Coaches compile streamlined mechanism from past architects
Sunday, September 23, 2007
By Gene Collier, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
At the dawn of sustained Steelers competence, a seminal event falling somewhere after the Beatles but before Bee Gees, there was something called the sophisticated trap offense. Directed by the professorial Chuck Noll, the STA featured two primary running backs instead of one, relatively nimble offensive lineman pulling and trapping and sometimes failing to do so, and the occasional deep throw, which was not timed, despite any urban legend to the contrary, to coincide with the 1972 release of Deep Throat.
Despite its success, the sophisticated trap offense in time gave way to the relatively unsophisticated East Coast orthodoxy of Bill Cowher and his first offensive coordinator, Ron Earhardt.
Some historical framing of offensive architects is necessary today, mostly because the Steelers play host to the San Francisco 49ers with an offense that is very new and very effective even when its very nature is not very evident.
I mean, I see it working, but what is it?
It's not the STA certainly, and not the old East Coaster. It's nothing like Chan Gailey's CAUTION WIDE LOAD, the first Pittsburgh appearance of five wide receivers in one set, and it's not the Kevin Gilbride compromise on the run and shoot, chuck and duck, buck and wing, or whatever he had cookin' in San Diego. Mercifully, it has none of the incoherence of the Ray Sherman project. It appears distantly related to the motion trickery of Mike Mularkey and the more moderate new balance approach Ken Whisenhunt tailored to the then-callow Ben Roethlisberger.
But again, what is it?
Thankfully, when you put that question to first-year head coach Mike Tomlin, and to his first-year Steelers offensive coordinator Bruce Arians, they don't say, "It is what it is."
"It's a compilation of years of being with a lot of different people," said Arians, who started drawing plays when Tomlin started kindergarten. "We're really still trying to find out what we do best, but everything starts off the running game."
That's in keeping with Pittsburgh liturgy, but the teachings are from almost everywhere else. Arians first studied attack theologies at Virginia Tech and Mississippi State, then at Alabama and Temple, then with the Kansas City Chiefs and then again at Mississippi State, his first coordinator job; then with the New Orleans Saints and then again at Alabama, his second coordinator gig; then with the Indianapolis Colts, where he was Peyton Manning's first pro quarterbacks coach. He was the offensive coordinator with the Browns before Cowher hired him as his receivers coach in 2004. Almost anybody's coaching DNA could turn up in Arians' first Steelers offense, including those of Bear Bryant.
"There's a lot of wishbone influence in the play action area," Arians said the other day. "There's stuff all the way back to Terry Bradshaw's Louisiana Tech hard sprint draw and throwback action. Tom Moore [the Colts' and former Steelers offensive coordinator] was a big influence, a lot of Joe Pendry. We're fortunate that our quarterback is really a good ball handler, and we're able to do some things that Steve DeBerg used to do."
Steve DeBerg?
"In Kansas City," Arians said.
That's where they met, and there is much about the offense you have seen in the season's first two weeks that has been taken from many such meetings, including from the intersection of Arians and Tomlin.
"We'd met a number of times, and coached against each other when I was in Cleveland and he was with Tampa Bay," Arians said.
When they met last winter, Arians didn't need much coaxing to stay on after the Cowher departure, and Tomlin didn't need any coaxing to elevate him to coordinator.
Just two games deep in this new Steelers era, the new offense has absorbed nearly as many glowing notices as the club's reliably superb defense. In two weeks, the offense has produced 60 points and 41 first downs of near perfect balance, 20 rushing, 20 passing, one via penalty. It has averaged 392.5 yards per game, 65.5 more than the league average. It has been cited for only two turnovers and kept the ball an average of nearly 36 minutes a game.
"We're just trying to highlight what our guys do well," Tomlin said. "We have more than 11 guys who are capable of doing things well -- three or four wide receivers, two or three tight ends, two fullbacks who have special abilities, a couple of tailbacks. We just want to use all the weapons at our disposal. The end product is multiple personnel groups, it's distributing the ball to a variety of people."
On top of all that, Arians has already advertised some no-huddle capabilities that haven't gotten much exposure. There is no name for this offense, Arians said, and for all its evident potential, it's hard to get a handle on it, which might just be its competitive strength. In fact, maybe that's it.
It's not the no huddle, it's the no handle.
First published on September 23, 2007 at 12:00 am
Gene Collier can be reached at gcollier@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1283.
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