December 24, 2022 • 13 mins
Steelers Digest Editor Bob Labriola sits down with Head Coach Mike Tomlin ahead of the Steelers' week 16 matchup against the Las Vegas Raiders.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
He's the Mike Tomlin Game Day Podcast with Steeler's Digest
editor Bob Labriola. Okay, coach story. Throughout your time as
a head coach here, you have chosen to handle disciplinary
matters in house and you kept to that procedure after
the unsportsmanlike conduct penalties against the Ante Johnson and Marcus
Allen in last Sunday's game in Carolina. Why do you
(00:22):
believe the in house method is the right way to go?
Because unless you're a part of our group dynamics, you
don't understand the makeup of it, and so your judgment
of such things might be skewed or inaccurate. And so
I just try to minimize the distractions by by letting
in house business be in the house business, especially when
it comes insistive things and things that are discipline related.
(00:46):
I just don't think it's fair to come to the
collective of the guys to make private things public. And
I view some of those things, whether it's discipline or corrections,
are learning at times when it's sensitive as of things.
But you wouldn't consider, for example, you bringing it up
in a team meeting in front of the rest of
(01:07):
the team going public. Would you not at all. A
matter of fact, that is just the forum that I'm
looking for. UM, what about you know when you say
handle things in house? Uh, does that necessarily mean that
you're doing the handling or might that include some of
the individual's teammates. Um, it means it's in house. It
(01:29):
means usually all of the above me and then something.
Have you found that one of those two, um, tax
works better you or his teammates? I think when when
we start using terms like handle things in house, I
think everybody knows what that means, and I think that
means all hands on deck and all all tools are useful.
(01:51):
Two weeks ago, during the loss of the Ravens, Baltimore
came out ahead in the physical confrontations during that game.
And then after the win in Carolina, you talked a
winning me and the attrition game, which I took to
mean that you decided that, Uh, the Steelers won the
physical confrontations in that game. What changed between those two games?
(02:13):
Is it more of a mindset or didn't have didn't
have more to do with technique? Um, it's as mindset is.
Technique is schematics. Sometimes it's just you know, in the
bounce of the ball in terms of how things unfold. Um,
we had an agenda in terms of wage and award
of attrition and putting the games in the hands of
our big people. Carolina did as well, and UM, we
(02:36):
were able to get it done. And that's what I
was acknowledging. Um, it can be reflected in a lot
of ways. Um, the number of short yardage opportunities we
had on offense. I think a lot has been written
and said about the fact that we, you know, converted
twelve or sixteen or whatever on third down sevent but
five or six of those were short yard is related
and those globally a high percentage UM converts. But they
(03:00):
also speak to what you're doing on first and second down.
And so when I see statistics like that, and obviously
I feel it in stadium, that's what I mean when
I say that we won the war of attrition. We
were able to control the Florida game through through our
ground game and manage possession downs and being highly convertible
possession downs. And by the same token, Carolina had one
(03:23):
third down in two and they had no third down
in ones. And so not only did that tee us
up to win the possession down battle on the defenses
out of the ball, but it's also reflective of what
we were doing to them in terms of minimizing their
run game on first and second. One of the players
you pointed out as having a nice contribution to the
(03:43):
run defense was Larry Ogan Job. What about his game
makes him good against the run. He's got built in leverage.
He's not a tall guy for an interior defensive lineman.
I mean, he's got good quicks, whether it's vertical quicks
in terms of his burst and get all, or whether
it's lateral quicks and his ability to move laterally with
(04:04):
his gap on stunts. He's got good short area quicks.
He's got built in levers because he's not a tall guy,
and I think oftentimes that that plays as an advantage
in the run game when facing a team like the Raiders.
And the Raiders they can deploy the NFL's leading rusher
and Josh Jacobs, as well as one of the league's
most dynamic playmaking receivers in Davante Adams. Does the defense
(04:27):
have to pick one or the other to really focus
on They have to pick one and one or the
other each snap and so um the game circumstance to
field positioning the moment means something um and and obviously
we got a lot of experience in terms of dealing
with with a unit with a makeup similar to this.
