46:45):
kneecaps, I'm off for smile withthem and just hit him back. That's
right, baby. Remember at theend of the day, football, regardless
of what Roger Goofball get Out thinks, it's still about hitting. So that's
what Tank thinks about. What theline it's got to do to beat the
Niners, and that is unleash holyhell on them and make this a physical
(47:06):
football game. Defensively, final score, go ahead quarterback oh Man I don't
like doing scores, but m let'sgo twenty seven twenty I'm gonna say twenty
(47:29):
seven twenty one lions. That's funny. I was going twenty seven to twenty
four based on a defense that's gonnabring well the wrath of Mother Nature down
on them, twenty four for theforty nine ers, and Sweetheart, I'll
see you on the face strip intwo weeks, I'm going goodbye.
Three two one. Pull up SteelersNation. It's Tank and Mike for Steelers
Chuk Talk. It is a foggy, ominous day here in Pittsburgh. You
know, Mike, it would bea great setting for an AFC championship behind
us in ac Resuore Stadium this weekend. Not gonna happen. All the eyes
(00:21):
of the world this week. Ifyou love football, this is your weekend,
the NFC, the AFC. Youknow, Mike, there's not a
lot to talk about with the Steelersright now, yep. A lot about
who the OC is gonna be,what's going on the big press conference,
about how there's gonna be changes nowif you watch the show, you know,
for I got nuts over the offensiveline that's been horrible since Mike Munchek
(00:46):
left. Mike, I'm gonna askyou a question. I think I know
who your favorite coach was ever inthe NFL. Who is it? Oh?
Are you talking position coach? Headcoach all time? That's hard?
Got rid of mustache, looks likeAndy Reid said? Okay, Andy Reid,
So why do you like coach readWell, he's just very creative with
(01:08):
the offense. It's never gets stale, never just spin around last. Constantly,
he's constantly trying to uh remain onestep ahead of the competition. And
what he does a lot of timesis he goes back and watches old films,
back from the fifties and sixties becausenow, you know, it's kind
of like a rotation, is kindof like style. You know, you
(01:30):
look at the eighties style and thenineties the bright neons, and it kind
of comes in rotations, the bellbombs and then eventually comes back in style
again. So the off the footballoffensive wise, a lot of the you
know, you got to the spreadgame, but now all of a sudden,
these guys are going to the hybridlinebackers, these faster linebackers. So
how do you combat that. Youget back to the run game. You
(01:52):
pound the football, and you gotto get the creative. Now they don't
have the Tyreek Hill the Chiefs,you know, so now they got to
get creative. They have Isaiah Patakiowho runs great, but they become a
more balanced team than they have inthe past five years. Okay, I
like that. I like that assessment. What makes a good coach? You
know, I've asked this question toyou know, guys that played eighth grade
(02:15):
football, high school football along theway, it could be baseball, wrestling.
You know, we all remember ourgreat coaches, like Mike did.
He actually had a rolodex to gothrough. You know what are bad coaches
stick out with us too? I'mnot gonna go through my litany right now.
There's one guy in particular, andMike, I'm sure if I said,
who's your worst coach ever, he'sin there. Well, you're not
(02:37):
gonna name, you know, buthe's in there, right, Yeah,
of course why was he a badcoach? A lot of times it's just,
you know, it's a little bitstubbornness. It's my way or the
highway. They don't know how toget their players to play for them,
play for them. You know,you look at Dan Campbell coming in with
the Lions. He changed the culture. You got the team and it's not
fake with Dan Campbell, He's verypassionate about it. The player can tell
(03:00):
if it's fake or if it's truepassion, and so that's why they are
playing it the way they're playing.Coach Tomlin does a great job of motive,
motivating the men. However, youknow, he's more of a defensive
mindset and he can motivate the guys. However, he needs a guy offensive
wise that can kind of put thosepieces together, be creative and keep defenses
(03:23):
off guard, and you know,change a little, you know, a
couple of wrinkles week to week.Be creative with the pieces you have.
You got two running backs, NauseHarris and Warren. You've got Pickens,
You've got Deontay Johnson. You're patBryermouth. He should be He's extremely talented,
but he should be touching the footballa lot more similar to the way
(03:45):
Kittle Kelsey Laporta up in Detroit.You got to look at those guys and
and you look at the even theteams that are left the final four.
You got Laporta for the for theLions. You have for the Niners,
you had Mark Andrews, who's comingback from injury, but Isaiah likely even
stepped into that rule for them big. And then you have Travis Kelce.
(04:08):
So the tight ends are very goodin the last final four teams. Pat
Ryermuth has that talent. You gotto get him involved in the offense.
So what I was going at wasthere's good you going yeah, well,
no, you know, you gotto think through these things. There's good
coaches, there's average coaches, andthere's great coaches. One of them has
(04:29):
his name on the Super Bowl Trophy, a guy named Lombardi. As you
assess the Steelers' offensive needs going intotwenty twenty four, we keep hearing a
lot. Something's gotta change, something'sgot Obviously. Now, I'm not gonna
go in like I always do aboutTodd Haley, Randy Fiekner and Matt Canada.
Those experiments have failed for the lastten years. So Mike, if
(04:55):
we're going to reach out and youwent through, I mean we're loaded at
offensive time, yes, skilled positions. If Mike McMahon is head coach the
Pittsburgh Steelers right now, what areyou looking for in an offensive coordinator?
