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BB: We're plugging along here, just
watching the Colts on third down. They're pretty impressive really. Nobody
does it better than they do. Offensively, they set the standard during the
regular season this year, and of course in the playoffs, defensively,
they've shut two teams down to almost nothing. I'm sure that will be a big
factor in the game, as it always is a very important part of the game. We'll
try to put a little extra work in on that and hope we can be competitive in
that area.
Q: When you look at [Tedy] Bruschi and Troy Brown's careers here, do you see a similarity in terms of what
they've done here and how they've risen up as Patriots and what they've been
to this franchise?
BB: Sure. They probably would have a lot more in common as a comparison
than some other guys that you could name. Yes. Tough, hard-working guys that
set a great example. They're great players. They set a great example for
everybody else. They put the team first. They're good to coach. They're good
to work with. I'm glad we have them.
Q: I would assume a big part of your preparation is to try to be
third-and-manageable when you're working on third down. What is
third-and-manageable?
BB: No question we're trying to do that. That's an objective for us every
week. I just think that the shorter the distance, the more options you have,
where you could pretty much give the ball to anybody and pick it up.
Whereas, the longer the yardage, realistically, there are only so many guys
that can gain, whatever formation you line up in, there are only so many guys
that can gain 15 yards if that's what you need. You can't run them all down
there at 20 yards deep. Whereas, you get in a third-and-one, third-and-two,
third-and-three, you can hand it off, you can throw it to the backs, you can
throw it to the tight ends, you can throw a quick pattern to the receivers,
you can combine a deep pattern with a short pattern, throw deep depending on
the coverage, or throw short if that's not there and they take it away. It
just gives you more options. You still have to execute the play. No matter
what you have called, you have to execute it. I think it gives you more
options. It's harder to defend. Depending on what the play is, it gives the
offense, or the quarterback, multiple ways to attack the defense instead of
just having to run down there and throw a 20 yard pass, or count on a guy to
break a couple of tackles to get the yardage.
Q: How important has Brian Daboll been to the development of the offense?
BB: Brian has done a great job for us. He's been here since I've been
here and he's done a number of different things for us. He's had a number of
different roles on the team. A very competent, hard-working guy. He has a
good background in football. He came in here from Michigan State and was
very well trained, even though he hadn't been with us, he probably knew our
system better than a lot of the other new people that came in because of his
background. I think he understands the game and works hard and does a good
job with the players that he's coached, getting them prepared and making
sure they understand, not only what we're doing, but what our opponents are
doing and how to deal with it.
Q: When you have a lot of turnover at a position, does the position coach
become that much more important?
BB: I think every coach is important. Every coach has got to get his
players ready to play, and again, that encompasses both what we do and what
our opponents do and what to anticipate and how to take advantage of the
individual matchups that they have and how to take advantage of the schemes
that they give us. It's important for every coach. I don't think you can
say, 'It's important to have this guy be a good coach, but it really doesn't
matter about somebody else.' I think it's all important.
Q: Do you think that when he's teaching these guys, because he started
here as a defensive coach, that has helped him?
BB: Absolutely. No question about it. Absolutely. I think Brian
understands coverages, as Josh [McDaniels] does too, for the same reason,
that they've coached on the defensive side of the ball. They know what the
defensive adjustments are, kind of what things you can do on defense and
what things maybe you can't do or are hard to do, what adjustments are easy
for a defense to make, what adjustments are hard for a defense to make, even
within a certain coverage, and then how to combine those coverages based on
formations or route combinations. I think they have a real good
understanding of that, as does the quarterback.
Q: What did Nick [Saban] tell you about him?
BB: I'll just put it this way, Nick recommended him, which that carried a
lot of weight with me.
Q: How well has Tedy played over the course of the season compared to his
best playing before he had the stroke? Is he basically as good as he was
before?
BB: Yes, I think Tedy is a good player. He's a good player. Like every
player, some plays are better than others. I think that goes for all of us.
We've all had moments that are better than others. I don't think you can
exclude anybody from that group. Tedy does a great job for us in a lot of
ways. He does a lot of different things. He's versatile. He's smart. He
brings a great level of toughness to our team and our defense. He's a very
instinctive player. There are a lot of things that he does that sometimes you
really don't coach. He just makes the right decision and just does the right
thing at the right time, in a split-second he has to make a decision and
makes the right one. You can map out some guidelines and that type of thing
for players, but there are just some plays that are just instinctive.
There are a million things flying around and they have a split-second to make
a decision and he usually makes the right one. Like Troy Brown does. Like
[Tom] Brady does. Like a lot of players that I would throw into that
category. Sometimes you could never create the exact situation that comes up
for them. They just have to react to it.