(04:48):
We were we were very similar to this a number
of years ago when we had Levian Bell and Antonio
Brown and and so schematically defensively, we lived that life
down in and down out in training camp like settings
and so orphan and so it's not an unusual circumstance
for us. For us, it's about picking the instances and
circumstances where we feel like Jacobs could be featured and
(05:10):
work to minimize him schematically while understanding the ramifications of
that in terms of how we deal with atoms and
vice versa in one dimensional pass and circumstances will allocate
a lot of schematics towards eliminate the minimizing atoms, but
we also better understand how to manage the the unintended
consequences of that relative to Jacobs. UM. Not that you
(05:33):
would use the weather as an excuse, but in a
situation like the one here tonight, don't you have to
make some concessions to it? Certainly? Um, but I can
I remind our staff and our players continually that we're
not the only ones that have to make adjustments relative
to the weather. Um the weather is a factor for
both teams. Uh. It affects both of us logistically in
(05:55):
terms of how we get from point A to point B.
It affects us in terms of the schematics and how
the game might unfold from a planning standpoint. Relative to
those things, my point is is that whether it's a
factor that's not within any of our controls, and so
as long as we do it a relatively good job
of dealing with it, meaning better than the Vegas Raiders,
(06:16):
then that's what I'm searching for, and I choose to
talk to our guys in that way. So we have
a can do attitude regarding it, and we understand that
there's somebody else on the other end of this as well,
and they have challenges as it pertains to it as well,
and so our attitude is is usually going to dictate
our outcome. We gotta have a can do attitude. We
recognize as a factor, but we also recognize we got
(06:38):
a job to do, so do the people that we play,
and we moved through it with that spirit. You know,
I don't expect you to know specifically all of the advancements,
but you've been in this game a long time. There's
certainly have to have been things in terms of equipment advancements,
you know, for the players and coaches and people who
are out there. It's not even close to what it
(07:00):
used to be. Okay, um, in so many levels. There's
piping under the NFL fields now where they don't get frozen.
Years ago. Man, when you watch legendary video man like
the Ice Bowl Man, you saw Bob Lilly digging his
cleats in the ground trying to get footing before the
officive line came to the line of scrimmage. That's never
an issue in today's game. That's heating under all fields.
(07:22):
The field is not gonna be frozen. The bench area
has heated benches and technology. Um, the technology in terms
of handwarmers, foot warmers and and and the amount of
materials and things that you can put on now it's
not it's not nearly what it used to be. The
most challenging component of weather man is a poor fans
(07:43):
sitting in the stands. We're better off than they are,
promise you, Rookie inside linebacker Mark Robinson played seven defensive
snaps in Carolina, the first regular season defensive snaps he's
played in the NFL. You know, he's a running hit guy,
as you might describe him, and that makes him interest
and but what are some of the examples of the
kinds of things he has to learn about playing defense
(08:05):
before he can really can compete for a larger role.
You know, really just all the minutia associated with play. Um,
the ability the key and trust what your eyes tell you,
the ability to understand the communication component of the position
at this level, um, talking to the guys in front
of you, behind you. He's done an awesome job in
(08:25):
terms of growing over the course of this season, and
and that's why we gave him some snaps. He was
deserving the bat. Uh. He has a skill set that
we can't coach. Um. He embraces the physical component of play. Uh,
he's a physical matchup and confrontation guy. But the intellect
component of the game, the nuances of the game, the
things that you have to know to play football at
(08:46):
this level. He's still very much in development. He's a
one year linebacker at the college level. Within that year,
we did see some things that were really attractive, and
that's why we do a business with him, and and
he's proven those things to be true. UM. But we
got into this relationship with the understanding that it was
going to be a growth and development thing. UH. There
was a lack of exposure to the position. But if
(09:08):
you value coaching, UM, if if you honor coaching, you
run to those projects, not away from him. UH. I
love to be a part of someone's developmental process. That's
why we love drafting, you know, the third year junior,
the twenty year old guy. That's why we UM embrace that.
Some of our best experiences have been with guys that
were those type of guys, Marquees penalcy lejand Bell and others. UM.
(09:31):
I do the same thing about a guy who's relatively
new to a position, like embracing the opportunity to to
train going a wave as an offensive tackle, for example.
I think those are good coaching challenges, and I want
to put together a staff that embraces that UH and
helps young people get better. I think that's how we
add value to the talent that we have here. This
(09:52):
past Wednesday, the Steelers, the NFL, the people of Pittsburgh,
suffered a great loss when Frank o'harris died. As you
might say, his football accomplishments need no endorsement. But could
you relate your interactions with him a little bit in
the community. I tell you, man, he just was such
a special man um and for a lot of reasons. UM.
(10:14):
But but his appetite for people, his patience with people, UM,
his general good spirit UM, and love for this organization
in this community was very evident everything everything that he did. UM.
