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Bruce Arians Went Against Grain to Get Steelers to Super Bowl
By Pat McManamon
Senior Writer
DALLAS -- Certain situations tell a lot about a team, a coach, an assistant coach.
So it was with the Pittsburgh Steelers in the AFC championship game when Mike Tomlin and offensive coordinator Bruce Arians were faced with a choice. The Steelers had seen a 24-0 lead dissipate to 24-19, and the New York Jets had only to stop the Steelers in the final three minutes to get a chance to advance to the Super Bowl.
Pittsburgh made a bold choice. The results propelled the Steelers to an appearance in Super Bowl XLV on Sunday against the Green Bay Packers.
In the Championship Game, Pittsburgh took over at its 41-yard-line with 3:06 left. New York had all three of its timeouts, and all the momentum. In the patterned and predictable world of the NFL, a team in that position runs the ball three times, punts and takes its chances on defense.
But not Arians.
This is a coordinator who in Cleveland on fourth-and-goal from the 3 called for a wide receiver reverse. A coordinator who played Pittsburgh in the playoffs with Kelly Holcomb at quarterback and called so many passes that Holcomb threw for 400 yards. A coordinator at that game who was caught by NFL Films pointing at the receivers saying: "We are going to attack their ass the whole game."
On the sidelines, Arians walked up to Mike Tomlin and asked what he wanted to do.
"Call your game, BA," Tomlin told him.
This either is the ultimate support for a coordinator, or a coach testing his coordinator. Arians had been criticized in Pittsburgh for being too pass-happy, and his job had security had not been the best when the Steelers failed to reach the playoffs last season. Call your game.
So Arians passed. Twice. In the NFL passing twice with a berth in the Super Bowl at stake is akin to asking the Statue of Liberty to swim the English Channel. It just does not happen.
- Bruce Arians "When I looked (Tomlin) in the eye (and) said, 'Coach, what do you want to do?' ... He said, 'Play to win,'" Arians said. "I said that means throwing. He said play to win."
So Arians called one run, then a play-action pass that resulted in a first-down throw from Ben Roethlisberger to Heath Miller.
"It's hard to run the ball in that situation," Arians said. "You run it on first down, you get a few. The play-action is set up and ready to go."
Not everyone would do it, but not every coach has the same relationship with his quarterback that Arians has with Roethlisberger. When Arians was hired, one of the first things he did was turn more control of the offense over to Roethlisberger. He let him change more plays, and run more no-huddle.
When Roethlisberger had his off-field troubles in Milledgeville, Ga., Arians was one of his staunchest supporters. Arians did not appreciate what happened in that bar, but he did support his quarterback as a friend. And Roethlisberger was grateful.
Arians thus has an enormous amount of faith in Roethlisberger. He points out that when it matters most, when the game is on the line, he will depend on his quarterback.
"I wouldn't trade him for Peyton, Tom or Drew today," Arians said, referring to Manning, Brady and Brees.
Why? Because Arians believes when the game is on the line, Roethlisberger will come through.
"When he played we're the second-best third down team in the league," Arians said. "The highest fourth-quarter rating in the league. That's comebacks and not beating yourself in the fourth quarter. Stats do tell the story sometimes. His touchdown-to-interception ratio, all the things that he's done, are as good or better than those guys.
"Will he go to the Pro Bowl every year? No. Because he won't throw for 4,000 yards, or 5,000 yards. We're Pittsburgh and that doesn't happen. That's the team he's on. He leads his team as well as a lot of people lead theirs."
So when the game was on the line in the AFC championship game, Arians put the responsibility on Roethlisberger. And he came through with the pass to Miller.
"Without that trust," Arians said, "you're going to run-run punt and let the defense win the game. That's not our job. Our job is to kneel down at the end and put the thing on ice. And if you trust your quarterback then it's not a problem."
The Jets used timeouts after each of the first two plays, and Pittsburgh wanted the Jets to burn their final one, so they ran the ball on first down. New York called timeout. A second-down run led to the two-minute warning. There, the conventional thinking would have been to run again. But that would have given New York the ball with about a minute left -- enough time to score even with no timeouts.
