BB: We're in the home stretch here.
What are you working on today?
Q: We talked a lot this week about
your former defensive coordinator. What about your current one? It seems
like Dean Pees has done a really good job for you guys.
BB: Dean has done a great job. I've known Dean for quite a while. He's
had a big impact on us here. He really has a great command of the whole
defensive system from the nose guard to the free safety and all the way in
between. He's very knowledgeable, well-prepared, a real thorough guy. I
really enjoy working with him. He's done an outstanding job for us.
Q: How unique are the circumstances that brought him here, with him being
in the college ranks for so many years and then coming here?
BB: I think you see a lot of guys make that transition. I think there are
number of them in the league. I can think of several, guys who have been
college coaches that are now NFL coaches and after a couple of years have
become coordinators. Good defensive coaches or offensive coaches can adapt
to a little different style, rules, talent. He's certainly in that category. Dean could coach for anybody, at any level, at any position.
Q: Is there some element with a college coach that brings something
different to the game because it's a little more rigid on what you can and
can't do?
BB: I don't know. I think there's a lot more scheme and skill, obviously,
at this level. I'm not taking anything away from college, but a lot of
college football is option football, in one way or another. You might not
have it every week, but you have it at some point during the year and then
you have to defend it, and that's something that we don't have a lot of, we
don't spend a lot of time defensively on, so that really cuts into a lot of
the college defensive preparation and schemes to handle the option of
running quarterbacks. At this level, we have a lot less of that and a lot
more sophisticated passing game. I think there's kind of a trade-off there.
I know I've talked to pro coaches that have gone to college and they're
happy not to have to deal with some of the passing game at this level, and
then college coaches that come into the NFL are happy not to have to deal
with the running quarterbacks and the option game at that level. There's a
trade-off there.
Q: How tough is it for a defense to lose coordinators like Romeo [Crennel] and [Eric] Mangini and have injuries and still be at the level
that you guys are at?
BB: As we've said many times, there's change in this league every year on
every team. Everybody has it. Different coaches, players, different levels,
but there's always transition every year. I think that's something that we
all understand and accept and deal with in whatever form or fashion it
comes.
Q: How important a role do your veterans then play?
BB: I think experience is always important and it's good to have, and
veteran players are good to have, but at the same time, to a certain degree,
everybody is on their own, and everybody has their own job to do. I can't do
somebody else's job. They can't do mine, and that's true for each player.
Everybody has to, in the end, uphold their area of responsibility and their
preparation. As much as somebody can provide experience and leadership and
guidance, whether it's a coach to a player, or a veteran player to another
teammate, it still comes down to each individual doing their job and
performing at their highest level at this point in the year.
Q: For coaches is there a difference between coaching and preparing and
play-calling for a playoff game versus a regular-season game?
BB: I think anytime you're in a single elimination series, it doesn't get
any more important than that. Everything is just heightened. One mistake,
one play and the season could be over. I think that's different than playing
in the eighth game of the year. I'm not saying the eighth game of the year
is not a big game, it's not an important game, or any game, but it's hard to
be eliminated from the rest of your season on a play in the sixth game of
the season, no matter how bad it is. Not that any of us want those, but it's
just not the same. Now, at this point in the season, one play, one call, one
game, and it's going to be it for somebody. We all know that. I think that
certainly puts more of an urgency, not that there isn't an urgency in a 16-game
regular-season schedule, it's not like we play 162 games. But in a 16-game
regular-season schedule, there's urgency on each game. But now, every
game is a single elimination. Every game. Your season rides on the outcome
of that one game.
Q: Can it affect your play-calling at all where you're more willing to
empty the barrel a little bit?
BB: I'm willing to empty the barrel every week. I'll do whatever we need
to do to win. I think every game is important. I don't know about that. I
just think you want to...look, you always want to make the best decision you
can make. I don't want to say it's even more true now, but in a way, I guess
it is. Whatever the decision is, you want to make it the best one and the
right one. You always want to do that, and maybe you give it just an extra
thought here to make sure and think, 'Is this what we really want to do in
this situation against this team? Is this really what we want?' You probably
ask yourself that question a couple of more times than you normally would.
Put it that way.
Q: Do you think players and coaches get a second wind when the playoffs
start?