We had an opportunity to spent a lot of time
together non football settings. UM. You know he served on
(10:37):
on on some charitable boards with my wife. UM. I
served on the board or two with him years ago
when I first got here. UM. When you know him,
to get an opportunity to spend time with him, it
was just very evident that he's a guy that embraced
the responsibilities that came with being him, That he utilized
his platform for the collective good. UM. That he really
(10:57):
had a passion for the develop element, nurturing and assistance
of young people. UH. That can be reflected in the
businesses that he ran. UM. Whether it was the bakery
business that that featured UM. You know nutritional food, or
whether it was his involvement in things like Pittsburgh Promise,
which is a board that he and my wife served
on for a number of years, um, raising money to
(11:20):
educate UH Pittsburgh public school kids beyond the high school level. Um.
That's frank though. Um. He did it all in a
very humble way, UM, in a very matter of fact way. UM.
But boy man, his passion and love and patience for
people was ever president. This was planned to be a
special weekend for the Steelers franchise, with the celebration of
(11:43):
the fiftieth anniversary, the Immaculate Reception, and the retiring of
Franco Harris's jersey. To these kind of nostalgic events, celebrations
of franchise history, can they or do they service motivation
for the current team? I I think I think motivation
is is probably an inappropriate word. I think it's educational
(12:06):
more than anything else. To to be in a location
and having an opportunity to meet men, men that you
can relate to, men that that kind of walked into
in the in the same grounds that you walk on,
and see that ordinary people, collectively, through their efforts and
and work and spirit, can do extraordinary things. I think
it's a history lesson and so, UM, I think there's
(12:29):
an educational component that makes the discussion more than motivation.
I view it as education, and that's how I talked
through our guys. I educate them about the immaculate Reception
and it's impact not only on the lives of the
men involved, but this organization and what a what a
you know, what a global play it was to the
(12:49):
game of football. Um, in terms of its relationship with
its fans. Um. You know. I talk in that way because, Um,
I'm gonna appreciate of history. I'm a study of history,
World War two, etcetera, etcetera. I just think that when
we take the study ers approach, we're able to get
more out of it, and so it's a learning experience
(13:11):
more than anything else. That's the Mike Tomlin Game Day Podcast.
Subscribe in, download new episodes every week and check out
all of the other shows we have to offer on
the Steelers Podcast network that's available on the Steelers mobile app,
the I Heart Radio app, or wherever you get your podcasts.
He's the Mike Tomlin Game Day Podcast with Steeler's Digest
editor Bob Labriola. Okay, coach story. Throughout your time as
a head coach here, you have chosen to handle disciplinary
matters in house and you kept to that procedure after
the unsportsmanlike conduct penalties against the Ante Johnson and Marcus
Allen in last Sunday's game in Carolina. Why do you
(00:22):
believe the in house method is the right way to go?
Because unless you're a part of our group dynamics, you
don't understand the makeup of it, and so your judgment
of such things might be skewed or inaccurate. And so
I just try to minimize the distractions by by letting
in house business be in the house business, especially when
it comes insistive things and things that are discipline related.
(00:46):
I just don't think it's fair to come to the
collective of the guys to make private things public. And
I view some of those things, whether it's discipline or corrections,
are learning at times when it's sensitive as of things.
But you wouldn't consider, for example, you bringing it up
in a team meeting in front of the rest of
(01:07):
the team going public. Would you not at all. A
matter of fact, that is just the forum that I'm
looking for. UM, what about you know when you say
handle things in house? Uh, does that necessarily mean that
you're doing the handling or might that include some of
the individual's teammates. Um, it means it's in house. It
(01:29):
means usually all of the above me and then something.
Have you found that one of those two, um, tax
works better you or his teammates? I think when when
we start using terms like handle things in house, I
think everybody knows what that means, and I think that
means all hands on deck and all all tools are useful.
(01:51):
Two weeks ago, during the loss of the Ravens, Baltimore
came out ahead in the physical confrontations during that game.
And then after the win in Carolina, you talked a
winning me and the attrition game, which I took to
mean that you decided that, Uh, the Steelers won the
physical confrontations in that game. What changed between those two games?
(02:13):
Is it more of a mindset or didn't have didn't
have more to do with technique? Um, it's as mindset is.
