GO: Back here on The Big Show, it is
Patriots Monday. Glenn Ordway, Freddy Smerlas, Steve DeOssie, Pete Sheppard. It's
time for Coffee With The Coach brought to you by
Dunkin' Donuts. Stop by Dunkin' Donuts today for a delicious coffee. America
runs on Dunkin'.
[Crosstalk]
GO: Let's talk about yesterday's
game. I thought it was interesting. A lot of the players talked after the
game and said that you were not pleased with a lot of stuff. Now, they might
have been talking out of school, but they did say that, it's on the record.
Were you not pleased about a lot of stuff out there in the game?
BB: Well, I think there were a lot of
things we could have done better in the game. Some of the points that we
really tried to emphasize going in, we didn't do a particularly good job of.
In the end though, the players made enough plays to win and made a few more
than the Bears, but I just think that we had a lot of mistakes that could
have been more costly than they were and fortunately we got by with it but I
wouldn't recommend it on a weekly basis, that's for sure.
GO: I would take it you probably
spent a lot of time last week being protective with the football knowing
that this is as big a ball-hawking team is out there.
BB: Sure, ball security and turnovers
were a big point of emphasis. The long balls, the deep throws, which is
really the essence of the Bears' passing game, punt protection, things that
we really put a lot of time and effort into last week. I didn't think in
some cases were particularly well-executed.
FS: Well the field goal, I mean your
special teams was better. They covered, which was decent. Field goal...
BB: I thought Kenny [Walters] did a
real good job on the punts. He put a lot of hang time on the ball and
[Devin] Hester really didn't get much of a chance to get them going and you
know we had a good net punting average. Kenny did a great job. It was the
perfect way to play against a returner like that.
FS: Everyone made a lot of stink
about the Tampa-2. Could you explain a little bit about the Tampa-2 as
opposed to the regular Cover-2?
BB: In the Tampa-2 the middle
linebacker runs deep to the middle of the field so he's almost like a free
safety. So really Tampa-2 plays more like Cover-3. It's more of a three-deep
coverage than two-deep. But the Bears really didn't play it that much
against us. I think they only got it by be 12 times, 30-some times they were
in man-to-man Cover-1, and then probably about another 10 times in some type
of three-deep zone or blitz zone. So that's pretty much what we saw. We saw
a lot more free safety, post safety coverages. Not too much split safety,
two-Tampa and quite a bit man-to-man.
SD: Any early feedback on the new
turf, the new field. How do the guys feel playing on it?
BB: I really didn't ask the players
about it after the game. We practiced on it and it seemed to be fine; I
don't think anybody had any problems with it.
FS: It looked like the timing with
the receivers a little bit, I mean there was one pass to [Benjamin] Watson at the end
of the half, he threw it about three yards before his break, and in that mud
it seems like he hesitates a little bit more because not knowing exactly
when the break is going to be because it slows you down. Did it help a
little bit with the timing patterns against the man?
BB: Oh, well there's no question that
the footing and the conditions were a lot better in this game than what
they've been in any other one. So that helps everything, it helps the pass
rush, helps the pass patterns, helps the running backs cut in the open
field. I think it just improves the overall quality level of play.
PS: Has this been the most physical
game you guys have been involved in all year? There was some major hitting
going on, on both sides.
BB: I'd say I'd put it up there.
I mean, the Denver game was pretty physical. But yes, they're a very
physical team. And we try to be too, so it probably was, Pete. I think
that's probably accurate.
GO: How difficult is it to run
against the Bears? It seemed like there were open holes and next
thing you know they're so quick defensively in closing down that hole. It
was amazing.
