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December 6, 2007

Transcript: Bill Belichick's Thursday press conference

We’re getting caught up here on Pittsburgh. They’re a very impressive team to watch. They really do everything pretty well. They’re good in all three phases of the game, they’re well-coached, they’re tough, they’re physical, they make a lot of plays, they run the ball, they’re hard to run against, they throw it and they’re hard to pass it against. They have a lot of good players. They have a good scheme that we’ve seen before. I think it’s very similar to what they’ve done in the past. [They have] a few new faces and a lot of the core guys that we played against in those ’04 and ’05 games, so [there’s] a lot of familiarity there, but at the same time a lot of new things that we have to get ready for. [It’s a] style of play that really we haven’t faced this type of offense or this type of defense quite the way they do it in a little while. We need a good week of preparation. We’re underway and we’ll step on the pedal here today and tomorrow and Saturday and try to be ready to go on Sunday afternoon.

You’ve seen Ben Roethlisberger since he came into the league. What progress have you seen from him from a game management standpoint from when he came into the league until now?
I think like any quarterback in a couple of years he’s matured. He does a lot of little things maybe a little better than he did a couple of years ago, but he was pretty good then, he’s pretty good now. He’s a winner. He wins a lot of games and he makes good decisions. He’s obviously a good passer. He’s strong in the pocket, [a] hard guy to bring down. Ben makes good decisions with the ball in critical situations - third down, red area, end of the game type situations. He’s certainly one of the better quarterbacks in the league, one of the better guys we’ve faced.

What sort of challenges does the Pittsburgh defense pose? What makes them different?
Just the schemes they run. We’ve seen the Jets and Dallas and San Diego [who] are all 3-4 based schemes. They don’t quite run it the way Pittsburgh runs it, that’s all. Pittsburgh has their own way of doing it and it’s unique to them. That’s who we play this week. That’s the challenge this week.

In order to study Pittsburgh, you’ve obviously had a lot of exposure to Dick LeBeau over the years. How can you tell the fingerprints of Mike Tomlin? What has he done there?
I would say it’s pretty subtle. I think that a lot of the things that they do are…What they do, that’s what they do. It’s pretty much what they’ve been doing [since] when LeBeau was there in ’92. Then, of course, he left and went to Cincinnati and Buffalo, then came back when Dom [Capers] was there and Marvin [Lewis]. They’ve had a lot of different coordinators on the defensive side of the ball, but essentially their defensive package is pretty consistent.

So kind of like it wasn’t broken so they didn’t try to fix it?
It hasn’t been [broken] for the last 15 years. But whether it was Greg Lloyd and Kevin Green and [Earl] Holmes and the different linebackers they’ve had there, the defensive line, the secondary…It looks pretty familiar to me. Now, you know, every once in awhile they’ll come to something - Early in ’01, ’02, ’03, teams started playing empty. They’ve modified their package a little bit against some empty sets and that kind of thing, but it’s because they saw it and it was new. But the stuff that they’ve seen before - the two-back stuff, the slot stuff, the one-back stuff - they kind of do what they do. They do it pretty well.

I know you have to play the schedule as it comes up, but with a short week how much tougher does that make it late in the season?
Look, I made a comment the other day that our team was tired, and I think at midnight or 1:00 a.m., whatever time it was Monday night, Tuesday morning, we were tired. But it’s Wednesday. The game is Sunday afternoon and we’ll be ready to go. At the end of a week like that and playing on the road and playing a tough game, sure, it takes something out of you. But we bounced back yesterday and we’ll be at it today and we’ll be ready to go Sunday. We play once a week. We have all week to get ready for the game, just like everybody else does and that’s what we’re going to do.

You mentioned linebackers. Can you talk about James Harrison?
Really impressive. He’s really a good football player -- very explosive, he’s got good speed, real tough, makes a lot of big plays, very physical player. I’d say one of the most physical players in the league. He plays on the coverage teams, on the punt teams, on the kickoff team. He’s made big plays in that phase of the game, too. [He] hasn’t taken anything away from his performance on defense - there’s production on defense. He’s a good pass-rusher, he’s a good run-defender, he’s good at the point of attack, he’s good in pursuit, he’s an explosive player. He’s got some of the best hits we’ve seen all year in their games that we’ve broken down. He’s an explosive, impact-player. He was very good in the kicking game when he played for them and now he’s had a chance to play on defense and he’s - Not that he didn’t play on defense before, but he’s certainly played more this year and he’s had a lot of production, but his production hasn’t dropped off on special teams, either. He’s a good football player. You have to know when he’s on the field. He makes a lot of plays.

I’ve heard you mention in the past when you have a successful run defense, the players have to have proper fits. To the layman, what does that mean?
The runner only needs one hole to go through, so however you construct your defense to handle all of the different running plays that you see - zone plays, scheme plays, inside plays, outside plays, cutback plays, power plays, all of those things - it has to be coordinated across the board. You can be good at the point of attack and a good runner will find a seam somewhere else, so you have to have however many people you have in the front, whatever technique they’re playing, whether it’s one-gap, two-gap, stunting, playing straight, penetrating, reading - whatever it is, it has to be consistent so that you can defend the line of scrimmage. So that’s what it comes down to. It’s not any one scheme or player, but all however many guys it is, six, seven, eight, however many you’re defending with, it all has to be coordinated and everybody has to do their job across the board.

