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Keeping defense great move by Tomlin
by Rod Woodson
Former Steelers cornerback Rod Woodson, an analyst for NFL Network’s “Total Access,” is going to be sharing his thoughts with Steelers Digest throughout the 2008 season on a variety of topics. Woodson recently talked to assistant editor Teresa Varley about the transition to a new head coach and how he blossomed in his second season under
Bill Cowher.
Getting a new head coach is a big adjustment, and I know that from personal experience.
Chuck Noll was the Steelers head coach for 23 seasons, and I was there for five years under Chuck. Within those five years Tony Dungy was our defensive backs coach and
defensive coordinator. Tony left after the 1988 season and John Fox came in as the defensive backs coach and Rod Rust was our defensive coordinator.
Then those guys left when Chuck retired and Bill Cowher was hired to replace him, and I was getting used to a whole new group of coaches. I was used to Tony Dungy, and then he left. I got used to Rod Rust, and he left. We had a new group of coaches that Cowher hired — Dom Capers as the defensive coordinator and Dick LeBeau as the secondary coach.
It was about trying to get familiar with new faces — the coaches trying to get to know us as players and us trying to get to know their personalities and trying to learn the system. I was going into my sixth NFL season, but it still was an adjustment when Bill Cowher came in and took over.
It takes a little while to adjust to a new coach. We had a lot of good athletes there, but we had to come to understand how the new system was going to work. We had a good,
solid defense under Tony Dungy and then Rod Rust, but changing the terminology was tough.
Blitzburgh began to come into effect during Cowher’s first season, under Capers and LeBeau. We had to understand how a zone blitz worked, what is it, where do you have to be, who is good at this or that? It was an adjustment period. It took us a while to understand.
We made the playoffs that year; we were a solid team in 1992. I think we took well to the system that was brought in by the new head coach and taught by the assistants
under him. But it does take time. It can take a year or so to really adjust.
One thing that makes the adjustment easier for this Steelers team with Mike Tomlin is they stayed with a defensive-minded coach. Both Cowher and Tomlin were defensive
coordinators before getting hired by the Steelers.
When you start talking about a defensive-minded head coach as opposed to an offensive-minded head coach, the biggest difference is the toughness that you are going to find. Not saying offensive-minded coaches aren’t tough, but defensiveminded coaches know that in order to play on the defensive side of the ball you have to be mentally tough. On defense, you’re going to get banged around. A lot of times, you’re going to get the short end of the stick on the defensive side. The mentality of the players has to be a little different.
When Cowher played he was a linebacker but primarily a special teams guy, so he brought a tough, blue-collar mentality that fit perfectly with Pittsburgh, with the kind
of football preferred by the Rooney family, and that was a big part of the defense he brought in. It was a great fit for what we learned as individuals.
Keeping the defensive coaching staff intact was a key early decision made by Mike Tomlin. If the defense was no good the year before, then you make some changes, but
when you have a person like Dick LeBeau, who is someone I respect so much as a coach, you don’t change things just to change things. Dick LeBeau is an aggressive coach, he knows what he is doing, he has been doing it for a long time and the defense has been good year in and year out. If Mike Tomlin didn’t bring him back as the defensive
coordinator I would have wondered, what was he doing?
But Mike showed how smart he is. The defense jelled and played extremely well. I think that was one of the best moves he made as a head coach during his first year in
Pittsburgh.
I think Mike’s view of the defense is a little different than Dick LeBeau’s, but I know Dick is humble and is going to listen to different individuals.
I think the trickle-down effect that the head coach has on his team is evident in its play throughout the year. You know with Tomlin the Steelers are going to be tough, very
similar to the style under Cowher. They are going to be blue collar, work hard; Tomlin will push his team, challenge his team week in and week out. It hasn’t changed. It’s the same blueprint, with maybe some different philosophies, but at the end of the day the same result — a tough team that doesn’t make a lot of mistakes. The Steelers are
going to challenge you.
If you want to beat the Pittsburgh Steelers on any given day you have to be tough for 60 minutes. I think Mike brought that to the forefront in his first year as a head coach and it will continue to grow this year.
My second season under Bill Cowher was a good year for me, and I think it was a product of both knowing the system and what I could do in it. And then everything
just came together as a result of what the defensive scheme allowed me to do.
I look at my career as a whole in Pittsburgh, and it all led up to that point.
