It’s a phrased they’ve used before but it’s only fitting to hear both coordinators preach “do your job” in the week they face off against Bill Belichick, who has famously coined the term.
Keith Butler and Todd Haley both dropped that phrase today, a recognition that when games start to get out of hand, players have a tendency to go John McClain and attempt to save everyone.
“When you have adversity, guys can’t try to do too much,” Haley told Bob Labriola in SNR’s Coordinator’s Corner.
“They gotta do their job at a high level. When you’re missing a key element like the quarterback, guys like Maurkice Pouncey, Dave DeCastro, Le’Veon Bell, Antonio Brown, Darrius Heyward-Bey, those guys gotta play at a high level. They don’t need to get outside their realm of ability. They just need to do their job very well.”
Speaking to Missi Matthews, Butler echoed a very similar sentiment, a line he’s used before, but apparently hasn’t gotten through.
“When you have a bad game defensively, someone’s trying to do more than they should instead of doing their own job. If we can get that over to their guys, that they just do their job, we’ll be better. We’ll be a lot better.”
Maybe it is a product of having youth and general inexperience on this team. But I’ll be the first to admit hearing that line again and again gets a bit stale, especially knowing there is a core group of leadership on this team. Heck, even Matthews pointed out how common that phrase has been with Butler.
He expanded on what he thought happened last weekend.
“A lot of guys become impatient. They try to to make splash plays. Splash plays are made within the realm of the defense. That’s when you make splash plays. Do what you’re suppose to do then splash plays will come to you.”
Pittsburgh had one of their worst performances against the run since the merger and let Ryan Tannehill develop comfort and rhythm in the pocket, leading to one of the best games he’s played in his career during probably the worst season he had been experiencing. He was possibly one more bad start away from being benched. The Steelers brought him back from the brink.
They’ll have to play within the structure of the defense against arguably the NFL’s toughest offense and best coached/schemed team.