BB: Well, to honest with you Glenn, I
thought we'd have a little more success than we did. They've given up their
share of yardage on the ground this year and I thought that we'd be able to
punch out a couple. Corey [Dillon] had a nice one on the
off-tackle play there in the first quarter and got it down there about, I
don't know, what was it, 30 yards? Something like that. So we split them a
couple times, but I really hoped that we would run the ball a little better
than we did and try to have a little bit more balance. But in the end we
were able to make some plays in the passing game, and we were getting a lot
of man coverage and they kept dropping that extra guy down, and playing a
lot of 8-man fronts and their safeties were in on a number of plays, [Chris] Harris and before he got hurt there, the other kid, anyway, their
safeties are dropping down into the front so that kind of hurt us in the
running game, too. A couple times we had good plays and we would have had
probably pretty solid gains, but the safety came in there and made the
tackle pretty close...
PS: [Interrupting] Your running back
out of the backfield catching the ball was tremendous.
BB: Right, and that opened up a few
things there, too, where they're trying to play man-to-man from the inside
with those inside linebackers and they just couldn't get out there and get
on them a couple times.
FS: Similar to Denver had walked up
the safeties a lot of safety play early trying to take it seemed to be
taking away the run and pressing you into making the passing game work. And
fortunately the passing game did work. And there was one great play
by [Kevin] Faulk and another instance where the field was third down I think
throw over the middle he made a tremendous cut for the first down. Lousy
field he does it. But Faulk coming out of the backfield knows where to go
and seems to set down the right places.
BB: Yes, he's very good at that and Laurence [Maroney] did a good job of that, too. So I think our
backs overall did a good job in the passing game, both in blitz pickup where
we really didn't have a lot of pressure on the quarterback and then they got
out into some routes and made a couple plays in open spaces and when they
drop everybody back in those zones it's something that the quarterback just
has to do is be patient and hit those underneath throws and get those six,
seven, eight yard gains, and you just can't try to force the ball down the
field into really tight spots and end up getting it turned over.
FS: Do you ever have to slow the
camera down when [Tom] Brady made that cut flashed and blind the guys in the
locker room? [Laughter] How did it look on film?
BB: Uh, it looked like [Brian] Urlacher hesitated a little bit like he wasn't quite sure, maybe he was a little
surprised that Brady was running and didn't maybe anticipate that he was
going to continue to keep running, but Tom made a...he was kind of deceptive
there and made a little shake there to the left, and then...you remember,
Tom had that long run against Cincinnati, right?
GO: Yes.
FS: Yes. Twenty-two yards?
BB: So I think that Tom does a
good job of when he does run he runs at the right times and a lot of times
it's in man-to-man coverage when the defense all has their back turned and
they're out covering their man and there's some space to go there and that's
really the time when a quarterback like Tom can make some yardage because
everybody's not really paying attention to him, they're trying to cover
their receivers.
GO: That's a Maroney move,
right there.
[Laughter]
PS: You won't change your offense to
the option or the wishbone or anything like that?
[Laughter]
SD: Does the Junior Seau injury change your mindset defensively? 3-4, 4-3, substitutions?
BB: I think the way we finish the
game is the way we went through training camp when [Tedy] Bruschi was hurt, with Mike playing inside and Rosey [Colvin] and Tully [Banta-Cain] both playing outside, and that's where we
ended up back yesterday, was with Tedy at "Mike" and [Mike] Vrabel over at
the "Will" spot, so we can play that way. We played that way last year with
Mike and Tedy inside and I think there's always going to be an element of
multiple fronts going into game plans and picking the best thing for a
particular game but as far as the 3-4 goes, that's been a base part of our
defense all year. It's been pretty good; we've played it fairly well and I'd
hate to just toss that out based on...I mean, if we didn't have Mike to go
in there and play it, that might be one thing. But we've played with him
this year and last year and he's done a good job for us, so I think that
will certainly be an element of our scheme.
[Joking around among the co-hosts]
GO: I don't want to put you in a
position to talk about the officials ... certainly. We talked about the Artrell Hawkins phantom pass interference out there, and I want to ask
you because we were discussing this earlier: would you favor them using
instant replay to in any way determine a pass interference call?
BB: Oh boy, I don't know. I think in
a way that would really open up a big can of worms. It's a judgment call,
pass interference, then holding, then...kind of, where do you draw the line?
