Can you guess which one?
Todd Haley might be a wide receivers coach but he loved the old-school mentality on the Pittsburgh Steelers ten play, ten run, touchdown drive in the first half last weekend.
Haley talked about that drive with Bob Labriola on this week’s Coordinator’s Corner.
“The third drive was probably my favorite drive ever in my 20 years of coaching. For the same guy to carry it ten times. We never had a third down. We talked about it the night before the game, talked about it before we went to that series. I told them it’d be early. Got everybody and said, we’ll keep running it as long as you make it work. And they made it work. It was a thing of beauty.”
Pittsburgh – or more accurately, Le’Veon Bell – went ten plays, 83 yards. Bell saw the ball on every snap and racked up gains of eight, 15, and 26, before punching it in from one yard out. No personnel changes. No gimmicks. Just hit-you-in-the-mouth football.
Haley gave credit to Chris Hubbard and David Johnson for the jobs they did up front.
“Some of the keys guys in that. Chris Hubbard and David Johnson were tremendous. A tremendous duo over there. Getting people on the ground, really finishing strong.”
He also said Jesse James did a “good job,” something we pointed out in this morning’s video.
And of course, there’s Bell himself, one of the few backs who could rise to the challenge of nearly literally putting the team on his back.
Not that Haley was worried about him, naturally.
“The least of my concerns was Le’Veon. Because like I’ve said a number of times, if you’re waiting for him to tap out, he’s not going to do it. He gets stronger the more carries he gets. And when you’re running efficiently and effectively like we were, I don’t think there’s anything better.”
That drive essentially ended the game before it barely began. It put the Miami Dolphins in a big hole and one they simply didn’t have the offensive firepower to climb out of it. That’s a similar story to what the Steelers did to the Kansas City Chiefs before they knew what hit them, going up 22-0 before the first quarter had even ended. They’ll look to repeat that again this weekend, though you can assure it’ll be a lot tougher to accomplish this time around.
