Matthews Greene wired for sound
(Long post, those with short attention spans, please ignore)
I’ve been enjoying the hell out of this SB aftermath. NFL films has come up with their “wired for sound” features called ‘Sound FX’ which really sheds some great insights on the Pack’s fabulous Super victory. Thought I’d present some analysis based on the conversations on the field that I gleaned from these various shows.
Firstly, I thought I’d focus on the two defenses. All week all we heard about was of two DC’s. Capers and LeBeau are two of the senior DC’s in the NFL. Both of ‘em made similar adjustments in the defensive gameplan. But, both had dissimilar results. Pitt and GB decided to cover in the Super Bowl. Pittsburgh’s result was a lot worse than GB’s and “DC the DC” won the battle of coordinators.
Of the Steelers' 55 defensive snaps in Super Bowl XLV, safety Troy Polamalu lined up within 5 yards of the line of scrimmage at the snap just three times. LeBeau decided to “err on the side of coverage” and cover GB’s 3 and 4 wide receiver sets with plenty of DB’s. MM took advantage of Polamalu’s ability of ranging all over the field and forced him to try and be in 2 places at once. Troy tried to do that, but he failed. He was no factor in the game, at least no positive factor. If anyone is interested, I’d be glad to go into this.
My focus will be on the Pack. Capers also decided to cover the Steelers and isolate on QB Ben Rothlisberger. He put LOLB Clay Matthews III in a spy position and had him employ a “mirror” technique. In our loss to the Steelers last season, Big Ben gashed us with scrambles and passes off a scramble. Capers decided to take that away. So Dom had CMIII play 4 or 5 yards deep and spot up Ben R. The rush would keep him in the pocket and when he tried to break out, Clay would then follow him and crash in, not allowing Rothlisberger to leg it for yardage or make passes off the run.
But to get you have to give. The GBP defense couldn’t really blitz much. Not only that, Capers instructed his wild and crazy young LB crew NOT to blitz. That is a big responsibility for the position coaches, but they also came thru, in spades. OLB Kevin Greene is quite probably the best LB coach in the league and it really came thru in this ballgame. Greene didn’t go nuts, scream, and generally carry on during the game. He analyzed, broke down the assignments, and then communicated them clearly to his troops.
The gameplan didn’t eliminate blitzing, and it made it more effective when the Pack did blitz. At the end of the 3rd quarter, the Steelers were driving. 3rd down at the Packer 32, GB up 21 – 17. Thing are looking shaky and the Steelers are driving and Dom dialed one up. He moved Zombo to the left side, and moved CMIII to the middle. They then blitzed Zombo from the left side and had CMIII force in the middle. Clay controlled his man and then forced Big Ben to his right. BR moved to his right and stepped right into Zombo as him and Clay crashed into Ben for the sack. Tomlin then foolishly tried a long field goal by “Sushi-ham” which failed miserably, giving us good field position. As the play tumbled to the ground, Matthews was yelling, “I get half, I get half”.
Then the two ran off the field like the two happy kids they are. On the bench they were both loose and laughing. Claymat teasing, “I knew I drove him into you, I should get half on that one”.
After their excitement wore off, Kevin Greene slid down to do a little coachin’. He calmly reviewed the footage of the sack and said, “Big time players make big time plays, that sack in the Super Bowl? outstanding job”. Then he paused for emphasis, (both young LB’s were totally focused on kevin and both were nodding their heads) “Remember, no freakin’ blitzing, no freakin’ blitzing”.
Cut to the key play of the game. Start of the 4th quarter Still 21-17 Pitt driving again, Kevin goes ten yards on the field to focus Clay. He needs his main man to give the team a boost. In a calm, clear fashion, he stares CMIII in the eyes, “Wood’s out. A lot of guys see him as the leader, and no one’s stepping forward to rally the fuckin’ troops. It is time, it is time” Kevin used both hands in an emphatic fashion. So Claymat went gave a stirring pep talk to the boys, right? Nah, he went back in the defensive huddle and didn’t say much. But then, he got animated. “Hey, I just saw ‘em all looking this way, they are going to pull it to my side” Matthews then tells Peprah, Pickett, and Bishop what’s up. He tells ‘em if he thinks the play is still on, he’ll make a motion with his arm and shout out a line call. When the Steelers hit the line, Clay reads the keys and makes his line call. “Check left, check left”, he shouts, waving his arm to let everybody he’s going. “Seal it, Pickett, seal it” At the “t” in ‘it’ The Steeler are running Clay’s way. It a pull to the “B” gap with Legursky (remember him?) and TE Johnson blocking for Mendenhall. Ryan Pickett seals it all right. He hammers both Legursky and Johnson AND gets his mitts on Mendenhall, turning the RB into CMIII. Big play Clay flat-out hammers Mendenhall and the ball, which bounces free. Desmond Bishop (who alertly trailed to the outside based on Clays’ call) scooped up the ball and we were rolling.
That’s players, coaches and the whole team all on the same page and reacting to a game situation. That kind of synergy won our asses the Super Bowl!