Q: Can you talk about the importance that you put on situational football
and how much time you spend on clock management, managing timeouts, replay
and things like that?
BB: I think that's a very important part of the game. I think it comes in
a lot of different phases. To me, situational football is, really, the two
areas that you mentioned, 1) as it relates to clock management or game
management, and 2) as it relates to one play. If you're in there for one
play, whether it's third down, whether it's a punt return, whether it's a
goal line play, the last play of the half, whether it's a Hail Mary, those
one play situations. Knowing what you want to do in that situation and
getting everybody to, first of all, recognize what the situation is, and
then get everybody to do it, that's where you want to be as a football team.
You start in training camp and you go through those situations and you
practice them kind of generically and then through the course of the season,
a lot of times add things so that you have more than one way to play a
particular situation, especially if it's a fairly frequent one. Then you
keep repping that, and then of course it depends on what the other teams do,
and sometimes other teams don't always do the same thing. They might have a
different way of approaching that situation that you have to then adjust to.
It's kind of combining all of those elements on a weekly basis, and we
definitely talk about those every week. We don't necessarily practice every
one of them each week, but we, maybe, over a three or four week period, we
would pretty much get to everything so that all of those plays stay within
the players and the team's cycle, if that makes any sense.
Q: Do you feel like your team is very well-versed on when to call
timeouts and all that because of all of that preparation?
BB: I'm saying we talk about and we work on it. Is it perfect? No, it's
not perfect, but we work on it on a weekly basis. Like I said, there are
some things that you don't work on every single week, but over the course of
three or four weeks, you hit them and some things don't come up all year,
and other things might come up two or three weeks in a row. You just never
know.
Q: When you talk about instincts with Troy and Tedy, do you think that as
guys get older, that kind of player has a better chance of staying strong in
that area?
BB: Again, I think every player has his own combination of skills.
They're all different. Some players have some skills that offset others and
they have strengths that offset their weaknesses. It's not the same for
every player.
Q: When you look at those guys, do you see their instincts going as
strong as it ever was?
BB: They're probably stronger. A good player will learn from experiences
that he sees, or is taught, whether it actually happened to him or not, you
could see something happen to somebody else and maybe it doesn't happen to
you for another year or two, but then when it does, somehow or other, it
triggers in, and you have a chance to make that decision and you make the
right one. It might not even be a repeat situation for that individual
player. It might be something like that happened to another player, another
teammate, or it might have happened in another game, and now that applies to
him.
Q: How much does playing in the dome affect the gameplan?
BB: I don't think it affects it too much. I'm not saying there aren't
issues there. There are certainly crowd noise issues, and you have the speed.
It's a perfect surface, a perfect situation, but we have no control over
that. I don't think we would say, 'We don't want to run this pass. We don't
want to run that defense.' I can't remember ever saying anything like that.
Now, if you're playing in a blizzard, that's a different story.
Q: Have you ever seen such a dramatic transformation in a team's defense,
specifically against the run, as the Colts have demonstrated through the
regular season and through the first two games of the playoffs?
BB: I think they're basically playing the same defense that they've
played all year. I think there were several comments from a couple of the Colts coaches, Coach [Ron] Meeks, Coach [Tony] Dungy, relative to the same
thing, and that's what I see. I've always thought they've been a good
defensive football team period. They're fast. They're quick. They have a
good scheme. They're sound. They don't give up a lot of big plays. They're
playing their best football right now, which I don't think that's unusual
either, to see a team playing its best football at the end of the season.
Just go back to last year and look at Pittsburgh. You can find a million
examples of it. I don't think it's anything that's unprecedented. They're
doing a great job. They have a good football team. They were what 9-0? 8-0?
Whatever it was this year. People talk about the Colts struggling. I'd like
to be struggling at 9-0. I think they're a good football team. I think they
do a lot of things well in all three phases of the game. That's why they are
where they are, in the AFC Championship game, they have the home field and
they've earned it.
Q: How would you describe Tom's sideline demeanor in close game
situations?
BB: Good.
Q: Anything more than good?
BB: I think it's good.
Q: What allows him to keep his cool in those situations?
BB: He's good in all situations. Tom is good in all situations. He sees
the defense. He sees the field. He knows what we're trying to do. He has a
good understanding of what the defense is doing. He's a good quarterback.
Q: How about those games in particular? Is it the fact that he doesn't
change? Does that play into why he's successful later in the game?
BB: I think you learn more as the game goes along, hopefully you'll learn
more about that game, you get more snaps than the other team, you get a
better feel for what they're doing. Now sometimes the situation could be a
new situation at that particular point in the game, maybe that hasn't shown
up, but I think the more plays you play against the team, the more you
should know about them. I think he learns from every snap.