I think the way it is now – is the runner down, is the
ball out, is he out of bounds, is he in bounds – I think that's a lot more
reviewable because...I mean, it's still tough but at least it's clear cut.
Whereas, is he playing the ball, is he playing the man, where is the ball –
I think that it would be hard to do. I really do.
GO: But isn't it fairly defined?
FS: But it's so much judgment. Even
when they're looking at it, it's judgment.
BB: Again, as long as the defender is
playing the ball, contact is incidental. If he's playing the man, it isn't.
So he's chasing the man and then he turns and looks for the ball – when does he turn and look, when is there
contact, does the receiver run into him, does he bump into the receiver, who
initiates it, all of that. I think it would be hard. [Laughing] I don't know
if there are enough challenges.
PS: But as a coach, what do you say
to Artrell Hawkins and [Ellis] Hobbs it was the play after, or two plays after ...
how do you coach that, how do you say 'You're doing the job but you're
getting screwed at the same time'?
BB: Well, what a defensive back has
to do is he has to understand that once the ball is in the air that he has
to turn and play the ball – and you just can't
play the man. So whether that's based on timing or whether it's based on
actually seeing the ball thrown or whether it's based on the receiver's
reactions, that you know he's going to get the ball and it's already been
thrown, then at that point you have to turn and get your eyes on the ball
and play the ball. And then if there's contact it doesn't matter but as long
as you're not looking at the ball and there's any type of contact that the
official feels is initiated by the defender, it's a foul. So that's the way
it is. And now you have elements of holding, illegal contact and pass
interference depending when the ball's in the air and how far downfield it
is and all that, so that kind of complicates the whole rule system because
on some of those plays was the ball in the air, wasn't it in the air, is it
holding, is it contact, is it interference, that brings up a whole other set
of problems. I think that's how you have to coach it. Nobody's saying it's
easy, but I'm just telling you what the rule is and that's how you have to
play it or you'll get called every single time.
PS: I just thought they were playing
by the rules. [Crosstalk] I just thought it was good coverage....
BB: It was like the play, like on the post pattern
there, I think it was the first quarter, with Hobbs in the end zone. He
was chasing the ball and his legs kind of got tangled up with the receiver
so the receiver went down and there was no foul. I think the officials
judged that both players were playing the ball, they were both running
for it, their feet got tangled up and that's not a foul. But had Ellis not been looking at
the ball or running at the ball and
just kind of chasing the man and that same situation occurred,
then I think that that probably would have been grounds for an infraction.
FS: Similar situation: [Chad] Jackson seemed
to be face guarded by one of the Bears' defenders.
PS: That was so obvious.
FS: Do you take those two and
send them in and say, 'Why is this not called and that one...'?
BB: That was a tough call there, too,
when [Charles] Tillman went up there and he really wasn't [FS: No.]
playing the ball at all; he was playing the receiver. I don't know how much
contact there was with the receiver; it's sort of hard to tell. A lot
of times the TV copy gives you a better look. Watching it
on TV, you get a better look at those interference calls than you do from the camera
up there on top of the stadium from the top of the press box. So it's sort
of hard to tell how much contact there was between Tillman and Jackson on that particular play. But that one of those where the defender's
chasing the receiver, he sticks his arm up, if he doesn't hit the receiver
even though he's not playing the ball and he just luckily gets his hand
in there then that's okay. If he contacts the receiver then that's the
situation.
FS: Do you send them in and say
'Review this.'
BB: No, I haven't sent a play in to
the officials in, I don't know, it's been several years.
GO: Can we?
[Laughter and crosstalk]
BB: They grade their officials. If
there's a rule that
I don't understand, then I might call and ask for a clarification or an
interpretation of a particular rule or a situation. If they see it one
way and I see it another, then it's either
going to be 'Well, the officials made a mistake,' or 'You made a
mistake. You didn't really see it correctly. This is what happened.'
GO: Did you see the wild one they had
in the San Diego-Oakland game? The play with the forward pass after
[Vincent] Jackson was down? Nobody touched
him, did a little celebration, spun the ball, it goes forward, that's a forward
pass. I didn't realize that.