Technique is schematics. Sometimes it's just you know, in the
bounce of the ball in terms of how things unfold. Um,
we had an agenda in terms of wage and award
of attrition and putting the games in the hands of
our big people. Carolina did as well, and UM, we
(02:36):
were able to get it done. And that's what I
was acknowledging. Um, it can be reflected in a lot
of ways. Um, the number of short yardage opportunities we
had on offense. I think a lot has been written
and said about the fact that we, you know, converted
twelve or sixteen or whatever on third down sevent but
five or six of those were short yard is related
and those globally a high percentage UM converts. But they
(03:00):
also speak to what you're doing on first and second down.
And so when I see statistics like that, and obviously
I feel it in stadium, that's what I mean when
I say that we won the war of attrition. We
were able to control the Florida game through through our
ground game and manage possession downs and being highly convertible
possession downs. And by the same token, Carolina had one
(03:23):
third down in two and they had no third down
in ones. And so not only did that tee us
up to win the possession down battle on the defenses
out of the ball, but it's also reflective of what
we were doing to them in terms of minimizing their
run game on first and second. One of the players
you pointed out as having a nice contribution to the
(03:43):
run defense was Larry Ogan Job. What about his game
makes him good against the run. He's got built in leverage.
He's not a tall guy for an interior defensive lineman.
I mean, he's got good quicks, whether it's vertical quicks
in terms of his burst and get all, or whether
it's lateral quicks and his ability to move laterally with
(04:04):
his gap on stunts. He's got good short area quicks.
He's got built in levers because he's not a tall guy,
and I think oftentimes that that plays as an advantage
in the run game when facing a team like the Raiders.
And the Raiders they can deploy the NFL's leading rusher
and Josh Jacobs, as well as one of the league's
most dynamic playmaking receivers in Davante Adams. Does the defense
(04:27):
have to pick one or the other to really focus
on They have to pick one and one or the
other each snap and so um the game circumstance to
field positioning the moment means something um and and obviously
we got a lot of experience in terms of dealing
with with a unit with a makeup similar to this.
(04:48):
We were we were very similar to this a number
of years ago when we had Levian Bell and Antonio
Brown and and so schematically defensively, we lived that life
down in and down out in training camp like settings
and so orphan and so it's not an unusual circumstance
for us. For us, it's about picking the instances and
circumstances where we feel like Jacobs could be featured and
(05:10):
work to minimize him schematically while understanding the ramifications of
that in terms of how we deal with atoms and
vice versa in one dimensional pass and circumstances will allocate
a lot of schematics towards eliminate the minimizing atoms, but
we also better understand how to manage the the unintended
consequences of that relative to Jacobs. UM. Not that you
(05:33):
would use the weather as an excuse, but in a
situation like the one here tonight, don't you have to
make some concessions to it? Certainly? Um, but I can
I remind our staff and our players continually that we're
not the only ones that have to make adjustments relative
to the weather. Um the weather is a factor for
both teams. Uh. It affects both of us logistically in
(05:55):
terms of how we get from point A to point B.
It affects us in terms of the schematics and how
the game might unfold from a planning standpoint. Relative to
those things, my point is is that whether it's a
factor that's not within any of our controls, and so
as long as we do it a relatively good job
of dealing with it, meaning better than the Vegas Raiders,
(06:16):
then that's what I'm searching for, and I choose to
talk to our guys in that way. So we have
a can do attitude regarding it, and we understand that
there's somebody else on the other end of this as well,
and they have challenges as it pertains to it as well,
and so our attitude is is usually going to dictate
our outcome. We gotta have a can do attitude. We
recognize as a factor, but we also recognize we got
(06:38):
a job to do, so do the people that we play,
and we moved through it with that spirit. You know,
I don't expect you to know specifically all of the advancements,
but you've been in this game a long time. There's
certainly have to have been things in terms of equipment advancements,
you know, for the players and coaches and people who
are out there. It's not even close to what it
(07:00):
used to be. Okay, um, in so many levels. There's
piping under the NFL fields now where they don't get frozen.
Years ago. Man, when you watch legendary video man like
the Ice Bowl Man, you saw Bob Lilly digging his
cleats in the ground trying to get footing before the
officive line came to the line of scrimmage. That's never
an issue in today's game. That's heating under all fields.
(07:22):
The field is not gonna be frozen. The bench area
has heated benches and technology. Um, the technology in terms
of handwarmers, foot warmers and and and the amount of
materials and things that you can put on now it's
not it's not nearly what it used to be. The
most challenging component of weather man is a poor fans
(07:43):
sitting in the stands. We're better off than they are,
promise you, Rookie inside linebacker Mark Robinson played seven defensive
snaps in Carolina, the first regular season defensive snaps he's
played in the NFL. You know, he's a running hit guy,
as you might describe him, and that makes him interest
and but what are some of the examples of the
kinds of things he has to learn about playing defense
(08:05):
before he can really can compete for a larger role.