A pass could work, but a pass also brings to mind the old Woody Hayes axiom: If you throw, three things can happen and two are bad. A pass could be intercepted, or it could be incomplete, which would stop the clock and give the Jets another 45 seconds to try to win.
"Mike and I had talked about the scenario, whether it be in overtime or a critical third down at the end of a ballgame, what play do you want to run?" Arians said.
The normal pass would have been a sprint-out, except that would also be the Jets normal play.
"As Mike said to me, they're kind of used to seeing that against themselves (in practice)," Arians said.
So the other option would be to spread out the defense and go with five wide receivers, meaning Pittsburgh would not have a back and would indicate it was going to throw. The primary receiver on the play was Hines Ward.
"If they blitz us we have a good hot (read), and if not Ben will make a play," Arians said. "When we called it I said if Hines isn't there take off running. He did."
Arians fully expected Roethlisberger to keep running, which at the least would have kept the clock running. But at the last second Roethlisberger saw rookie Antonio Brown coming across the field. He threw to him, but low, and Brown -- a late-round draft pick from the Mid-American Conference -- went down and snagged the ball.
"He makes one of the great plays in the season," Arians said. "It all goes back to the trust factor."
Had the pass been incomplete ...
"I'm an idiot anyway," Arians said with a laugh. They're gonna say that anyway. You've known that for 10 years. Ain't going to change. I don't worry about that."
The calls were bold, daring and risky, and both required the gumption to believe in your players and your approach. Many teams say they have that belief, but when the game is on the line they usually take the safe route. Pittsburgh did not, and because of it they -- and Roethlisberger -- will play for their third Lombardi Trophy in the last six years.
[url="http://nfl.fanhouse.com/2011/02/04/bruce-arians-went-against-grain-to-get-steelers-to-super-bowl/"]http://nfl.fanhouse.com/2011/02/04/bruc ... uper-bowl/[/url]
By Pat McManamon
Senior Writer
DALLAS -- Certain situations tell a lot about a team, a coach, an assistant coach.
So it was with the Pittsburgh Steelers in the AFC championship game when Mike Tomlin and offensive coordinator Bruce Arians were faced with a choice. The Steelers had seen a 24-0 lead dissipate to 24-19, and the New York Jets had only to stop the Steelers in the final three minutes to get a chance to advance to the Super Bowl.
Pittsburgh made a bold choice. The results propelled the Steelers to an appearance in Super Bowl XLV on Sunday against the Green Bay Packers.
In the Championship Game, Pittsburgh took over at its 41-yard-line with 3:06 left. New York had all three of its timeouts, and all the momentum. In the patterned and predictable world of the NFL, a team in that position runs the ball three times, punts and takes its chances on defense.
But not Arians.
This is a coordinator who in Cleveland on fourth-and-goal from the 3 called for a wide receiver reverse. A coordinator who played Pittsburgh in the playoffs with Kelly Holcomb at quarterback and called so many passes that Holcomb threw for 400 yards. A coordinator at that game who was caught by NFL Films pointing at the receivers saying: "We are going to attack their ass the whole game."
On the sidelines, Arians walked up to Mike Tomlin and asked what he wanted to do.
"Call your game, BA," Tomlin told him.
This either is the ultimate support for a coordinator, or a coach testing his coordinator. Arians had been criticized in Pittsburgh for being too pass-happy, and his job had security had not been the best when the Steelers failed to reach the playoffs last season. Call your game.
So Arians passed. Twice. In the NFL passing twice with a berth in the Super Bowl at stake is akin to asking the Statue of Liberty to swim the English Channel. It just does not happen.
- Bruce Arians "When I looked (Tomlin) in the eye (and) said, 'Coach, what do you want to do?' ... He said, 'Play to win,'" Arians said. "I said that means throwing. He said play to win."