Who ain't your best buddy, ain'tyour friend from college, didn't matter that
he's stunk, but you wanted togive him a job anyway, Or you
(05:18):
hired within the organization because you can'tyou're cheap and won't hire somebody if I
gave you a blind check, isSteelers head coach? What he not?
Who are you looking for? Whatare you looking for? You know,
I'm looking for a guy that's creative, that has a little bit of a
run game background. I know they'vetalked about Cliff Kingsbury coming back from the
(05:38):
Arizona Cardinals and from the USC lastyear. He was an analystic QB coach
with the USC last year as thehead coach with the Cardinals. But you
you know, and I think he'she's a good coach, but if you
look at their past and what they'vedone, yeah, they put up some
points. However, you know,he's more of a system type coach that
you know, was a disciple ofMike Lee, which is typically more of
(06:00):
a college style system. And thenthe next guy you hear they're looking about
is the the Carolina Panthers, Pantherscoach from this past the offense Quiney from
this past season, And when youlook at them, like, I don't
know if that's the answer, becausethere was one of the bottom offenses in
the league, you know, youknow, taking that look, I'm not
(06:20):
sure I'm gonna go And I'm gonnalook to one of the younger guys that
learned underneath Shanahan. And I'm notjust saying just not only Cal Shannan,
but Mike Shannan. You look whatMike Shanahan has done. You know,
he's got his son Cal, hehas Sean McVay, he has Matt Lafleur
(06:43):
the coach. He has Mike McDaniel. So when you look at that,
Okay, so you got Mike McDanieldown in Miami, you had Sean McVay
in Los Angeles, you have CayleShanahan and San Francisco. You have Matt
Lefloor, who is in Green Bay. All four of those teams were in
the playoffs past year. Okay,the Rams started off ugly, but they
found a way to get in andnow they're not there now. Mike McDaniels
(07:06):
in Miami, he was one ofthe most explosive offenses. Now they lost
to the Chiefs. But my pointis is those guys are very creative offensive
ways. Now they became head coaches, you got to go find a guy
that maybe learned underneath them, thatkind of has that. Okay, how
did this coach think, How doesShanahan think, How does the Floor think?
How does McDaniel think and McVeigh andhow do they decide to design a
(07:30):
game plan? How do they goin each week? A guy that's worked
with them for two, three,four, years and has been underneath them.
Well, that starts to rub off. Okay, you start to realize
that you'll get even Andy Reid.Andy Reid has a coaching tree. Went
up against his, you know,former coach last week, Sean McVay up
in Buffalo, or not Sean McVay, I'm sorry, Sean McDermott up in
Buffalo. He was a d guyunderneath Andy Reid, and now all of
(07:50):
a sudden he's going up against anotherformer coach of his, John Harball this
week of the Baltimore Ravens. That'sa Andy Reid coaching tree. So these
guys that are in the playoffs andthat are doing well typically come from a
tree of some sort. You gotto go find one of those guys that
have learned it and then be willingto give them the reins to go,
(08:11):
Hey, this is what I needoffensive wise, this is what I want
to do. These are the coachesI want. I want to bring this
guy in to coach my own line. I want to bring this guy in
to coach my quarterbacks. I wantto bring this guy in to coach my
receivers. And you have to givehim full reign because you know, I
love coach Tom and I love howhe's motivator, but he does stay away
from the offensive side of the footballa little bit, and he needs to
(08:33):
give that power. He's got togive that power to the OC. But
that OC, he's got to becomfortable in doing what he's doing. You
know, one of them, AndI agree with you, Mike. One
of the most important things for youfootball wongs out there, the exes and
those people. Mike mentioned a word, and it's a huge word because it
contrasts with another word you mentioned.A system coach. A system coach,
(08:58):
a coach that brings in his systemas opposed to what would be the word
a creative mind. Yeah. Soso with the creative the difference is a
guy, huge difference. You justhad a guy in there trying to run
it off his failed system with MattCanada, which was garbage. So what
you got is when you guys,when you got a system coach, they
(09:22):
learned the system. However they stickto that system and they stay with it.
They don't know how to adapt offof it. Just when when the
curve ball is thrown at you,when the defenses start making adjustments, you
have to have a guy that canlook at it and be like, Okay,
this is what they're doing. Now, let's get creative. Let's get
(09:43):
bunch sets, let's get motions.Hey, let's instead of motion across the
formation or short motion down in andcome across, let's motion from inside and
motion out with Tyreek Hill and havethem on an explode motion. That way,
they can't double team of there's there'sthings going on in the game.
That's a lot of these guys aredoing because they're getting creative. It's not
(10:05):
because it's some of the stuff youhaven't seen before. It might have been
done years ago, but a lotof stuff you don't haven't seen that McDaniel
McVeigh, Lafleur, Shanahan and evenBen Johnson in Detroit, a lot of
these guys, you haven't seen thisstuff. And even you go look at
what the Ravens are doing. Andwith Todd Monkin and in Baltimore with Lamar,
(10:26):
Yeah, they were running. Theywere running Greg Roman system. There
was more of a college style.But now they've evolved a little bit.