BB: Yes. That play's come up...
GO: Plaxico Burress.
BB: Plaxico had one a
couple years ago: got up,
spiked the ball, wasn't touched and I forget who it was, Jacksonville or
somebody picked it up and ran it back about 30, 40 yards, back to about the ten yard line. So those
are plays that you just have to be aware of the situation. Go until you're down. There
was another play last night, too, where Tom got hit just as he
threw the ball and the ball went about twenty yards past the...
[Everybody says 'Yes' at once.]
BB: And really the way the rule is
now, every player on that field should have been going for the ball.
[Everyone agreeing] They did react to it but not...and that's
the thing I really don't like about that rule is I think you have a dangerous situation where
you have guys going for the ball that saw what happened, and then you have
other guys that maybe were running their route or covering somebody that
didn't really see the ball – how it got to where
it was, whether it was a pass or
a fumble or got hit or whatever, and they're not playing it but other guys
are and it's just that whole play until the whistle. But you can't do
that anymore; you have to play until the possession of the ball. It changes just
the kind of dynamics, and what I worry about is just someone getting hurt, because the ball's
laying there, they don't see it and somebody else goes and dives on it, and they get blown up because they're not defending themselves.
FS: Let me ask you a question
about, a lot of people asked us about the double reverse. On the
first handoff on the reverse, does the back have an option to hold...
BB: No. No, I mean that's a great question. When
we watched the play, Fred, [laughing] we were sitting there saying geez. We
were tempted but
the idea was to get their defense to react to the reverse and we
thought when we ran the reverse they'd see the reverse and they
would react to that. And then you kind of have everybody standing over on
one side of the field when you double it and you can just seal them all in,
but they really overreacted to the toss play. And we had them all pinned;
there was only one guy, just the linebacker [Hunter] Hillenmeyer on the
back side ... and there was a lot of space out there for [Reche] Caldwell.
But the play was for him to give it back to Jackson and we just
didn't...we got more on the initial reaction than we thought and not as much on
the reverse action
as what we anticipated, so we ended up running it right back into a mess. When you run a play like
that there is obviously risk for a big gain, or a potential loss,
and unfortunately we lost.
FS: Let me ask you a question,
they're a one-gap progressive defense, they come upfield a lot. Is it
more apt to run a play action pass against a two-gap reaction team as
opposed to [inaudible] team like that? Because they're just coming upfield.
BB: I think on the play action passes it
just depends on who you're trying to effect. If you're trying to affect the
linebackers, then you can run it on – it doesn't really matter
what the front is, you're trying to get the linebacker to step up to create some space in
the secondary. If you're trying to slow down the pass rush, then that's
kind of a different type of play. That's usually a much harder play action
sell, and you try to get the linemen to really think it's a run and
give the quarterback a little more time, like for example a
flea flicker, that type of play where you really need more time to execute
the pass.
PS: Staying on Jackson just for a second, we
was about maybe six inches away totally from having a tremendous game. The bomb that Brady threw him, he missed him by about a foot, and then the
face guarding penalty that should have been called, then that would
have been a huge gain, too. And you'd said [last] Monday how you thought you would probably try to get him
more involved in the offense. Did you like what you saw from him on Sunday?
BB: Well I would have liked to have
seen him caught the pass down the sideline. I mean, that was a play where the Bears were in Cover-2, and Tom looked down the middle
and got the safeties to kind of
take the receiver running down the middle of the field, and then he he
laid it out there and Jackson was probably five, ten yards behind the
safety who was going to
the guy down the middle that Brady was looking at. So you'd like to see
any time you throw the ball down the field like that and the receiver has a
chance at it you'd like to see the receiver come up with
those, however it happens, whether it's taking the ball away from Tillman or finishing the go-route down the...
PS: [Interrupting and everyone
talking at once] It seemed like he slowed up just a tad at the last
second. It seemed to have cost him the catch.
