You’ve heard the old analogy before about how you come off the bus dictates how you are going to play the game, right?
It’s been an age-old reference from all levels of sports, one that coaching staffs will use to encourage players to get in the right headspace leading up to a game and have the mindset of getting locked in to take care of business against their opponent. It appears as if Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin has embraced the bus mentality as well as WR Diontae Johnson was asked by the media yesterday why there tends to be such a shift in the offense from the first half, when the struggle to move the ball, to the second half where they appear locked in and ready to roll.
“Like Coach [Tomlin] say, how you come off that bus walking into the stadium with that mindset,” Johnson said Thursday via video from Steelers.com. “But I wouldn’t say it’s a problem, we’re not perfect. So at the same time, it’s not like we trying to come out there and not start fast, but it’s like when you’re here to play or whatever it is out there, it’s just how bad you want it. And we want it bad and just sometimes it might not seem like we do, but we do. So that’s never the case. So like I said, we just gotta put more effort into it, coming out and starting fast and winning, start flashing and showing it and just keep putting it on film.”
It’s important to have the right mental makeup heading into any sporting event, especially when you are playing at the highest level. You can’t go into games too loose. You may be taken off guard by your opponent, who is ready to get the jump on you, causing you to get behind and needing to adjust to execute better as the game goes on. This has been the case with Pittsburgh’s offense consistently the last few years. The Steelers come out and stall through the first half, mustering just enough to stay in the game thanks to their defense, but manage to figure it out as the game goes on and make a couple plays late to secure victory.
The Steelers need to look at how they are approaching the beginning of games and take that mindset they have late in the game and carry it over to kickoff, getting out of the breaks fast rather than slowly warming up to action. This falls on the coaching staff having the players properly prepared and locked in, but also the players needing to do their part in executing from the start.
Johnson pointed to the fact that when the Steelers don’t start fast, it seems like on the outside looking in that they simply don’t want it as bad as the other team. The players may want to be good and want to start fast, but the intention and effort to do so must be there. Tomlin pointed out that his players didn’t have that in their blowout loss to the Houston Texans a few weeks ago, sleepwalking into the stadium, and had a terrible day at the office both offensively and defensively. They were in a great spot to end the game against the Rams last Sunday, but now they face the task of recreating that momentum and having it translate to the beginning of the game when Pittsburgh kicks off against the Jacksonville Jaguars Sunday.