Got that passing game going a littlebit better in Baltimore, which helps Lamar
and now he's not taking quite asmany hits he's still running. But it's
it's it's kind of a it's kindof a gel, a transformation of multiple
systems, and you have to beconstantly being creative disguising things, because if
(10:50):
you just line up and play theway they do in the college game,
you're gonna get dusty. Just getbecause the hashes are narrower, you have
to be creative. Faster ball ends, an extra lineman, and you're like,
Oh, they're gonna run it.They're gonna run it. Then all
of a sudden, they shift andall three tight ends run out into a
wide bunch. And now because theyshift, they brought in all these tight
ends and the extra lineman. No, the defense, No, the defense
(11:13):
brought in the heavy personnel defense.And the one thing that Detroit has is
some tight ends that cannot only block, but they can run routes. And
you look at the porter, sothey shift them out wide. Now they
got linebackers out there covering Laporter runsa glance or a post route on the
linebacker, and it was a itwas a gimme. It was fourth down
and three and they're thinking, oh, we're fourth and two and we're gonna
(11:35):
pound it. They shift in thedefense, and now all of a sudden,
Laporta catches in the back of theend, but the linebacker can't cover
them. So it's being creative,knowing your players talents inside and out and
then constantly keeping the defense guessing.So you can have your system and you
can come in with it, butyou better be it. To be productive
(11:56):
in the NFL, you better becreative. You look at the four teams
that are there now. Shanahan withthe Niners very creative. You've got Dan
Campbell, who allows Ben Johnson,who is probably the most sought after head
coach right now. He's very creativewith the offense in Detroit. Then you've
got Baltimore, and you've got KansasCity. Okay, you know Todd Monkin
with the Ravens offense, Andy Reidwith the Chiefs offense. Gone are the
(12:22):
days of the two thousand Ravens whenthey had Trent Dilfer and they just hey,
let's just pound it, let's relyon our defense, let's not make
any mistakes. You could go backto the Patriots when they won their first
Super Bowl with Tom Brady as ayoung quarterback. He didn't go out and
do anything crazy. They say,hey, Tom Just don't lose the game
(12:43):
for us. Okay, you don'tneed to go out and win it,
just don't lose it. We're gonnapound the rock, We're gonna do certain
things. So the Patriots had thedefense when they first won their Super Bowl.
The Ravens had their defense with RayLewis with Trent Dilph as the quarterback
when they won New Super Bowl.Then you even go to the Tampa Bay
Buccaneers with Brad Johnston is the quarterbackand they relied on Warren Sappa and that
great defense to Tony Dungee. Butthey didn't do anything great offensive wise.
(13:07):
But gone are those days, becausenow the game is about scoring points.
And yes, there's some great defenses. Baltimore has one of the best defense,
San fran has one of the bestdefense, Kansas City not so much,
Detroit not so much. However,all four of those offenses are explosive,
and Detroit's top five offense, SanFran is, Baltimore is, and
(13:28):
Kansas City is. So you look, you have to be able to control
the football, be creative, scorepoints, and in control time of possession
with that offense, and all fourof those teams can run the football,
and they all can they can theyscore like that and they can. Well,
if you go back, if youreally want to look into football,
(13:52):
the number one stat between wins andlosses is all versus turnover takeover. Yeah,
so not turn the ball over,take it away. Okay, that's
the number one stat. Number twois third down conversions? Can you convert?
And the way the game has betternow, But the way the game
has gone, all these coaches areyou know, the analytics and analytics are
(14:13):
coming in. Everyone's going for iton fourth down now or they're not afraid
to anymore. You have to beaggressive. You know. The old days
were like, hey, let's puntit, let's rely on the defense.
Now it's like no, well gohorrible, but that's gone. But what
I'm saying now is the way therules, the rules favor the offense.
(14:35):
Now. You know, you can'tdo certain things. You it's you can't
play as aggressive on defense. Sonow these offenses are like, hey,
it's more beneficial for us to gofor this, and you know, if
they don't get it, maybe wecan hold them to a field goal.
Right. So system system coach likingMatt Canada as opposed to a creative coach.
(15:00):
Mike explained it for you very wellthere as the Steelers look at the
offensive coordinator and I'm not going tothrow names out there, but it is
hugely important that you don't get anothercollege system coach. You get a creative
guy that comes in, which MattCanada never did, and says, what
do I gotta cook here? Whatdo I got? I got two great
(15:22):
running backs. He kept Jalen onthe bench to start. I have two
great wide receivers in Deonte in George. All he could figure out to do
with George to start the season wasrun him down the sideline and throw over
the shoulder. You're getting the pointswell, And that's the thing. So
when you look at offensive coordinators andyou look at the game of football,
(15:46):
the one thing is college football isfar closer to the high school game and
it is to the NFL game.Those hashes make a big difference. High
school is the widest. It kindof condenses the field for that boundary side,
and even in college so much.But once you get to the NFL,
everything is equal. In the middleof the field. There's talent across
(16:07):
the board. You can't hide guyshere and there. The game is different.
Okay, it's just flat out different. You have to treat the players
differently. They're grown men. Yougot to respect them, but you may
take a time out there. Yougot to keep rules, hold on,
but you got to keep rules.But my point is is the offensive game
is completely different. But the pointis, and I'm going to go harken
(16:33):
back to the locker room after KansasCity with ab several years ago when coach
Tomlin join in with the all famousTikTok video we've seen now and none of
them should have been celebrating. Inmy opinion, the game was won on
Boswell's foot. All athletes, allsoldiers, all cub scouts, all girl
(16:55):
scouts want, all children want discipline. People that are high achievers respond to
and respect discipline. So one ofthe problems, and you talked about that
in the wide receiver room the lastcouple of years is the inmates run in
(17:15):
the asylum, the children running crazy. I want all great athletes want to
be disciplined. All great fighters loveto be disciplined by a good trainer.