BB: Well, I don't know. But in any case,
you only get so many of those a game. It's not like you're going to get ten
of them. You're lucky if you get one, and if you have one or two of those a game,
those are the ones that...you're right, that's the difference between having
a great game...it's the difference between having two homeruns and flying out twice. So
those are the ones that we have to connect on. And we're close. It's kind of
like the flea flicker
to Troy [Brown] in the Denver game; it's a matter of inches but if
you don't hit it it's just a foul ball.
SD: Watching Urlacher on
TV or on film is one thing, but watching him on the field, it seems even all
that much more impressive to see a guy that size move that fast deliver that much punishment. What
type of player is he in the overall scheme of great linebackers
that you've coached and seen?
BB: You know, Steve, I think he's
really a unique player. He's very tall for a middle linebacker, he's over 6'4",
and he runs well which we've seen that before, and even in this division, guys like
[London] Fletcher[-Baker] and Zach Thomas and all. I doubt that he's a lot faster than they are, but he's just so much
taller and
has a lot of range. I think the thing that he does well is he's a very
good pass defender. And because he' so tall he's a hard guy to
throw over, whether he's blitzing or whether he's in coverage, it's
just hard to get the ball around him. It's like when you play racquetball or
play tennis against a big, tall guy, he has such a big reach you feel like you
can't get the ball by him. He's kind of
like that. I think that in the running game he's good but I think his height probably hurts him
a little bit there in terms of leverage in terms of blockers and all compared,
again, to a guy like Fletcher or Zach Thomas, those guys have 160, 170 tackles a year,
that type of thing. They may have a little bit better quickness and be a little bit quicker in line, but
he has so much range and speed in the passing game and as a blitzer, you
know,
he's a tall guy that can use the arm over moves and stuff like that as
a blitzer and he's pretty effective for a middle linebacker.
FS: Let me ask you about ... the
kicker. [Crosstalk] Fifty-two yard kick, he kicked off extremely well into
the end zone a bunch of times. I mean that was a hell of a kick for a young
kid in a pressure game.
BB: Boy, it was. Watching that
again this morning, I don't know that I've ever seen a kick come that close to the upright and that close to the cross bar. I mean it just tucked right
there in the corner by a few inches, but
that was a big kick for us. I thought we had a nice two-minute drive
there to get the ball down there and have a chance to go off the field with
a little bit of momentum and a couple extra points. Fortunately the timeout was taken there on
the previous kick that we didn't make and then Stephen [Gostkowski] kind of
straightened it out enough to get it through.
FS: The first one he missed
would have been about 65. He hit that a mile – the first one, that he missed.
BB: Right.
FS: But his kickoffs also were
extremely good.
BB: He kicks off well. He's always kicked off well – I mean the whole season. But that 52-yarder was a big
one. We haven't had
a lot of 50-yard field goals here recently. And of course on that field we
haven't had too many attempted over 40 for that matter. But that was a
big kick and those were big points. I think Kenny did a good job for us, too;
not only punting but also the holding aspect of it. It was good to see
the ball go through there.
GO: Obviously that was at the end of
the quarter so he's going to take that shot, but have you changed his
range? Do you take his range with this field now as opposed to what you were
dealing with before?
BB: Oh definitely. Yes, the footing
is so much better, especially in
the middle of the field where you're kicking from. I mean obviously you
can make the kicks from between the hash marks, and that's where the field got pretty chewed up,
so I think the range is better. Even on a bad field, if it's the end of
the half and you have to have it to win the game, or
it's the last play of the half, well you have nothing to lose by trying a
55-, 50-whatever. If you miss it, you miss it. But to take that kick in the
first quarter and have
a ten percent chance of making it or whatever and then you miss it and
now they have the ball on your 45-yard line, that's a lot of field position to
give up. So that's part of the
problem in the decision making. You know, we've gone for a lot of
fourth downs this year and a lot of those fourth downs have come on what
would have been 40-plus-yard field goals, so if it's fourth-and-one or fourth-and-two and
the ball's on the whatever, 32-yard line, you have to decide whether you
have
a better chance of getting fourth-and-two or do you think you have a better chance of kicking
a 49-yard field goal in a sandbox? And that's kind of some of the
decisions that came up in the first half of the season.
