Second-half adjustments are a thing. I just wanted to make that clear, because sometimes their existence is debated. But it really depends on what your expectations are for adjustments. Generally speaking, whatever adjustments you might make over the course of a game are going to be minor, and they don’t necessarily have to happen at halftime.
For the Pittsburgh Steelers, the adjustments that they made served them well on Sunday against the Los Angeles Rams. A couple of players referenced that on Sunday after their win, and head coach Mike Tomlin made that clear yesterday.
“I thought the Rams did a really nice job of throwing some things that are different on the defensive side of the ball that they hadn’t displayed that created some issues for us”, he said, via the team’s website. “I thought they did a really nice job of manufacturing a run game with the committee of backs and doing some things there that were challenging, and we had to adjust to. I thought our coaches and players did a really nice job of managing some of those required adjustments at halftime”.
Tomlin didn’t really go into greater detail as to what some of those things might have been, but RB Jaylen Warren pointed out one adjustment that they made. Acknowledging that it was their game plan to minimize and avoid DL Aaron Donald, he said that the Rams anticipated that and designed schemes that got other players in position to make plays.
This was especially an issue early in pass protection, leading to some pressures on QB Kenny Pickett, as well as a sack. But the Steelers adjusted to these issues as the game wore on, and that was largely cleaned up by the second half.
These are the sorts of “second-half adjustments” that you will typically see in a game. You’re not going to have teams scrap an entire game plan that they put together over the course of a week and replace it with something new that they whipped up in five minutes in the locker room.
And, quite frankly, many adjustments are anticipated. Tomlin also talked about how teams use their early-game script not just to try to maximize the efficiency of the plays that they are running in that moment but to learn about how the other team is going to play them. The more you learn, the better you can adjust to what you’re seeing.
The Steelers adjusted to the Rams well enough to win the game, of course, but every game is a continual battle of adjustments between two sides. Tweaking the pass protection to better accommodate for the Rams’ pressure packages was just one small adjustment that helped Pittsburgh execute its broader plan.