Is that the top challenge every week in terms of having a productive run defense, getting all those players on the same page?
I’d say that’s part of it. That’s part of it, but there’s no running plays that are designed to not block people, so no matter who you put there somebody’s assigned to block them. Then it comes down to whether or not they block you or they don’t. It’s not like when we line up in the defense and even if we’re in proper position, they still have a player to block each one of our players, just like we have a player to block each one of their defenders. Whether we get them blocked or don’t get them blocked, and then whether you can tackle the runner, then ultimately that’s what it comes down to in the running game, is getting the guy with the ball on the ground. You can have good fits, you can be in good position [but] if you get blocked or if you can’t tackle the runner, then you’re not going to have a good run defense.

What was more the issue in the Ravens game? Was it tackling?
We’re done with the Ravens game. We’re on to Pittsburgh.

What would you like to see improve for the Pittsburgh game?
There’s a lot of things we could -- there’s things we could do better in every phase of the game. And we’ve talked about that and we’re on to Pittsburgh.

You said not a lot changed with the defense with Dick LeBeau still being there. What about the offense?
No, I think it’s -- their offense looks pretty similar to what it did in the past. They’ve worked [Santonio] Holmes in there, he wasn’t there -- or we didn’t see a lot of him when we played them a couple of years ago - so he’s a big part of their offense, and [Nate] Washington, but [Hines] Ward and [Heath]Miller’s taken a big role for them, [Willie] Parker, of course. The offensive line is good, the right tackle, [Willie] Colon, is an excellent player. He’s been a real good addition to their offensive line. I think he’s one of the better tackles that we’ve seen this year, especially in the running game. So there’s some new players, but I think overall, scheme-wise, they have their two-back runs, they have their one-back runs, they have their play-actions, they have their drop-backs, they spread the field on you on third down like they always have -- not as much four receivers, because they use Heath Miller like a fourth receiver as a flexed-out tight end and that kind of thing. It’s the four receiver passing game, but only three receivers [are] in the game. Miller’s probably as good as most receivers anyway, so they don’t really lose much with him in there. In a lot of ways they gain it, because it’s a different match-up on the defense and it gives you another protector, if you need him. It’s good.

In terms of so-called “bulletin board material,” how much do coaches consider the source?
I don’t know. I think the most important thing is for us to be ready to play the game on Sunday afternoon. The Steelers are a good football team. They’re tough. I’m sure they’re going to play hard. We’re going to play our best. That’s what it’s going to come down to.

Troy Polamalu has been back in practice this week after missing some time. What does he do to this game? What dimension does he bring for them, defensively?
He’s an impact-player. He’s a big play-maker in both the running game and the passing game. He’s got tremendous speed, [he’s] tough, [he’s a] big hitter. Last week they didn’t play their dime defense I think probably because he wasn’t in there, so they just used nickel. They’re really a dime team. He plays down around the line of scrimmage in their dime coverage package, so I’m sure that that would be a grouping with him in there that they probably would use more of. It’s one of their core defensive packages. But he’s an outstanding football player. He makes a lot of tackles, he’s hard to block, he’s very fast in the passing game, can play man, can play zone and he’s a hard guy to throw in front of because he’s so fast and he’s a good tackler. He comes up and he usually makes a play for not much of a gain after the guy catches the ball. He adds a lot to their defense. He’s a really good player.

Do you ever use so-called bulletin board material?
I think the most important thing for us is to understand what Pittsburgh -- how they play the game, how we need to play it and how we need to -- what we need to do to win. I think that’s what’s the most important thing.

So you don’t use it?
I’m just saying, we can sit around and put a bunch of stuff up on a board and write stuff down on paper and all of that. I think in the end it comes down to whether you can outplay the other team on Sunday or not outplay them. On a priority basis, that’s what our priority is -- trying to prepare well and play well.

Would it get your attention if one of your guys guaranteed a victory?
I would hope when we walk on the field, we expect to win. That’s what I would hope. I would hope that we would expect to win the game when we walk out there on the field. I would expect when Pittsburgh walks out there, they’re going to expect a win. I can’t imagine that they would approach it any differently. We expect to win, they expect to win, both teams will play hard [and] we’ll see who’s better on Sunday. I don’t know what else there is.

It just seems unlikely that one of your guys would go out and publicly guarantee a victory.
I would think every one of our players would expect to win the game on Sunday. That’s what I would think. I would hope they would prepare and go out there with the confidence that we could play well and win it. I can’t imagine playing another NFL team that didn’t feel the same way. Certainly the Steelers - As good as they are? The way they’ve played? Their record, their team - I’m sure they’re confident that they can come in here and win. I think if I was in Pittsburgh I’d feel the same way, and I think if they were here, they would feel the same way that we feel, that they would be confident that we could win. So, you know, that’s why you play the game. I don’t think either team lacks confidence. I don’t think either team’s going into the game not expecting to win it. I can’t imagine -- maybe you guys think so, but I can’t imagine anybody going in to this game not expecting that they’re going to do well and win. Based on what?

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