How important is it for Mike Tomlinto quit being friends with these guys and
get a reign of a disciplinarian.I don't know about that, because I
(17:36):
think I do. Look at thewide receiver room, he's dancing with ab
and then Boswell saved the game.Well, you know, Well, here's
the thing when you when you winin the NFL, it's hard to win,
whether whether the kicker wins it,whether your your corner intercepts one a
sack fumble, whether you're a quarterback, it doesn't matter. When you win,
you win. It's very tough todo. You ever, dance in
(17:56):
the locker room. You have tocelebrate this. No, we didn't do
dancing in the locker room back then, however, No, so you got
to. You gotta be able tocelebrate those wins. And it's good to
do that. That's there's nothing wrong. Pull up Steelers Nation. It's Tank
and Mike for Steelers chalk talk.A lot of conversation going on right now
about Mike, this coach, thatcoach. Steely mcbeam needs a new coach
(18:19):
because Steely lost his enthusiasm last year. How are you gonna take over for
him? I'd love to be Steelymcbeam for one year. Maybe i'd lose
a lot of weight, get downto like one fort They scare of the
kids. I terrify the kids.There's no doubt about that. All Right,
I want to talk about the offensiveline play again at nauseum. Since
(18:40):
Mike Munchak left, it's been indisarray. I don't know if you remember
when Adrian Clem Adrian and Clem wasso bad two years ago, three years
ago, they sent him packing beforethe season was over and said, kid,
you're not ready for prime time andthey sent him out to Oregon for
the Ducks to coach. Now,Coach Ron, your current offensive line coach.
(19:02):
I've met him. I like theman. I'm not saying that this
is not a personal attack. However, there were rumblings this week, how
you don't think, guy, Therewere rumblings this week that the Steelers are
gonna keep Pat Meyer. You can'tdo it. You shouldn't do it.
Now. I heard a lot ofguys say this week in the media,
(19:22):
well, you know, the offensiveline got better this year, they got
a little bit better. We shouldkeep Pat Meyer. You sure did,
because Progerick Jones is a talent.Okay, However, I think you need
a complete You gotta get a MikeMunchik back in here. They are so
off in their fundamental skills. Mike'sheard me go through this litany many times,
(19:45):
how important it was when you're playingfor the Lions or Eagles or Vikings
for that offensive line to keep youruniform nice and code. Well, everything
starts with the with the old line. And that's where they say that again.
That's where everything starts with the oldline. Say it again. That's
where you win the games. Youand and back when I played our Lions,
our offensive line was not very goodand it made things. Weren't they
(20:07):
good? Uh, numerous reasons.But now they've got Now they've got one
of the best old lines. They'regood with the talent they have, they're
good with the scheme they have,they're good with the technique they have.
And Uh, and they drafted well, they drafted well and and develop those
guys. But when you look atit, you know, the steel what
they did improve the last three fouror five weeks of the season. They
(20:29):
definitely improved running the football. Uh. But I'm not so sure. You
just got to go out and findan O line guy. I think you
got to and you don't have toget rid of the guy right now that
you have. Uh, you know, you got to go out and find
the O C that you want andand then the OC's got to be like,
look, this is what I wantto do. We want to be
a little bit more of a powerteam. We want to be a little
bit more of a zone. You'retalking sea side zone out, you're talking
(20:52):
scheme, but you got to talkingfundamentally. You've got to have a guy
that can coach the scheme with thefundamentals with in that scheme. Okay,
So with that being said, maybeyou keep them as an assistant. I
mean, look, there's a lotof teams out there that have assistants and
assistants and assistants. Maybe that stillit's time to do. Is bringing an
O line guy that you're like,all right, this is he does well,
(21:15):
but now I'm gonna go get aguy, another guy that helps out
with him and can maybe give bea little bit more pure technique type stuff.
You can't have enough guys to helpout with the old line because you
know, it's one of the biggestunits on the field. You got five
of them on the field at thesame time. There's no other you know,
position group unless you're going corners withthe you know, nickelbacks. And
safeties and stuff. However, uh, the O line is one of the
(21:37):
most important positions in all football,and so you have to have a guy
that's confident in coaching the technique,within the scheme get the OC wants to
go. So once you hire theOC, now it's his decision on who
he wants to keep or who hewants as his O line coach. And
quite honestly, he's gotta sit downand he's gonna have a trust in him.
(22:02):
He has to know that that guyknows that scheme inside and out,
because he can't be going back andforth to the QB because the OC is
gonna be he's gonna spend some timewith the qbs, he's gonna spend some
time with the receivers. You know. He doesn't want to be going back
and forth to all these different rooms, the old line room. So he
has to have a guy he cantrust. If he does, then great,
But if you're going to force himto keep a guy that maybe he's
(22:23):
like, yeah, I don't knowif i'm that offensive coordinator, I'm a
little hesitant to take that job becausenow, all of a sudden, when
the old line is not performing tothe standard, that you expect him to.
You can't do the things offensive wisewith the skill guys that you want,
So ultimately it's gonna come down towhoever you hire as the OC.
(22:44):
Is he comfortable with the new withthe with the old o line coach.