Tony Dungy taught me a great deal about being a cornerback in the NFL. John Fox taught me a great deal about coverages. Then the wily vet Dick LeBeau came in and he
taught me the fundamentals of being a cornerback, where he played for 14 years. I had a lot of great coaches in that short period, which was a blessing. That all added up to the 1993 season for me, one that ended with being selected the Defensive Player of the
Year.
That season I was a nickel back. I got to blitz. I got to cover people. I still got to be a punt returner, a kickoff returner. Those things all helped me have that type of year. And
being in the system for the second year definitely helped out with understanding it, what I could and couldn’t do within the system, understanding where I need to be on the field within a play call.
A year under my belt added a lot to it. I understood it more and had more confidence in myself and my teammates.
I started the season off against San Francisco (eight tackles, two interceptions and a blocked field goal), but I had 15 more games left. If you have one good game and 15
bad ones, you suck. I didn’t want to be that person who was going to be the scapegoat, so I just kept working hard and had good games when they came to me.
When I first came into the league, Tony Dungy told me if you just catch the ones that come to you, then you are going to lead the league. That means if you catch the
interceptions that come your way as a defensive back, then you are more than likely to be in the top of the rankings every year you are playing. Every year you have about 15 or 16 opportunities to catch interceptions. If you catch the majority, you are going to be leading the league every year.
That year I had a pretty good year and caught the vast majority of them. If you want to be a good defensive back you have to get your hands on the ball and then make yourself a weapon. Do that, and people are going to know who you are.
The most memorable thing that season was when we played New Orleans at home. Athletes talk about being in the zone, whether as a shooter in basketball, or as a running
back when it looks like everything out on the field slows down. For me, that game against the Saints was one where everything was so slow and I felt I was moving
twice as fast. If you saw “The Matrix,” with the guy dodging the bullet, I felt like Neo. I felt like I was going so fast and everyone else was going slow. It felt like I couldn’t do
anything wrong.
I truly believe over my 17 years in the NFL that game against the Saints was the best game I played. I am talking about assignments, tackles, catching the ball, being a
weapon with the ball in my hands after I caught an interception. I believe that was my most complete game. I might have had some better statistical games, but overall how I
played every play, every snap of that game and my mind-set that whole game made it the best of my career.
by Rod Woodson
Former Steelers cornerback Rod Woodson, an analyst for NFL Network’s “Total Access,” is going to be sharing his thoughts with Steelers Digest throughout the 2008 season on a variety of topics. Woodson recently talked to assistant editor Teresa Varley about the transition to a new head coach and how he blossomed in his second season under
Bill Cowher.
Getting a new head coach is a big adjustment, and I know that from personal experience.
Chuck Noll was the Steelers head coach for 23 seasons, and I was there for five years under Chuck. Within those five years Tony Dungy was our defensive backs coach and
defensive coordinator. Tony left after the 1988 season and John Fox came in as the defensive backs coach and Rod Rust was our defensive coordinator.
Then those guys left when Chuck retired and Bill Cowher was hired to replace him, and I was getting used to a whole new group of coaches. I was used to Tony Dungy, and then he left. I got used to Rod Rust, and he left. We had a new group of coaches that Cowher hired — Dom Capers as the defensive coordinator and Dick LeBeau as the secondary coach.
It was about trying to get familiar with new faces — the coaches trying to get to know us as players and us trying to get to know their personalities and trying to learn the system. I was going into my sixth NFL season, but it still was an adjustment when Bill Cowher came in and took over.
It takes a little while to adjust to a new coach. We had a lot of good athletes there, but we had to come to understand how the new system was going to work. We had a good,
solid defense under Tony Dungy and then Rod Rust, but changing the terminology was tough.
Blitzburgh began to come into effect during Cowher’s first season, under Capers and LeBeau. We had to understand how a zone blitz worked, what is it, where do you have to be, who is good at this or that? It was an adjustment period. It took us a while to understand.
We made the playoffs that year; we were a solid team in 1992. I think we took well to the system that was brought in by the new head coach and taught by the assistants
under him. But it does take time. It can take a year or so to really adjust.
One thing that makes the adjustment easier for this Steelers team with Mike Tomlin is they stayed with a defensive-minded coach. Both Cowher and Tomlin were defensive
coordinators before getting hired by the Steelers.