So Arians called one run, then a play-action pass that resulted in a first-down throw from Ben Roethlisberger to Heath Miller.
"It's hard to run the ball in that situation," Arians said. "You run it on first down, you get a few. The play-action is set up and ready to go."
Not everyone would do it, but not every coach has the same relationship with his quarterback that Arians has with Roethlisberger. When Arians was hired, one of the first things he did was turn more control of the offense over to Roethlisberger. He let him change more plays, and run more no-huddle.
When Roethlisberger had his off-field troubles in Milledgeville, Ga., Arians was one of his staunchest supporters. Arians did not appreciate what happened in that bar, but he did support his quarterback as a friend. And Roethlisberger was grateful.
Arians thus has an enormous amount of faith in Roethlisberger. He points out that when it matters most, when the game is on the line, he will depend on his quarterback.
"I wouldn't trade him for Peyton, Tom or Drew today," Arians said, referring to Manning, Brady and Brees.
Why? Because Arians believes when the game is on the line, Roethlisberger will come through.
"When he played we're the second-best third down team in the league," Arians said. "The highest fourth-quarter rating in the league. That's comebacks and not beating yourself in the fourth quarter. Stats do tell the story sometimes. His touchdown-to-interception ratio, all the things that he's done, are as good or better than those guys.
"Will he go to the Pro Bowl every year? No. Because he won't throw for 4,000 yards, or 5,000 yards. We're Pittsburgh and that doesn't happen. That's the team he's on. He leads his team as well as a lot of people lead theirs."
So when the game was on the line in the AFC championship game, Arians put the responsibility on Roethlisberger. And he came through with the pass to Miller.
"Without that trust," Arians said, "you're going to run-run punt and let the defense win the game. That's not our job. Our job is to kneel down at the end and put the thing on ice. And if you trust your quarterback then it's not a problem."
The Jets used timeouts after each of the first two plays, and Pittsburgh wanted the Jets to burn their final one, so they ran the ball on first down. New York called timeout. A second-down run led to the two-minute warning. There, the conventional thinking would have been to run again. But that would have given New York the ball with about a minute left -- enough time to score even with no timeouts.
A pass could work, but a pass also brings to mind the old Woody Hayes axiom: If you throw, three things can happen and two are bad. A pass could be intercepted, or it could be incomplete, which would stop the clock and give the Jets another 45 seconds to try to win.
"Mike and I had talked about the scenario, whether it be in overtime or a critical third down at the end of a ballgame, what play do you want to run?" Arians said.
The normal pass would have been a sprint-out, except that would also be the Jets normal play.
"As Mike said to me, they're kind of used to seeing that against themselves (in practice)," Arians said.
So the other option would be to spread out the defense and go with five wide receivers, meaning Pittsburgh would not have a back and would indicate it was going to throw. The primary receiver on the play was Hines Ward.
"If they blitz us we have a good hot (read), and if not Ben will make a play," Arians said. "When we called it I said if Hines isn't there take off running. He did."
Arians fully expected Roethlisberger to keep running, which at the least would have kept the clock running. But at the last second Roethlisberger saw rookie Antonio Brown coming across the field. He threw to him, but low, and Brown -- a late-round draft pick from the Mid-American Conference -- went down and snagged the ball.
"He makes one of the great plays in the season," Arians said. "It all goes back to the trust factor."
Had the pass been incomplete ...
"I'm an idiot anyway," Arians said with a laugh. They're gonna say that anyway. You've known that for 10 years. Ain't going to change. I don't worry about that."
The calls were bold, daring and risky, and both required the gumption to believe in your players and your approach. Many teams say they have that belief, but when the game is on the line they usually take the safe route. Pittsburgh did not, and because of it they -- and Roethlisberger -- will play for their third Lombardi Trophy in the last six years.
[url="http://nfl.fanhouse.com/2011/02/04/bruce-arians-went-against-grain-to-get-steelers-to-super-bowl/"]http://nfl.fanhouse.com/2011/02/04/bruc ... uper-bowl/[/url]
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