Have you ever played chess against a master player who can plan out his next move three-to-four moves in advance? Or have you faced a prodigy in a game of pool as he runs the table, setting up shot after shot, knocking them with ease into the pockets?
That’s the feeling that Pittsburgh Steelers CB Patrick Peterson has when it comes to his head coach Mike Tomlin and his ability to prepare for the opening matchup of the regular season. Peterson and former Steelers CB Bryant McFadden spoke together on the All Things Covered Podcast, highlighting Pittsburgh’s upcoming matchup against the San Francisco 49ers Sunday. McFadden brought up Tomlin’s most recent success against title-contending teams in Week One the last several years, commending his ability and want-to in preparing for games.
“It’s almost like college ball, you give ’em too much time to prep because Coach [Tomlin] man, I don’t think I’ve ever been around a head coach that loves ball as much as Coach T does,” Peterson said on All things Covered, which aired on the show’s YouTube Channel. “So, the time that he has to be able to prepare for a Week One team, it’s just too much time on his hands because he got so much time on his hands to watch film to really dissect what they want to do and how they want to do it in certain situations.”
Tomlin has often said that he starts watching tape on his Week One opponent long before the preseason is done, and the 49ers are no exception to that trend. We’ve seen Pittsburgh play the underdog the last two seasons and come out on top, winning last year in Cincinnati against a Bengals team that was coming off a Super Bowl appearance. The year before, the Steelers beat a Buffalo Bills team that made nearly the AFC Championship Game and was one of the favorites to contend for a title.
A lot of times in college football, we see huge upsets Week One of the season like we saw with Duke beating Clemson this past weekend. This can be aided by the underdog team having so much time to prepare for one singular opponent, learning its schemes, tendencies, and checks to the point where when it happens in a game, it’s almost routine on how to adjust and play against it.
That’s the level that Tomlin gets to when he has an entire offseason to prepare for one opponent, according to Peterson. He has full confidence in his game plan and in his preparation for the battle ahead that it rubs off on his players, paying no attention to the odds as Pittsburgh knocks off a team that is considered the favorite. We’ll see if Tomlin can make it three-straight Week One upsets against San Francisco this weekend, but he should have his team prepared for whatever the 49ers throw at them come Sunday.