You know, really just all the minutia associated with play. Um,
the ability the key and trust what your eyes tell you,
the ability to understand the communication component of the position
at this level, um, talking to the guys in front
of you, behind you. He's done an awesome job in
(08:25):
terms of growing over the course of this season, and
and that's why we gave him some snaps. He was
deserving the bat. Uh. He has a skill set that
we can't coach. Um. He embraces the physical component of play. Uh,
he's a physical matchup and confrontation guy. But the intellect
component of the game, the nuances of the game, the
things that you have to know to play football at
(08:46):
this level. He's still very much in development. He's a
one year linebacker at the college level. Within that year,
we did see some things that were really attractive, and
that's why we do a business with him, and and
he's proven those things to be true. UM. But we
got into this relationship with the understanding that it was
going to be a growth and development thing. UH. There
was a lack of exposure to the position. But if
(09:08):
you value coaching, UM, if if you honor coaching, you
run to those projects, not away from him. UH. I
love to be a part of someone's developmental process. That's
why we love drafting, you know, the third year junior,
the twenty year old guy. That's why we UM embrace that.
Some of our best experiences have been with guys that
were those type of guys, Marquees penalcy lejand Bell and others. UM.
(09:31):
I do the same thing about a guy who's relatively
new to a position, like embracing the opportunity to to
train going a wave as an offensive tackle, for example.
I think those are good coaching challenges, and I want
to put together a staff that embraces that UH and
helps young people get better. I think that's how we
add value to the talent that we have here. This
(09:52):
past Wednesday, the Steelers, the NFL, the people of Pittsburgh,
suffered a great loss when Frank o'harris died. As you
might say, his football accomplishments need no endorsement. But could
you relate your interactions with him a little bit in
the community. I tell you, man, he just was such
a special man um and for a lot of reasons. UM.
(10:14):
But but his appetite for people, his patience with people, UM,
his general good spirit UM, and love for this organization
in this community was very evident everything everything that he did. UM.
We had an opportunity to spent a lot of time
together non football settings. UM. You know he served on
(10:37):
on on some charitable boards with my wife. UM. I
served on the board or two with him years ago
when I first got here. UM. When you know him,
to get an opportunity to spend time with him, it
was just very evident that he's a guy that embraced
the responsibilities that came with being him, That he utilized
his platform for the collective good. UM. That he really
(10:57):
had a passion for the develop element, nurturing and assistance
of young people. UH. That can be reflected in the
businesses that he ran. UM. Whether it was the bakery
business that that featured UM. You know nutritional food, or
whether it was his involvement in things like Pittsburgh Promise,
which is a board that he and my wife served
on for a number of years, um, raising money to
(11:20):
educate UH Pittsburgh public school kids beyond the high school level. Um.
That's frank though. Um. He did it all in a
very humble way, UM, in a very matter of fact way. UM.
But boy man, his passion and love and patience for
people was ever president. This was planned to be a
special weekend for the Steelers franchise, with the celebration of
(11:43):
the fiftieth anniversary, the Immaculate Reception, and the retiring of
Franco Harris's jersey. To these kind of nostalgic events, celebrations
of franchise history, can they or do they service motivation
for the current team? I I think I think motivation
is is probably an inappropriate word. I think it's educational
(12:06):
more than anything else. To to be in a location
and having an opportunity to meet men, men that you
can relate to, men that that kind of walked into
in the in the same grounds that you walk on,
and see that ordinary people, collectively, through their efforts and
and work and spirit, can do extraordinary things. I think
it's a history lesson and so, UM, I think there's
(12:29):
an educational component that makes the discussion more than motivation.
I view it as education, and that's how I talked
through our guys. I educate them about the immaculate Reception
and it's impact not only on the lives of the
men involved, but this organization and what a what a
you know, what a global play it was to the
(12:49):
game of football. Um, in terms of its relationship with
its fans. Um. You know. I talk in that way because, Um,
I'm gonna appreciate of history. I'm a study of history,
World War two, etcetera, etcetera. I just think that when
we take the study ers approach, we're able to get
more out of it, and so it's a learning experience
(13:11):
more than anything else. That's the Mike Tomlin Game Day Podcast.
Subscribe in, download new episodes every week and check out
all of the other shows we have to offer on
the Steelers Podcast network that's available on the Steelers mobile app,
the I Heart Radio app, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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