Does he want to go get anew guy. Does he want to maybe
keep him as an assistant to thenew guy. I'm fine with that,
but it's gonna ultimately come down tothe uh, the offensive coordinator, And
I hope Mike is right about that. Again, the delineation is the scheme
(23:07):
compared to the fundamental skills. Idon't even see the fundamental skills. I've
gone through it with Mike several times. Ron Meyer, the offensive line coach,
isn't even teaching the basic techniques theway I understand them. It's got
to start with your feet. It'sgot to start with your hands. Your
(23:30):
head is always on a swivel,you know, when you guys are watching
the game and alignment are pumping backand are pushing off like this. Too
many times the Steelers stay locked onto the man in front of him.
Your head has to be on aswivel. You pass people off as a
linebacker, coming is at safety,coming up the a gap. They don't
(23:51):
even do the fundamentals correctly. I'mall about what you said. Let THEOC,
if he's a good one, comein decide if he's gonna keep the
offensive line coach, which I don'tthink he should. But seriously, if
you want to really get this teamto the AFC Championship, Mike said,
the offensive line is the most importantunit on the offense out there. Ain't
(24:14):
the quarterback. If we ain't gotno line, their technique is horrible.
Please Pittsburgh Steelers, call Mike Munchak, pay them whatever you want, Get
Russ Grimm down here, put themon a golf cart, because both of
those gentlemen are old school techniques.I'm out passing game going a little bit
(24:36):
better in Baltimore, which helps Lamar, and now he's not taking quite as
many hits. He's still running.But it's it's it's kind of a it's
kind of a gel a transformation ofmultiple systems, and you have to be
constantly being creative disguising things because ifyou just line up and play the way
they do in the college game,you're gonna get dustin. You're gonna get
(24:59):
get because the are narrower, youhave to be creative. Faster balls almost
always in the middle of the fieldin the NFL, so you have to
be able to explode from tight sets, come up and come out wide,
shrink it down in use multiple guys. You look at Detroit last week,
they had three tight ends. Theygo for it on fourth down. Shouldn't
(25:21):
have spuffed that cigar. Pick itup with three two one tight ends,
So you know, you got tobe creative with the tight ends. You
look at you know Detroit, youknow two weeks ago against the Rams,
they they go goal line, it'sfourth down. They come in heavy with
three tight ends and extra linemen andyou're like, oh, they're gonna run
it. They're gonna run it.Then all of a sudden they shift and
all three tight ends run out intoa wide bunch. And now because they
(25:45):
shift, they brought in all thesetight ends and the extra lineman. No,
the defense, No, the defensebrought in the heavy personnel defense.
And the one thing that Detroit hasis some tight ends that cannot only block,
but they can run. And youlook at the porter, so they
shift them out wide. Now theygot linebackers out there covering Laporter runs Atlance
(26:06):
or a post route on the linebacker, and it was a gimme. It
was fourth down and three and they'rethinking, oh, we're fourth and two
and we're gonna pound it. Theyshift in the defense and now all of
a sudden, Laporta catches in theback of the end and the linebacker can't
cover him. So it's being creative, knowing your players talents inside and out
and then constantly keeping the defense guessing. So you can't have your system and
(26:29):
you can come in with it,but you better be it. To be
productive in the NFL, you betterbe creative. You look at the four
teams that are there now. Shanahanwith the Niners very creative. You've got
Dan Campbell, who allows Ben Johnson, who is probably the most sought after
head coach right now. He's verycreative with the offense in Detroit. Then
you've got Baltimore, and you've gotKansas City. Okay, you know Todd
(26:52):
Monkin with the Ravens offense, AndyReid with the Chiefs offense. Gone are
the days of the two thousand Ravenswhen they had Trent Dilfher and they just
hey, let's just pound it.Let's rely on our defense. Let's not
make any mistakes. You could goback to the Patriots when they won their
first Super Bowl with Tom Brady asa young quarterback. He didn't go out
(27:17):
and do anything crazy. They said, hey, Tom, just don't lose
the game for us. Okay,you don't need to go out and win
it. Just don't lose it.We're gonna pound the rock, We're gonna
do certain things. So the Patriotshad the defense when they first won the
Super Bowl. The Ravens had theirdefense with Ray Lewis with Trent Dilph as
the quarterback when they won new SuperBowl. Then you even go to the
Tampa Bay Buccaneers with Brad Johnson asthe quarterback and they relied on Warren Sappa
(27:40):
that great defense to Tony Dungee.But they didn't do anything great offensive wise.
But gone are those days, becausenow the game is about scoring points.
And yes there's some great defense.As Baltimore has one of the best
defense, San Fran has one ofthe best defense, Kansas City not so
much, Detroit not so much.However, all four of those offense are
(28:00):
explosive, and Detroit's top five offense. San Fran is, Baltimore is,
and Kansas City is. So youlook, you have to be able to
control the football, be creative,score points, and in control time of
possession with that offense. And allfour of those teams can run the football,
(28:21):
and they all can. They canthey score like that and they can.
Well, if you go back,if you really want to look into
football, and the number one statbetween wins and losses is all turn First
is turnover takeover, so not turnthe ball over, take it away.
Okay, that's the number one stat. Number two is third down conversions?
(28:41):
Can you convert? And the waythe game has better now, but the
way the game has gone, allthese coaches are you know, the analytics
and analytics are coming in. Everyone'sgoing forward on fourth down now or they're
not afraid to anymore. You haveto be aggressive. You know. The
old days were like, hey,let's punt it, let's reli on defense.
Now it's like no, well arethe les horrible? But that's not.
