Week 13 vs. The Bills

Steelers Digest Editor, Bob Labriola sits down with Head Coach Mike Tomlin ahead of the Steelers week 13 matchup against the Buffalo Bills

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
He's the Mike Tomlin Gaing Day Podcast with Steelers Digest
editor Bob Labriola. Okay, coach. One of the things you
pointed out following the last Sunday's game was that after
each of the two turnovers, the Bears took advantage and
drove fifty yards and then fifty four yards for touchdowns.
What are reasonable expectations for the defense in those situations

(00:22):
and what makes for good sudden change defense.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
Smiling in the face of adversity is something that great
defenses do. We challenge our defense to do it routinely. Certainly,
we don't want to be in the circumstance a lot.
We want to protect and preserve a safeguard to the ball.
But in those specific instances, man field, gold or less
is the agenda. That's how you put the fire out.
Obviously we weren't able to do that, and it was

(00:46):
a significant component of the game they were. For instance,
we were covered with fumble at midfield Yi Black, and
that's the series we had to turnover on downs when
we came up short on the push on fourth and one,
and so they got out of their circumstance. We were
unable to get out of ours, and certainly series and

(01:08):
sequences like that are the difference in football games.

Speaker 1 (01:11):
So I want to talk to you a little bit
about that series. After the Ya Black fumble recovery, it
was near midfield fourth and one, as you mentioned, from
the Bear's thirty yard line. You decided to go for
it with a push rather than have Boswell attempt a
field goal. Then, when you were asked afterward about why
you went for it, you said, because if you can't

(01:31):
make it on fourth down and one, oftentimes you don't
deserve to win. There was a lot of football left
at that point. What was your thinking and going for
it in that situation?

Speaker 2 (01:41):
Again, just trying to maximize the short field opportunity and really,
you know, drive a stake in our opponent and building
upon some positive things that transpire via the turnover. And
certainly I felt comfortable with our ability to execute and
win that circumstance. Unfortunately we weren't able to do so.

Speaker 1 (02:02):
When it comes to dealing with Chris Boswell inside the stadium,
I gotta believe he would never say he couldn't make
a kick. But is there some pregame process or communication
with him or from him as to what his outer
range is that day. Given the conditions, we don't have
a lot of verbal communication. I keep eyes on him
during the pregame process. Generally I understand unless there's unusual

(02:26):
stadium conditions or weather circumstance, even prior to getting to
the stadium, what makes us comfortable from a range standpoint,
He's pretty weather proof, surface proof, environment proof. He just
got a steely resolve in terms of his approach to
what he does. That there's less variables at play in

(02:46):
terms of dealing with him and making decisions than most
of his peers.

Speaker 2 (02:49):
I'm sure.

Speaker 1 (02:50):
Yeah, not only Chris Boswell, but all the specialists punting,
long snapping, field goal kicking. How much of that job
comes down to mental toughness and dealing with pressure.

Speaker 2 (03:00):
There's no question it's a component of what they do.
They don't get a lot of swings at it. They
spend a lot of time over the course of the
game watching, but when called upon, they have to be ready.
And certainly they have no control over how frequent and
how often or when that happens, but they better be ready.
And so certainly it takes a certain mental fortitude and

(03:21):
driven personality and a guy that that thirst for those
weighty moments to really excel in those roles.

Speaker 1 (03:28):
How do you measure those situations those guys in the
pro scouting process, tryout process. Can you set up situations
artificially that kind of simulate the kind of pressure that
they might face in a game.

Speaker 2 (03:42):
Absolutely you can, but it's it's football like, it's not
necessarily football, but you work your tail off to do
to do so, made a scenarios, for example, of something
that's routinely practicing, particularly in the try out setting, to
make them run out onto the field and not have
ample amount of time to ready themselves. And oftentimes when

(04:03):
you're working a specialist out, you're working more than one out,
and so there's a head to head competitive component to
the work that speaks to a little bit of the
competitive nature, the ability to respond and bounce back and
so forth. And so usually when you're working a punter out,
a snapper out, or kicker out, it's at least two
guys for that one on one titfor TAC component, competition

(04:28):
component of the workout.

Speaker 1 (04:30):
Left tackle Broderick Jones has been ruled out of today's game.
There have been situations this season when you use more
than one guy to step in for an injured starter's
left tackle one of those positions where you can divide
the labor up between a couple of guys, or might
that compromise the cohesion of the offensive line.

Speaker 2 (04:48):
There's certainly a cohesion or rhythm component of it, and
so we're gonna go with Ap at left tackle. Calvin's
an an awesome job and he will continue to do
an awesome job. He's been a swing for us. We
felt it was important to keep him in that swing
role to make sure that we fortify ourselves at both
spots and so Ap has played a lot of football
over the course of his career, has been a wire

(05:10):
to wire starter. We certainly got a lot of ball
in front of us, and so we feel really comfortable
about that division of labor.

Speaker 1 (05:16):
The middle of the field has come to be a
consistent topic around the NFL, both defending it on defense
and attacking it on offense. From a football one oh
one perspective, one of the pluses and minuses of attacking
the middle of the field on offense and also the
importance of defending it on defense.