Q: How has he progressed since you came here?
BB: I think that's been a strong point of his ever since I've coached
him. Like everybody else, I think it gets better with more experience, but I
think it's always been a strong point.
Q: How has it gotten better?
BB: Through experience.
Q: I remember hearing a coach saying that as he was sort of building his
team that if he didn't get the center position squared away, that could hold
an offense hostage. Would agree with that out and why might that be the
case?
BB: I think it's an important position. I'm not saying that because I've
played it—poorly. I think it's an important position, just like middle
linebacker and safety and quarterback are important positions, because
they're in the middle of the formation and a lot of the communication and
adjustments have to go through them. From that standpoint, I think it is
important and anytime you have a strength down the middle—running
back, quarterback, center, middle linebacker, safety, those guys are
involved in a lot of plays. You could run away from a corner. You can't run
away from the nose guard. Your tight end is not at the point of attack on
every play, but your center is. Basically, either your quarterback or
running back is handling the ball on basically every play, one way or
another. There's a lot about those people down the middle of the field that
involves them in every play no matter what it is—a run, pass, blitz pickup,
pass route, rush, taking on a blocker, taking up space in that part of the
field and doing it correctly relative to the scheme, there's just no way
around it. It's every play, so consistency and dependability and execution
at those positions. That's not to say corners and wide receivers and tight
ends aren't important. I'm not saying that, but I just think the nature of
those positions puts them right in the middle of every single play.
Q: Were you a Colts fan growing up?
BB: I was. A Don Shula fan. Shula. [John] Unitas. I could name a lot of
guys on those teams.
Q: Did it bother you at all when they moved to Indianapolis?
BB: I wasn't really a part of it, so it's not the first team that's moved
a pro sports franchise. I don't really get too involved in that. There's no
question that the Baltimore community supported the Baltimore Colts and they
were a big part of the team. I saw a different, but similar, situation in Cleveland when the Browns moved. Some of those things happen. I think we all
know what the circumstances and the reasons and explanations and all that,
so I'm not going to get into all of that. Yes I was [a fan], and it was a
thrill for me to be a part of the Baltimore Colts, that Jimmy [Irsay] was
there, and Bob [Irsay] was the owner, and Jimmy was a little bit younger
than I was. I was, I think 22, 23, whatever I was. I would say he was maybe
15, 16, 17, something like that. So he was around the team in training camp,
and he was there on a regular basis, and was a part of the team as an
owner's son would be at that age, I guess is what I'm saying.
Q: Obviously, your father had the biggest impact on your book coming out
coach in the game, but may be growing up in Maryland and kind of that gold
in the area with the Colts made the impact your football career maybe you
think?
BB: Yes. Absolutely. It was awesome. The Colts, they were awesome. You
had Unitas. You had [Raymond] Berry. [Jimmy] Orr. Lenny Moore, who was a
great player for them. Defensively, [Gino] Marchetti and [Ordell] Braase,
"Big Daddy" [Gene] Lipscomb, [Art] Donovan, [Don] Shinnick, [Bill] Pellington, Bobby Boyd, all of those guys. [David] Lee the punter. I could
go down and give you the whole team if you want them. You couldn't do any
better than Shula. They had their weekly TV show, "Corralling the Colts."
Don would come in. He'd talk about the game and they'd interview the
players, preview the next game and all of that. There were only three
channels back then too. It wasn't like it is now where you get 400 cable
stations. So that was a big deal. It was a big deal. And the Colts were
good. My dad had some connections with Coach Shula going back to Ohio and Carl Taseff and guys like that who were on his staff that were Ohio guys. We
would go to training camp and we'd usually go to one or two games per year,
a lot of times when the Bears came to town because he had some friends with
the Bears too, so that worked out. Unitas and [Alex] Sandusky, guys like
that, worked at my dad's football camp. Coach Shula and my dad had a
relationship, so when I went to the Colts, Coach Shula was one of the people
that I actually knew in the National Football League just through our
associations. We played the Dolphins when I was at Baltimore and all of
that. And the Redskins kind of were too, but the Colts were just a little
bit closer and I guess through my dad, through our family, we had a little
bit more of a connection with the Colts. Then working with them, working
with the Irsay family, and with Coach [Ted] Marchibroda, which was a big
impact in my career. No question about it. But, sure, I remember those days
as a kid. I had all of their football cards. I still remember watching the
championship game in '59, watching [Alan] Ameche go and beat the Giants, I'm
sure a lot of us do that are my age or older, remember that game. and that
game was probably as much a part of pro football as any game.