BB: I think there is just more at stake. Again, I'm not trying to
minimize the regular-season games, but there's just more at stake. There's a
little extra urgency. There's a little extra focus. There's a little extra
intensity. I don't know how to measure that, but I can feel it. I think all
of us feel it.
Q: On Wednesday you talked about [Tom] Brady's success in the postseason.
How do you hope a lot of these new receivers will react to him on Sunday, or
how are they starting to feed off of him now leading up to the game?
BB: Again, we've had 16 regular-season games, four preseason games and
over 100 practices. All of that is a cumulative thing. When we get into
games and get into situations, that we'll be able to execute the plays based
on the look and the coverage and the situation that comes up, the way
they're designed to be executed. All of that, all of those practices, all of
those meetings, all of those games and regular full speed repetitions of the
play will hopefully put us at a higher point and a higher level of execution
this week. That's really what you're building towards, is to get everything
perfect and do everything right and understanding that realistically that's
not going to happen, but that's always your goal and your objective. Each
week, each practice, each meeting, each walk through, you hope that you're
getting a little bit closer to that. I hope that's what we're doing.
Q: Given some of the changes at the safety position in the last couple of
years with injuries, how much of a stabilizing presence has [Artrell] Hawkins been for this team?
BB: Hawk has done a great job for us. He really has. He's done a great
job. It's a little different than last year, in that he's been here the
whole year. He's been here all the way through training camp and all the way
through every game situation and every adjustment that we've had. Whereas
when you come in the middle of the season, you're kind of working from game
plan to game plan and you just don't have that same kind of base. Especially
in a game like this, with the Jets that do a lot of different things, give
you a lot of different looks and personnel combinations, 'Here's how we want
to play this. This is the way we played against Cincinnati,' or some team a
long time ago. I think everybody can identify with that, if they've been
here and they've experienced that. Now if they haven't, then of course,
that's different. I think that experience last year and being here the whole
year and his communication and his toughness and his ability to have a
presence in the game and see the same thing, but see the difference from one
play to the next based on the situation and on some subtle differences, he
does a good job of that. That's important.
Q: How vital is his responsibility of getting the team lined up?
BB: It's a big part of it. That's part of the safety's job, is to control
the secondary, and that's your last line of defense. Similar to the
quarterback on offense, you make a mistake in the secondary and it's a
touchdown. If the nose tackle makes a mistake, it doesn't have to be a
touchdown, if the people behind it play properly. It's like a quarterback. A
guard could miss a block and that's a mistake, it doesn't necessarily mean
it's going to be a turnover. The quarterback makes a mistake, they could be
in the end zone celebrating. It's decision making and it's recognition and
it's making sure that everybody is on the same page. That's part of the
position. That's part of the responsibility that comes with center,
quarterback, middle linebacker, and safety. Those people control your team
from the inside out, and that's part of their job.
Q: When you're facing a defense like the Jets that changes so much from
week to week, how difficult is it to prepare and do you put maybe a little
less stock in what they did last week or the week before?
BB: Yeah, I don't think you can be too worried about what they did. I
think you can identify it and respect it, but I think you have to, to a
degree, figure out how you think they're going to play you and what you need
to do, make sure you can defend what you think they have the highest
percentage chance of doing.
Q: Does it become a guessing game a little bit?
BB: It's always a guessing game.
There's no one team that just goes out there and only does one thing. Even
if a team just does two or three things, and they do those things well,
they're still going to complement each other
so that they can present problems to the other side of the ball. It's always
a guessing game, but I think it's more of just understanding, 'These are the
different possibilities,' and how would I handle each one of those. Then,
whichever one comes up in the game, then to be able to react to it and get
it done, versus getting surprised by something, [like] 'I never realized that on
this I would have to do that,' and that's when you really get killed.
Q: There's also the element of seeing something that they haven't shown
at all at this point, too.
BB: Right. That's true. That's definitely a possibility and I think that
there are two ways to look at that. There's that element of surprise and
certainly we've done that in the past. I'm not saying that. But anytime you
do that, then you're also taking the approach of we're doing something that
is new, and we've had a good year and we've won a lot of games doing things
that we have done before. Do we really want to take on something that is
brand new, versus do we want to take on something that maybe looks a little
bit different, but it's actually something that we're very comfortable and
familiar with doing? When you start taking on a whole new approach, yeah
you're going to catch a team by surprise, the question is whether you can go
out there and do it well enough to be successful, when you haven't done it
all year. I'm not saying you can't do that, I'm just saying that's the
element of risk that you take when you make that decision.