(29:07):
But what I'm saying now is theway the rules, the rules favor
the offense. Now. You knowyou can't do certain things. You it's
you can't play as aggressive on defense. So now these offenses like, Hey,
it's more beneficial for us to gofor this, and you know,
if they don't get it, maybewe can hold them to a field goal.
(29:27):
Right, So, system system coachlike in Matt Canada as opposed to
a creative coach. Mike explained itfor you very well there as the Steelers
look at the offensive coordinator and I'mnot going to throw names out there,
but it is hugely important that youdon't get another college system coach. You
(29:49):
get a creative guy that comes in, which Matt Canada never did and says,
what do I gotta click here?What do I got? I got
too great unning backs? He keptJalen on the bench to start. I
have two great wide receivers in Deontein George. All he could figure out
(30:10):
to do with George to start theseason was run him down the sideline and
throw over the shoulder. Well,you're getting the points. Well, And
that's the thing. So when youlook at offensive coordinators and you look at
the game of football, the onething is college football is far closer to
the high school game than it isto the NFL game. Those hashes make
(30:33):
a big difference. High school isthe widest. It kind of condenses the
field for that boundary side, andeven in college so much. But once
you get to the NFL, everythingis equal in the middle of the field.
There's talent across the board. Youcan't hide guys here and there.
The game is different. Okay,it's just flat out different. You have
to treat the players differently. They'regrown men. You got to respect them.
(30:57):
But you may take a time outthere. You gotta keep rules,
hold on, but you got tokeep rules. But my point is is
the offensive game is completely different.So if you're gonna go out and find
an offensive coordinator that's gonna turn thisthing around, I would totally advise going
for a guy that has been inthe NFL for years as opposed to a
(31:18):
guy that's been successful in college.I agree with you. The reason I
time timed you out there. Holdon, it's like I'm been drinking at
the bar. I do this allthe time. Rules run, yeah,
discipline three to one. The reasonI timed Mike out there, And I
agree with you. I mean,you're grown men. You better be at
(31:40):
this point. You're a professional athlete. But the point is, and I'm
gonna go harken back to the lockerroom after Kansas City with Ab several years
ago, and coach Tomlin join inwith the all famous TikTok video we've seen
now, and none of them shouldhave been celebrating. In my opinion,
the game was won on bos Wellsfoot. All athletes, all soldiers,
(32:04):
all cub scouts, all girl scoutswant all children want discipline. People that
are high achievers respond to and respectdiscipline. So one of the problems,
and you talked about that in awide receiver room the last couple of years,
is the inmates running the asylum,the children running crazy. I want
(32:30):
all great athletes want to be disciplined. All great fighters love to be disciplined
by a good trainer. How importantis it for Mike Tomlin to quit being
friends with these guys and get areign of a disciplinarian. I don't know
about that, because I think Ido. Look at the wide receiver room,
(32:50):
he's dancing with Ab and then Boswellsaved the game. Well, you
know, all right, three twoone, hut up Lions Nation. It's
Tank and Mike for Lions chalk talk. It is a foggy day out in
the bouts. But I tell youwhat it's gonna be foggy in San Francisco
too, is a Lions roar intoSan Francisco. Mike, you excited for
(33:12):
the game? No, i am. The fog should be you know,
worn off by three by three,you know, by six thirty pm kickoff,
So it should be good. Weathershould be decent, you know,
so they shouldn't have to worry aboutyou know, the reporter down in Tampa
asking about the weather fact. Yeah, yeah, yeah, right, but
you know it'll it'll be similar.I'm not quite the Dome atmosphere. However,
(33:35):
I'm excited for the Lions. Ithink they have a great opportunity ahead
of them and this is just onemore step in the right direction to get
to the ultimate goal, Lion's Nation. This is what you've been waiting for
for thirty years. And kudos tocoach Dan Campbell and the leadership there in
Detroit. You know, Mike,coach Campbell got a great award today,
(33:57):
but you don't think he's done yet. No, you know, he's got
obviously the NFC Coach of the Yearaward. I think he's deserving of the
NFL Coach of the Year award whathe's done with Detroit in the past three
season and how he's changed things,how he's changed the culture, how he's
got those guys believing, how he'staken on the identity of the city in
itself. That's why the Detroit fansare so proud of their Lions. The
(34:22):
whole team has completely taken on thatblue collar work ethic. Yeah, it's
not gonna be pretty, it's notgonna be perfect, but we're gonna keep
on going. We're gonna keep onputting one foot in front of the other
and just finding a way to getit done. All right, As we
look at the match up between theforty nine Ers of San Francisco and yep,
Detroit Lions. This explosive Detroit Lionsoffense, well, Mike, it's
(34:46):
literally a battle of number two andthree of the best offenses in the league.
How do you see the Lions offensematching up against Well, Well,
you know they've got They've got,you know, one of the best d
lines, one of the best passrushes in the Lake. You got you
know, Bosa and newly acquired ChaseYoung. Uh So, what you're gonna
(35:07):
need to do is you're gonna haveto get that ball quick. Also,
potentially the best NFL linebacker in thegame with Warner. Uh he is.
You gotta let you know. Youlove his style play, You love how
he plays the game. He studiesthe game. He's a natural leader.
Uh. He's a guy that couldtotally suit up for the Detroit Lions.
