Mike Tomlin is in the middle of his 19th season as a head coach and his 25th season as a coach at the NFL level. With that comes an understanding of how a team progresses through the early portions of a season. Now that his players as a collective have in-helmet experience in the regular season, the second week of preparation has a slightly different feel.
“It’s not like we make dramatic adjustments, or the procedure itself is dramatically different. I just think that we all grow from that experience, and the mystique is lost once you’ve been in a stadium, individually and collectively,” Tomlin told Bob Labriola of Steelers.com.
For example, there is less guesswork to know what the team is (or isn’t) good at after putting it to the test in Week 1 against a real opponent. That way they know specific areas to work on throughout the week as individuals and as a team.
With limited practice time compared to when he entered the league, Tomlin is looking for steady improvements from Week 1 to Week 2. He outlined some of what he wants to see this week against the Seattle Seahawks.
“It better be in the form of general production,” he said. “The minimizing of negativity, more fluidity in terms of assignments, getting hats on hats in the run game and so forth, coming off blocks and making tackles in the run game on defense. Fluidity is what I would like to feel.”
As far as Week 1 goes, the Steelers did a good job at minimizing negativity with just four penalties for 26 yards and zero turnovers. But that also means they needed a near-perfect performance in that area to secure a narrow 34-32 victory.
His other two points of emphasis should be obvious to anybody that watched the first game. He wants the run blocking to improve and the run defense to improve. The Steelers gave up a 129-yard advantage in the run game to the Jets in Week 1. That led to a lopsided time of possession in favor of the Jets.
Aaron Rodgers had a strong Week 1 performance, but they can’t expect four touchdowns from him every week. And a large part of keeping him upright and protecting him from injury is a strong run game.
As for the run defense, there was a common theme being discussed among players this week as they diagnosed their Week 1 struggles. They need to stick to their assignments and not try to do too much. Any player that thought they could single-handedly wreck the game last week saw those efforts lead to more harm than good.
Tomlin knows Week 2 isn’t about reinventing the wheel. It’s about cleaning up details, playing within assignments, and showing steady progress from one week to the next. The team that can do that better will walk away with a victory later this afternoon.