SD: You mentioned Chicago's long passing game and
their attempts at trying to go deep, obviously you looked at that this week
and it seemed to
help Asante Samuel out. After he jumped that first quick slant
on a blitz and then was well-prepared for the deep passes coming up with three interceptions.
Something you specifically worked on that long passing game during the week?
BB: Yes, we sure did, Steve. And
again, the long passes for the most part really came on first and second
down – they were play action passes. And on
third down they were much more of a possession team – try to get the five or ten that they needed to stay on the
field. They did throw that one up, the one that Artrell had the penalty on,
which I don't think that was really designed to go there, I think that was
just more of everybody was covered and just throw it up there and hope for the best.
And they ended up getting it. But James Sanders was back there, made
a nice play on
on a go pattern. Ellis was back there a couple times, broke one
up, and the other one in the end zone. So they probably threw ten
of them on us. A couple times they didn't get the ball off, but
they were trying to throw them. But that was a big point of emphasis. That's
what the Bears do, they run, run, run, take a shot down the field on
a big play action pass, run, run, run, throw a shot. And then on third down
they're much more of a possession team.
FS: Speaking about passing, I
think some of the comments by the Bears, they said they thought
they'd get more pressure on the quarterback than they did. Nice job by the
offensive line. The front coming in and being together, with Stephen Neal being back,
and they really seemed to be setting a nice pocket and giving Brady time.
It was an exceptional job against a pretty good pass rushing team.
BB: It was, our pass protection was
good. I think our pass protection overall was
real good and it also gave Tom the opportunity against some of those zones to
lift the defenders off and try to create a little more
space in the underneath passing lanes. They blitzed us a number of times and
for the most part we did a pretty good job of picking that up. I thought our protection was good. I
think our overall running game, production in the running game could have been better,
but I thought our pass blocking was good.
[Crosstalk]
GO: All right, let's get to this week's opponent,
the Detroit Lions. This is a team we don't get an opportunity to see
an awful lot and you don't get an opportunity to see an awful lot.
FS: Thanksgiving Day.
GO: We did see them Thanksgiving Day,
that's the point I was going to bring up. they looked like world beaters
early on in that game. But they seem to do that – they
look very good for a while and then they fall apart. What is it
that seems to break down with this team?
BB: Well, as you know, Glenn, their
offensive coordinator is Mike Martz, and of course we've gone up
against him and his offenses at St. Louis. They're a wide open passing team, they
do a lot of shifting, motion, three wide receivers, four wide receivers, they pretty much do it all.
They get down on the one- or the two-yard line and go empty and
throw tight end screens. It could be third-and-two and they'll throw a
20-yard in-cut. They just...they'll wing it. So they're a very explosive
passing team. We've had a lot of
trouble – as everybody has – playing that type of passing game. [Jon] Kitna's
done a good job of running the offense, they have obviously a
great receiver in [Roy] Williams and a terrific running back
in [Kevin] Jones, who didn't play on Thanksgiving. They're a very explosive offensive football team. Good, experienced offensive
line, similar to the Chicago line, and a lot of veteran players. They
can move the ball defensively; they're from that Tampa school. So
they run a lot of one-gap defense, penetrators, upfield pass rush guys.
And they have a very good return game and a good kicker. They've
obviously had their moments and turned the ball over and had, at
times, trouble on defense but they've also played very good football. From a passing standpoint
I'm sure that they'll try to exploit their passing game against our
situation in the secondary. And we'll probably see a lot of multiple
receiver sets, because they use them anyway, and I'm sure that they'll use
them just like...and use more of them and try to create some
more mismatches in the passing game.
FS: Kitna's a guy that,
sometimes he's an All-Pro, next day he's a little inconsistent.
But if he gets on a roll, we saw it last year when he came in for [Carson] Palmer, didn't miss a beat. He's a smart player, too. He can pick the
receiver.