(35:28):
Uh. You know, he wouldtake on that identity and be a perfect
guy. How do you neutralize him? Mike, You gotta you gotta get
that big ol'd lineman getting on there. Make sure that you uh you,
you gotta get to that second levelin the blocking. Last week when the
Lions played the Bucks early in thegame, you saw a penalty and I
was like, wait, what isgoing on? What they called defensive holding,
(35:53):
not on a pass play, buton a run play. And then
they show it and the d linemanwas grabbing the center of guard. Forget
who it was they were grabbing,not trying to not allow him to get
up to the linebacker to that secondlevel. That's what I think san fran
Is gonna try to do. Youhave to be able to slow down that
(36:15):
pass rush, So either run rightat Bosa, run right at Young,
but at the same time get upto that second level and try to get
a body on Fred Warner. Youdon't want him running free. A guy
can run sideline and sideline, hecan cover, he can do it all.
However, you got to utilize thatplay action pass. You got to
get one or two steps for himto step up. Think it's run.
(36:38):
You got to get that run gamegoing early. Make sure he jumps in
there. Hey it's running. Nope, now you pull it out. Now
you got Amaran Saint Brown on thatsecond level in between above the linebackers in
front of the safeties, or yougot Jamison Williams blowing off the top coverage.
You got Josh Reynolds, you know, kind of you know, just
(36:59):
weaving his way through the coverage.And then you got Sam Laporter working through.
So you got to get that rungame early, going early, and
you have to utilize the play actionpass. And one thing the Lions do
is when they utilize that play actionpass, one that slows down the pass
rus But Goff does a very nicejob of coming off that fake and then
still getting the ball out quick.He doesn't hold on to it very long.
(37:21):
So I think that is the keyis getting that ball out quick slowan
then that pressures kind of kind oftaking away the Moraley like, I'm gonna
get a sack. I'm gonna geta sack. I'm gonna get man,
he's getting the ball so quick.What's the point of me rushing? And
then eventually then you can take yourshots downfield. But it's gonna be a
tough task. But I think theymatch up well. You got Montgomery,
(37:42):
he's a little bit of a thumper, the pounder. Then you got Gibbs
and you saw what he can do. Oh you get that little one on
one on the safety. That safetyhad no chance. Gibbs just you know,
a little shake and he's gone andyou can't catch him. I would
love to see with Jamison Williams andGibbs maybe in the off season. I
would love to see a chair,you know, one hundred yard dash between
both of them because there's so muchspeed on that team. But again,
(38:05):
back to the run relyne that Oline. You gotta love what Ragnell did
this past week playing on a hardpure harmdl pure hard and then the fight
on the goal line on fourth andone for fighting and so that's old school
football, but that's that's the identityof the Detroit Lions. And when you
do that the whole team. Thatjust lifts them up to another level.
(38:30):
Love Jared Goff how he's playing.I love what he's been through and just
never complain and keeps on and keepson playing hard. Uh. Even drafting
a guy hand to hooker in thethird round to maybe develop it for the
future didn't faz him. I'm gonnacome out, this is my team and
I'm gonna take this team to thesuper Bowl. When you look at the
matchup, I think it's the matchupof the week. Mike's talking about the
(38:52):
front rush of the forty nine ersagainst the arguably the best offensive line in
the league right now. You know, we all love the pass game,
we all love the splash play,but the old tanker here I love now
getting in there fighting with the offensiveline. To me, that's going to
be the art form that defines thisgame for the Lions offensively this week.
(39:15):
Hopefully raight Now is healthy going intoit. Laparda seems to be getting healthier
every week. But that battle upfront this week is going to be absolutely
epic. As Mike mentioned, gettingthose play actions, it's almost an art
form for golf. The way hedoes it, it is so smooth.
(39:35):
Well, most teams when they dothat play action, Yeah, in fact,
they hold the ball, they pushthe ball downfield a little deeper.
Detroit will take their shots down thefield and they will do those chunk plays,
you know, twenty thirty forty yardsdownfield, those deep crossers. They'll
go for their post shots. However, they will still utilize the play action
and then take maybe a ten oran eight yard stop route, dig route,
(40:00):
and a spear route quick quick inbreakingroute, he gets his eyes around
so fast and he knows where thatreceiver is going to be. It would
that does is that it forces theother team's safeties to come up inside.
And then what that does is openup the top with Jamison Williams or Josh
Reynolds or a guy like that.You know, before we went on air,
(40:22):
Mike and I were talking about thenecessity of a very creative and innovative
offensive coordinator. I mean, he'sgot it going on. Man, He's
got all the tools there that heneeds to cook with. But that is
one smart cookie. I love whathe's doing. Last year, he had
some head coaches interviews that eventually hestopped and said, you know what I
(40:42):
want to be a part of theLions organization. I want to stay here.
I want to see this through.I know he's kind of the hot
name right now, as well asAaron Glenn. I'm hoping that no one
tries to steal them or pluck themaway because I love this staff. I
love the coordinators. I love whatDan Campbell has done. He's got a
(41:05):
lot of former players. I lovethe creativity across the board on both offense
and defense, and how they bothmix things up. You know, two
weeks ago against the Rams, yousaw the Lions do a lot more heavy
pressure with Aaron Glenn. This weekthey did a little bit more too high
safety to try and confuse Baker takeaway those receivers. Tampa didn't have the
running attack that other teams have.So I love the creative I just hope
(41:29):
they keep them around and potentially,you know, get to the Super Bowl
this year, maybe win it,but then build off of that for the
next few years to come. I'mnot ready for those guys to leave town
yet. Hopefully, hopefully they seetheir value as well. You know,
there was a rumor that Ben Johnsonwill ask for fifteen million to become a
head coach he should be asking fortwenty million because the Lions should just up
(41:53):
his salary a little bit. Howmuch money do you need if you're coaching
football and you love the game everyday. Yeah, you're gonna take care
of your family. But you know, let's give him a little extra.