Speaker 2 (05:34):
You know, short throws. From an office a perspective, some
positive components of it. Some negative potential components of it
is the traffic component. Balls get tipped up and things
of that nature. Man, you're doing sort of a little
bit more risk than you are on a perimeter, but
at the same time you don't have as much flight time,
and so I think those are kind of the critical

(05:56):
variables in terms of the discussion from an offense a perspective,
positively and negatively. Certainly you put in position to run
after in the middle of the field, but it comes
at risk because of the traffic.

Speaker 1 (06:08):
So far this season, the running backs you've faced have
included Jonathan Taylor, Josh Jacobs, DeAndre Swift. How would you
describe the challenge posed by Buffalo's James Cook? And is
his style similar to any of the guys I just mentioned.

Speaker 2 (06:23):
You know, he's probably more swift like than the others,
but certainly he has a style all his own. He's
an easy mover. He's got great fluidity in his movement.
He's got natural body lean. It allows him to play
bigger than his measurables. The pile generally falls forward. He
packs a punch. I think his punch is underrated, but

(06:46):
a component of that punch man is his pad level
and body lean. He's done a heck of a job
for those guys. Man, He's got about eleven hundred yards
in eleven weeks. I think he's number two in the league.
And certainly, as you mentioned, Man, we faced our share
of elite run and run offenses, and certainly this is
one of them.

Speaker 1 (07:03):
Reggie gilliam is Buffalo's fullback. So far this season, he
has played twenty four percent of the team's offensive snaps.
Will he lead you to James Cook as he usually
on the field and it's a running play.

Speaker 2 (07:16):
He in a couple of tight ends, Yeah, he'll lead
you to the action. So will the tight ends when
they get it. When they get in personnel packages that
include him, they're not bashful about their intentions. He does
a heck of a job. He's a veteran player out
of Toledo and and developed there and in Buffalo. Got

(07:39):
a lot of respect for what he brings. He doesn't
get a lot of touches or statistical information, but he's
an impact in terms of what they do.

Speaker 1 (07:48):
Josh Allen was the seventh overall pick in the twenty
eighteen NFL Draft. He was one of four quarterbacks to
be picked in the top ten, along with Baker Mayfield
at number one, Sam Darnold at number three, and Josh
Rosen at number ten. Did you have any interactions with
Josh Shallen during that pre draft process? I did not.

Speaker 2 (08:08):
We have a limited number of interactions that we're allotted,
and so certainly, if we're not in that market, we're
not going to waste interview slots. But certainly I was
certainly aware of his talent, and we did our research,
but we didn't have a lot of formal interaction with him.

Speaker 1 (08:24):
You look at his college statistics and even his early
NFL statistics, he was not a high percentage completion guy.
Is that an unusual thing for a guy to improve
that at that point in his career? And I might
that have happened.

Speaker 2 (08:38):
I don't think it's unusual to improve. But it also
can be a component of what they're doing offensively. Oftentimes
a guy have a unbelievable completion percentage and he's in
an RPO offense, and so eight to ten of his
completions during the course of a game might be you know,

(09:00):
three yards or less, bubble screens and things of that nature.
And so I don't know that we all look specifically
at completion percentage alone without analyzing the type of throws
that are being made in the style of offense. Generally,
guys that are in rpo offenses or rhythm offenses have

(09:22):
higher percentages, and guys that are throwing the ball down
the grass have lower percentages, And that certainly could have
been a function of his story at Wyoming.

Speaker 1 (09:30):
Another football one oh one question, describe the concept of
spying the quarterback. Can that work against a player like
Josh Allen?

Speaker 2 (09:39):
You know, certainly he sees quite a bit of it.
You have to support your rush with a guy like him,
with his level of es capability, mobility, and his willingness
to do it. Oftentimes people do hover rushes. They'll rush
three in the fourth will be a more athletic guy
than usual, and effort to work to minimize him. Sometimes

(10:02):
you'll rush for and have a fifth guy do that.
The bottom line is, when you're facing quarterback mobility like
Josh Allen, it requires you to go to somestematics in
an effort to minimize that, and additional manpower is a
major component of it. And not only the additional man power,
but the type of athlete Josh can break people down,

(10:23):
he can make people miss, he can run over people.
He's a unique athlete, and so you've got to be
thoughtful about who that secondary containment player might be, the
depth in which he plays at, because if you get
him in vertical space, that's not good as well. And
so we certainly have a lot of experience in terms
of dealing with quarterback mobility. We've dealt with Josh over

(10:44):
the years, We've dealt with Lamar in Baltimore, and generally
man there's a template to be followed in terms of
minimizing their capability.

Speaker 1 (10:53):
How would you compare and contrast Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson.
Jackson was the thirty second overall picking that same NFL draft.
In terms of their mobility, their running.

Speaker 2 (11:03):
Ability, you know, I would say they're very similar in
their competitive spirit, their ability to add lib extend plays,
and create splash plays for their offense using their their
legs and their arm. It's something that they share. I
would contrast them in that Josh Allen is a power player.

(11:25):
When he gets into the defensive backfield man, he will
lower his pads and run over defenders. He's a big
man and it's certainly different from Lamar in that aspect
in terms of how some of these plays might finish out.
Lamar is capable of eluding you and running away from you.
You better be thoughtful about how you deal with Josh
Allen because they'll drop his pads on you. As evident

(11:48):
last time we played those guys. Man, he had an
enormous run on about third down and seven to fourth
score that kind of broke the game open. Any Lord
paddle alone I safety man and was able to break
that tackle and run another additional thirty yards for score.

Speaker 1 (12:05):
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