Q: When you look back, was there a little part of you, with the kid that
was still in you, that when they moved, even though you were a pro and you
were in the sport, did you think 'This is just wrong,' when they moved from Baltimore?
BB: Again, it wasn't my decision. I understand how the people of Baltimore didn't want to lose the Colts, just like I understood how the
people in Cleveland didn't want to lose the Browns. What all the reasons
were and what all the dynamics were of why that happened between the
politicians and the stadium and all of the money that's involved and all of
that, I understand how that kind of stuff happens. Look, when I was with the
Colts, and I've told this story before, but after my year with the Colts,
when I was making 25 dollars a week, and I was sitting in there and Coach
Marchibroda's office, I told him the only thing that I needed was a car,
because I lived in Annapolis and our offices were in Hunt Valley, which was
about an hour and 15 minutes away. I said, 'Look, all I need is a car and
just a little bit of money because I can live at home. That's it.' So Ted
said, 'It will be hard to get you a car and all this and that,' so he kind
of said, 'Well how about four grand a year?' I said, 'That would be great. I
could more than make it on four grand a year.' So then we had a meeting with Joe Thomas, and the meeting started at, I would say about 11 o'clock or
maybe 11:15. Joe Thomas was the general manager at that point. That meeting
lasted until about 12:45. Basically what Joe Thomas said, to make a long
story short, basically what Joe Thomas said was, 'Look, when I coached with
the Rams in '52, we had two coaches. Ted you have six and now you want
another one here [and that will make] seven, and four grand. If Billy wants
to be here next year, he can come back here in training camp like he did
this year.' That's basically the way it ended. Joe says at 12:45, 'Okay, I
have to go, I have to meet with…' whoever the Baltimore County executive
was, 'About building a new stadium.' So he left and the meeting was at 12
o'clock. Ted and I looked at each other and said, 'Here we are. $4,000 for
me as a coach's assistant and Joe Thomas is 45 minutes late, in even
leaving, for a meeting with the Baltimore County executive about building a
stadium.' Ted kind of gave it one of those, 'Do you see what I'm going
through?' That's really kind of the way that whole thing went. I know that
Ted did all he could and Joe just wasn't going to go along with it, which he
was the General Manager, so that was his prerogative. That's where it ended.
So I ended up in Detroit.
Q: The night before a big game like this, typically for you, what's it
like? Are you doing final preparations? Do you get some sleep?
BB: Yes, I definitely get to sleep. I think anytime you get to the end of
the week, you've put in a lot of time. You've seen all the film. I don't
think Saturday night I'm going to look at anything that I haven't already
seen before. Again, this is a team that we played last year, we played in
the middle of the season, now we're playing at the end of the season, so
it's similar to the Jets scenario where you kind of get them at different
points during the year. It's not like we're going back really now and
looking at all 16, 18 games, because we already saw half of them. We saw
them at midseason. I think at that point, to use the phrase that my dad used
to use, 'The hay is in the barn.' You're confident in what you're doing.
Certainly there are butterflies there, but you're confident in what you're
doing and your team is confident and you just get a good night's sleep and
get ready to go and play the game. I've never had a problem sleeping before
a game. I've never had a problem with that. I don't know if that's good or
bad, but that's the way it is.
Q: What kind of premium do you put on experience this time of year when
you have a critical play and you have a choice of a guy that has maybe has a
little more talent or a little more speed or a guy that you know has been
there before and has the experience?
BB: I'll go back to another saying that I think would define my
philosophy as a coach: 'In critical situations, think of players not plays.' I think a lot of coaches live by that motto, whether they actually want to
identify it or not. Rather than run some cute play that involves a couple of
guys that maybe aren't your top playmakers. I think when it comes to a
critical situation, you want your best playmakers, your best players
critically involved in the play. Now you might have several of those
players, but I think that in critical situations, that's basically for the
most part, is the way I would want to approach it. I've heard a lot of other
coaches talk about that same thing and I really think deep down inside
that's probably the way most of us feel.
Q: Have you talked to Ellis Hobbs about keeping what happened on Sunday
and the fall out over the course of the week from being a distraction?
BB: I talked to the players and the team on a daily basis and on a weekly
basis. Those conversations stay between me and the players and me and the
team. That's what a coach/player and a coach/team relationship is.
Q: Earlier this week, Bill Polian said he felt that receivers were being
played a little bit physically down the field in the postseason. I'm
wondering if you agree with that and if you've seen that in your experience
so far?
BB: I don't have any comment on the officiating. I'm just trying to coach
our team and get our team to play well. That's where my focus is. |
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