BB: Oh, you bet, Fred. He's had a
couple games where he's hit 12, 15 in a row. Yes, he
can light it up. They're a good offensive football team. They can run it, they can throw it – and they throw it deep. They don't throw a lot of
two-yard fullback to the flat, check-downs and four-yard curl
routes and that kind of thing. When they throw it they're hitting those
20-yard in-cuts, they're hitting those receivers down the seam,
they're hitting those 15-yard comebacks. Just like they did against the Jets, they come back against the Jets in the first quarter, they go
80 yards in four plays in a minute-and-a-half. Twenty-yard in-cut,
20-yard screen, 20-yard comeback, 20-yard post – boom, they're in the end
zone.
GO: All right, it's time for the Eastern Mass. Volkswagen Dealers' Coach's
Question of The Week. This one, Coach, comes from Bob in West Bridgewater:
he asks the question, 'How many hours a week do you spend watching film
of the next week's opponent and when do you
start?'
BB: I start watching film on the next
week's opponent on Friday and
Saturday of the prior week. So today's now Monday, I've probably
already watched a good eight to ten hours of Detroit in the
extra time on Friday and Saturday after we kind of finish up our
preparations on Chicago. Now as it turned out, Chicago and Green
Bay both played Detroit earlier in the season, so there is
some carryover on those games, as well. When we were watching one team
you kind of get a feel for the other team – who is matched up against who
and that type of thing. And then from this week on, Monday and Tuesday
are the big film days. We really try to watch a lot of game film; I'd
say probably a good half of the day is on that. And then as you get
further into the week you break it down into situations, like Wednesday all
the runs, all the play action passes; Thursday all the third downs, all the
red area; Friday all the goal line, two minute. Then each special teams
segment: kickoff team one day, punt team the next day. So I'd say,
depending on which day of the week and how well you know the team and how much extra work
you feel like you need to do on them, probably four to five
hours a day.
GO: When you first look at the
film, do you watch it to see sequentially what they're doing as a team, or
do you have your video people already break down this
is what they're going to do?
BB: It's all broken down. If
you want to start looking at the breakdowns you can start.
I kind of like to watch game film and just watch how they play and how
their opponent is playing them, especially a division team. Like watching Detroit against Green Bay or Minnesota or Chicago,
teams that know them well and know their personnel –
who are they doubling and which side are they trying to run the pass rush
games on and what running plays are they trying to run and what route concepts are
they trying to hit and that type of thing. Then once you kind of go through
that and you
get a feel for, okay, here's what they do on first and second down,
here's what they do on third down, here's their goal line package, here's
their two-minute package. Then go back and look at it broken up by all their
two-tight end plays, all their single-tight end plays, all their sub blitzes,
all their regular blitzes and stuff like that.
FS: What's the latest you go into the night?
BB: I'm not really that late of a
night guy. I can't stay up too late. Usually by 8 o'clock I'm...
GO: Eight o'clock?!
BB: Eight or nine o'clock, that's the
point of diminishing returns...
GO: Go to bed at eight or nine
o'clock? Really?
BB: Well, I mean I'm probably done
studying then, I might do some...
GO: Oh, okay.
BB: ...kind of wrap-up stuff. But I'm
probably not getting a whole lot done after nine o'clock.
[Crosstalk]
BB: Here's my Question of the Week,
Glenn, and Fred and Pete: with the college pass interference rule being 15
yards and the pro pass interference rule being the spot of the foul, which do you prefer?
PS: We brought this up earlier.
[Crosstalk]
BB: Oh, well I don't want to re-pave
the road now.
PS: As the guys pointed out
appropriately, that if you adopted the college rule in the pros, there
would probably be tackling all over the place. [GO: Couldn't do it.] You couldn't do it. However, maybe it doesn't have to be 15
yards, maybe it's 25 yards, or 30 yards maximum. But I think it need s to be
amended somewhat.
GO: I agree.
PS: I think it's too much...it's an unfair advantage.
Especially all the bad refereeing.
FS: I think the refs should be
full-time.
PS: It's bad.