Q: I'm guessing that putting together a game plan every week is
time-consuming. Do you put together the offensive and defensive game plan
and then go over it with the assistant coaches? How does that whole process
work?
BB: Well, that would be a lot longer discussion than we have here today.
We have a very experienced staff in all three phases of the game, and I have
a lot of confidence in them. I think they do a great job of understanding
what our opponents do, how to attack them and putting our players in
position so that they can be competitive. We talk about things in different
ways, and it's a long week from Monday to Saturday. There are different
phases of that. To answer your question, believe me, the whole game plan
doesn't get done between Tuesday at noon and three in the afternoon. It's a
long process that continues today and it will continue tomorrow, for that
matter. I'm involved in it. Obviously they do the majority of the coaching
and the interaction with the players and they have a lot of input. Sometimes
more comes from one person, whether it be me or somebody else. Sometimes it
changes a little bit. It depends on the situation, and what the priorities
are that week or however we see it.
Q: What are your thoughts on Bill Cowher resigning today?
BB: Did he announce that?
Q: Not yet, but it's expected.
BB: I think the same thing I said about Nick [Saban]. I have a lot of
respect for Nick and Bill, as individuals and as coaches. Whatever decisions
they make, I totally respect. Whatever they have to say about it, I guess I
would agree with what they say. Bill has been there...I hate to even comment
on it because it hasn't happened yet. Obviously Bill is a great coach. He
has a great record. I coached against him when I was in that division, when
I was in Cleveland. Here we are 15 years later, it seems like one of the few
years that we haven't played them. It seems kind of unusual to not be
playing Pittsburgh. He's had a tremendous career there and he's had great
success. It's always a hard team to play against.
Q: What have you seen from D'Brickashaw Ferguson as a rookie?
BB: He's started every game, played every game. He's pretty much been
there the whole season. He's a really athletic guy. He runs well. He plays
on his feet, out on pulls, plays where he has to go up and block linebackers
on the second level off the line of scrimmage and things like that. He's
very athletic. He runs well. He's quick. He has long arms. He has a big
body. Like any rookie, he does some things better than others, but he's
competitive and he's athletic and he's pretty smart. He looks like he
doesn't make very many errors.
Q: Have you seen any one thing? You mentioned his athleticism, has he had
trouble with power? Any matchups that seem...
BB: Well, I think it depends on who he plays against. There's not a left
tackle in the league that doesn't have trouble with Jason Taylor and Aaron
Schobel in this division. I think you could talk to any left tackle, those
guys, they're great pass rushers and I'm sure left tackles that play against
[Richard] Seymour feel that same kind of respect for him.
There are a lot of
good players over there that they have to play against. Yeah, every tackle
has had trouble with those guys at one point or another.
Q: How has Leon Washington impacted their offense? It seems like his role
increased as the season went on. Has his role change any since you played
them earlier?
BB: No, I wouldn't say it's...I'd say he basically does the same things,
maybe it's a question of how many times he handles the ball, or how many
times he gets them. He's good on loose plays, like draws and screens and
short passes and things like that, when he gets the ball in some space. But
he can run the ball in traffic and he'll run the ball inside like we've seen
[Cedric] Houston and [Kevan] Barlow and the rest of them do. I think he can
do all of the things that they need him to do. Let's put it that way. He's
not in there all the time, but he is an elusive, quick guy that has the
quickness to him that's probably better than any other back that they have.
They have other guys who are bigger and probably more powerful, but he's
quick and he's added a threat and a dimension on punt returns.
Q: Is he a little like [Maurice] Jones-Drew?
BB: I'd say they're different. He's not just a get the ball and run
outside type of guy, even though he's not big in stature. He runs inside. He
does have an element of power. He's quick. He's a small back, but he doesn't
really play small. I'm not saying he plays like he's 240, but he doesn't
play like a little, tiny scat-back, almost like a wide receiver back there.
He runs tough inside and he gets the ball up the field and breaks tackles
and he runs through people and he has good balance. He's been a productive
player for them. He's certainly a guy that you have to be aware of out there
defensively. |