Let's give him a little extra change. Keep him in Detroit, you know,
for the next four or five years, and eventually down the road he
can leave. But right after wehang the World Championship, huddle up,
Lion's nation. It's Tank and Mikefor Lions. Chock talk all right,
(42:15):
the Buccaneers, the sheeps from LAI advised you that if I was the
DC, how to win both thosegames. And I'm gonna polish off my
lion's hut because I was correct.I told you you had to get Stafford
off his mark. That came trueat the end of the game with that
Aaron throw. I was sure thatif you put the pressure and doubt up
(42:39):
the bliss packages on mister Baker there, that he was gonna crumble. I
loved that defensive performance last week.Well what they did, though, was
they mix it in well with sometoo high safety look as well, forcing
him not be able to bush itdown the field. But then you saw
a lot of those little slot blitzerin and credit the defense for timing that
(43:00):
up and hitting it at the righttime. It worked a couple times to
stop the run. It worked acouple times. Baker was like, I
own to no where to go withthe football. They were just getting in
their way too quick timed up.It was so it was late enough that
the O line couldn't make the adjustment, but it was quick enough before he
could get the football off. Soit was perfectly timed. Brilliant defense.
(43:22):
Brilliant defense by the Lions to getthem into the NFC Championship game. Well,
let's be frank about it as welook at this high octane San Francisco
forty nine ers offense ranked number twoin the league this year for offensive performance.
They've got all the weapons. Whoin the NFL wouldn't love to have
Christian McCaffrey on their roster. So, Mike, I'll throw it to you.
(43:45):
If you were the quarterback of theforty nine ers this week, what
would you be going after on theLions defense? Would you pound the ball?
Would you go downfield? Would youattack the flats? Would you attack
the post or would be a myriadbecause they are a symphony of an offensive
times. Well, I don't believeit's necessarily gonna be the quarterback that's attacking.
(44:07):
I think what you're gonna do isyou're gonna get the little You're gonna
get the mad scientists, you know, with Kyle Shanahan, you know,
trying to dictate things as far aswhere that ball is gonna go. Obviously,
they're gonna try to get Christian McCaffreytouches. They're gonna try to get
(44:27):
mismatches with him. I think theLions need to try to stop the run
with McCaffrey. Don't allow any bigexplosive plays there. The key though,
is stopping him in the past becauseif I'm the Niners, I would try
to get McCaffrey singled up on oneof those linebackers. Now, he's a
running back. However, he isgood enough to run with a few dvs.
(44:50):
Do you really want that? No, however, can he do it?
Yeah? He might win here andthere, but you don't want to
get him matched up on a linebacker. That's where it can get trouble.
So you might have to combo hima few times, maybe get a safety
helping over it. I would takemy chances with the secondary. Now.
I know they've got Ayuk. Iknow Debo's fifty to fifty right now.
(45:13):
Hey, I'm hoping maybe he youknow, it's a little no fracture right
now, but maybe maybe just ading you know, like a little ding
up. Like nothing that's gonna takehim out, Nothing that's gonna take him
out and have to require surgery,but something that's been like it's an owl,
and I got to sit out thenext three quarters because you know,
when we saw green Bay last week, and once Debo got out of the
game, Green Babel was able todo a few things. Green Bay looked
(45:37):
great, like they did green Baylook great. I love Jordan, love
me, but the Lions are gonnahave to be able to I would love
to see them get a hot startlike they typically do, get off to
that hot start offense. So maybeget yeah, get off to a hot
start early and then be able tokeep that mix going. They do a
great job of putting together drives,controlling the clock, letting shortening the game
(46:02):
and not allowing uh obviously, Imean the Niners are number two in offense.
The Lions were number three in offensefor the regular season this year.
But I think it's doing large partobviously to McCaffrey. You've got Deebo it
depends if he plays or not,a Yuk and then you've got George Kittle
as well. So it's a toughbut you're gonna have to get creative,
(46:23):
you're gonna mix things up, andyou're gonna have to get pressure on Purty
because I think as a quarterback,when you get pressure, that's it's it's
a lot easier to play when youhave all day back there and if you
can get pressure earl, not notlate, but early. You know,
remember a couple of years ago whenSam Darnold played for the Jackerson by somebody's
(46:45):
kneecaps, I'm off for smile withthem and just hit him back. That's
right, baby. Remember at theend of the day, football, regardless
of what Roger Goofball get Out thinks, it's still about hitting. So that's
what Tank thinks about. What theline it's got to do to beat the
Niners, and that is unleash holyhell on them and make this a physical
(47:06):
football game. Defensively, final score, go ahead quarterback oh Man I don't
like doing scores, but m let'sgo twenty seven twenty I'm gonna say twenty
(47:29):
seven twenty one lions. That's funny. I was going twenty seven to twenty
four based on a defense that's gonnabring well the wrath of Mother Nature down
on them, twenty four for theforty nine ers, and Sweetheart, I'll
see you on the face strip intwo weeks, I'm going goodbye.
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