When you start talking about a defensive-minded head coach as opposed to an offensive-minded head coach, the biggest difference is the toughness that you are going to find. Not saying offensive-minded coaches aren’t tough, but defensiveminded coaches know that in order to play on the defensive side of the ball you have to be mentally tough. On defense, you’re going to get banged around. A lot of times, you’re going to get the short end of the stick on the defensive side. The mentality of the players has to be a little different.
When Cowher played he was a linebacker but primarily a special teams guy, so he brought a tough, blue-collar mentality that fit perfectly with Pittsburgh, with the kind
of football preferred by the Rooney family, and that was a big part of the defense he brought in. It was a great fit for what we learned as individuals.
Keeping the defensive coaching staff intact was a key early decision made by Mike Tomlin. If the defense was no good the year before, then you make some changes, but
when you have a person like Dick LeBeau, who is someone I respect so much as a coach, you don’t change things just to change things. Dick LeBeau is an aggressive coach, he knows what he is doing, he has been doing it for a long time and the defense has been good year in and year out. If Mike Tomlin didn’t bring him back as the defensive
coordinator I would have wondered, what was he doing?
But Mike showed how smart he is. The defense jelled and played extremely well. I think that was one of the best moves he made as a head coach during his first year in
Pittsburgh.
I think Mike’s view of the defense is a little different than Dick LeBeau’s, but I know Dick is humble and is going to listen to different individuals.
I think the trickle-down effect that the head coach has on his team is evident in its play throughout the year. You know with Tomlin the Steelers are going to be tough, very
similar to the style under Cowher. They are going to be blue collar, work hard; Tomlin will push his team, challenge his team week in and week out. It hasn’t changed. It’s the same blueprint, with maybe some different philosophies, but at the end of the day the same result — a tough team that doesn’t make a lot of mistakes. The Steelers are
going to challenge you.
If you want to beat the Pittsburgh Steelers on any given day you have to be tough for 60 minutes. I think Mike brought that to the forefront in his first year as a head coach and it will continue to grow this year.
My second season under Bill Cowher was a good year for me, and I think it was a product of both knowing the system and what I could do in it. And then everything
just came together as a result of what the defensive scheme allowed me to do.
I look at my career as a whole in Pittsburgh, and it all led up to that point.
Tony Dungy taught me a great deal about being a cornerback in the NFL. John Fox taught me a great deal about coverages. Then the wily vet Dick LeBeau came in and he
taught me the fundamentals of being a cornerback, where he played for 14 years. I had a lot of great coaches in that short period, which was a blessing. That all added up to the 1993 season for me, one that ended with being selected the Defensive Player of the
Year.
That season I was a nickel back. I got to blitz. I got to cover people. I still got to be a punt returner, a kickoff returner. Those things all helped me have that type of year. And
being in the system for the second year definitely helped out with understanding it, what I could and couldn’t do within the system, understanding where I need to be on the field within a play call.
A year under my belt added a lot to it. I understood it more and had more confidence in myself and my teammates.
I started the season off against San Francisco (eight tackles, two interceptions and a blocked field goal), but I had 15 more games left. If you have one good game and 15
bad ones, you suck. I didn’t want to be that person who was going to be the scapegoat, so I just kept working hard and had good games when they came to me.
When I first came into the league, Tony Dungy told me if you just catch the ones that come to you, then you are going to lead the league. That means if you catch the
interceptions that come your way as a defensive back, then you are more than likely to be in the top of the rankings every year you are playing. Every year you have about 15 or 16 opportunities to catch interceptions. If you catch the majority, you are going to be leading the league every year.
That year I had a pretty good year and caught the vast majority of them. If you want to be a good defensive back you have to get your hands on the ball and then make yourself a weapon. Do that, and people are going to know who you are.
The most memorable thing that season was when we played New Orleans at home. Athletes talk about being in the zone, whether as a shooter in basketball, or as a running
back when it looks like everything out on the field slows down. For me, that game against the Saints was one where everything was so slow and I felt I was moving
twice as fast. If you saw “The Matrix,” with the guy dodging the bullet, I felt like Neo. I felt like I was going so fast and everyone else was going slow. It felt like I couldn’t do
anything wrong.
I truly believe over my 17 years in the NFL that game against the Saints was the best game I played. I am talking about assignments, tackles, catching the ball, being a
weapon with the ball in my hands after I caught an interception. I believe that was my most complete game. I might have had some better statistical games, but overall how I
played every play, every snap of that game and my mind-set that whole game made it the best of my career.
... And WELCOME ABOARD!!!!
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