The Coach Speaks

Tomlin hands out atta-boys
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
By BOB LABRIOLA
Steelers.com

Very early in his tenure as coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers, Mike Tomlin took part in a roundtable with local reporters that had a getting-to-know-you feel about it. During the session, Tomlin described himself as someone “who says what I mean and means what I say.”

When a coach talks like this, the assumption is that he’s referring to critical evaluations, to discipline, to the NFL version of tough love. But during his news conference on Tuesday, Tomlin showed that also applies to platitudes.

He began by recognizing four players who haven’t been on the receiving end of too many public compliments to this point in the season – Tyrone Carter, Max Starks, Daniel Sepulveda and Cedrick Wilson.

“I’d like to acknowledge some guys who stepped up for us,” said Tomlin. “We talk about the level of expectation not changing regardless of who is playing for us, and the guys understand that standard, but some guys did step up in some expanded roles against the Dolphins.”

While it was impossible to ignore the steady rain that made the playing conditions so difficult last Monday night at Heinz Field, Tomlin views that as something beyond the team’s control. What he sees as within the team’s control is how the players deal with those conditions, how the players deal with injuries.

As last weekend began, the Steelers knew they would be playing the Dolphins without Troy Polamalu and Santonio Holmes, and they had planned for that. But then as game day dawned, they learned they also would be without starting left tackle Marvel Smith, and for that there had been no time to plan.

“Marvel experienced back pain (Sunday),” said Tomlin after the Steelers defeated the Dolphins, 3-0, to run their record to 8-3. “We did the best we could to get him to a level of comfort where he could participate. It was a decision that we made at the 11th hour. We decided to go with the healthy guys.”

That meant Starks started at left tackle, where his assignment often would be Jason Taylor, only the defending NFL Defensive Player of the Year.

“We’ve been giving Marvel Wednesdays off because of his back, but that has a dual purpose,” said Tomlin. “It gives him a day off to keep him healthy, and it also provides a bunch of snaps for a guy like Max should that back act up on (Marvel), and that’s what unfolded. Thankfully, Max has been getting wire-to-wire work on Wednesdays for the last month or so.”

In 2005, Starks was the starting right tackle on a team that won a Super Bowl, but through most of 2007 he has been a backup on the offensive line, a fill-in as a No. 3 tight end. But for one night, Starks was a big part of an important win for the Steelers.

So were Carter and Wilson, two other veterans often forgotten or relegated to minor roles come game day. Wilson, in fact, was passed over for the starting job that opened because of Holmes’ injury. Nate Washington was tabbed as the starter against the Dolphins, likely because of his speed and how that added to the potential to create big plays.

But while Washington caught one pass for 6 yards, Wilson caught three for 29, two of which were good for first downs on a night when moving the chains almost felt like crossing the goal line.

“Cedrick Wilson had an opportunity to step up and made three catches for us,” said Tomlin. “Being without Santonio was significant. We needed men to step up, and he was one of them. Cedrick is a guy that we always know that we can count on. Under those circumstances he is always ready to deliver. He prepares as if he’s a starter. He wants to be a playmaker like a lot of these men do.”

The game against the Dolphins was the second this season Polamalu missed because of injury, and if Carter didn’t start that first time (vs. Seattle), he did contribute six tackles and half-a-sack against the Seahawks. Then against the Dolphins, he led the team with 12 tackles, 11 of which were solo.

“Tyrone Carter is a guy who jumped out at me on tape as I looked at it this morning,” said Tomlin.

In bad weather, the punter can become a weapon, and that’s exactly what Sepulveda proved to be against the Dolphins. He punted five times, all of them inside the 20-yard line, and Dolphins returner Ted Gin Jr. couldn’t return a single one. He fair caught four and the fifth stuck in the turf as if it had been hit by a nine-iron.

“Danny Sepulveda, I thought, did an awesome job of his placements, particularly with his red zone kicks,” said Tomlin. “Not only did he keep the ball in the field of play and give them a long field to work with, but he did it in a manner in which their return man didn’t have the opportunity to get returnable kicks. Those were big.”

As were all of these performances in a game the Steelers had to win in order to hold onto first place in the AFC North.

“That’s the kind of culture that we want to build, that everybody is a playmaker,” said Tomlin. “Week in and week out sometimes if you stop to look at it, you see that you get contributions from a lot of men that don’t get a bunch of headlines.”