GO: We actually argued this earlier. I
agree, I think we go by the pro system. I think you could not adopt the
college system into the pro system or you'd have anarchy out there. Do you
think you could?
[Crosstalk]
BB: I think the argument would be well
at least you're not giving up
those cheap 50-yard plays, where they don't even throw and catch it,
it's just there's a bump there and now the ball moves half the length of the
field. You don't have that type of situation anything over
15 yards at least it's only that might be the same situation. But
the flip side of it is you might have more calls on guys saying anything
over 15 yards just go ahead and grab him, what do you have to lose? At least
it's only 15, not 50.
GO: The game would last
four-and-a-half hours. The players are too good.
BB: Right. And that might be the same
situation if you were replaying those, as well. But I think it's an
interesting discussion,
one that's come up in the league kind of every year to see how the feelings have
changed or not and that's kind of how it goes back and forth is there's
a certain element that feels that
50 yards is a lot of yards for just a bump.
GO: It's a game-changer.
BB: Sure, it's a huge game-changer.
GO: I mean yesterday for you guys, it could have changed that entire game.
FS: Here's a question: why can't
you call for review inside two minutes? That's the most crucial part of the
game.
GO: You were arguing for that
yesterday, correct?
BB: I couldn't... [Crosstalk] I was
shocked they didn't review the Dillon fumble when they reviewed the Caldwell and the Watson catches [SD: Right.], which, neither one of those were with a timeout and that was
actually a change of possession and so there was more time to look
at that. But what the procedure is, the replay official upstairs looks at the play and
then he calls down to the referee and says 'You need to take a look at
this one.' And if he looks at it and feels that there really isn't anything to
review, that it was called correctly, then they keep the game going.
GO: And you believe they were right,
right?
BB: Well...I think Dillon probably...that play probably was a fumble. I don't think he was down.
So maybe the replay official saw that and that's...
PS: [Interrupting] When it's close
enough to review, like you said, considering what...
GO: [Interrupting] Considering the
previous two.
BB: Considering what was at stake there.
[Crosstalk]
FS: But the point is, why can't you
throw...the most crucial part of the game is the end of the half and the end
of the game, and then they tie your hands where you can't challenge a
call that may change the flow of the game. That seems stupid.
BB: Yes. Fred, I'm with you. I
think the thinking on that was – and again, I don't want to speak out of turn here – but I think the thinking on that was that in a
two-minute situation you're really trying to manage the clock and use
your timeouts. So then if you have to think about withholding timeouts for
potential challenges...in other words, say you use your timeouts to get the
ball back or something...
FS: Consequence.
BB: But I'm saying now you lose
the opportunity to do that, so rather than thinking about, okay well I
have to save a timeout for
a challenge, that you can go ahead and use your timeouts however you want to use them, to
conserve time, and then if a game-changing or a possession play comes up, that's handled upstairs. My
question would be well
why not do it that way the whole game? [Everybody agreeing] But that's another
decision for the coaches to make. Like what happened in yesterday's
game when I challenged [Bernard] Berrian's catch there. By
losing that challenge you really lose two challenges not one. Because you
win two then you get a third. So once you lose that first one now you only
have one left. So that's why I
kind of hate to challenge that first one and lose it. Because I thought
about the one they caught in front of Asante there on that comeback
there on the second drive of the game. But I just wasn't...I kind of got a good look at it and I
wasn't sure that it wasn't a catch. So like I said, if you challenge
that first one and lose it, then you're really down two instead of one. But
as Fred says, it is what it is.
[Laughter and crosstalk]
GO: All right, there you go the Eastern Mass. Volkswagen Dealers' Coach's Question of The Week,
and of course the 'dumb co-host question of the week.' Bob is now registered to win a trip for two to the pro football
championship in Miami. Stop by your local Eastern Mass. Volkswagen dealer or
logon to WEEI.com, submit a question for the
coach and register for a trip to the big game. Well, congratulations on
yesterday's victory, Coach. Good luck on Sunday and we'll see you back here on Monday.
BB: Thank you.
[Crosstalk]
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