Last Guy on the Bench Posted July 27, 2021 Posted July 27, 2021 Fun read on Jimmy Johnson in The Athletic. Like many of you, I imagine, I couldn't stand the guy back in the day. But after a few decades have eased the pain I can now look back on him fondly as a beloved old enemy. Anyway, interesting comment by DJ about how they flipped the script on the Bills in our fourth Super Bowl and came back in the second half. Painful, but good to know: Daryl Johnston Fullback, 1989-1999 The one that I always remember is halftime of Super Bowl 28 in Atlanta against Buffalo. We’re down 13-6. And they really just kind of stifled us in the run game. They were doing something; they were twisting and moving inside. They were crashing their tackles inside and looping the linebacker outside, just running some stunts in the front so our guys couldn’t really tee off on them. And they were quick. It was one of the things that we always struggled with was the quickness and the movement in our run game. And they were giving us fits. At halftime, Jimmy was outside the locker room and he said, “Listen, we know what they’re doing. You guys get off your feet, take care of your business. In about 10 minutes, let’s get back together, we’ll have everything up on the board for you. We’re going to show you what they’re doing. We’re going to show you how we’re going to counter that. And the second half, we’re going to force them out of what they’re doing right now. And then as soon as they move out of that we can get back to what we planned on doing.” So it was a play we had run about five, six weeks ago. It was just “power,” you know, just the power play. They were stunting the 3-4 outside linebacker with the defensive tackle down inside and looping the linebacker to the outside. So for power, it’s easy, everybody just adjusts and they’re basically taking themselves out of the play. If you remember the opening drive of the second half, when we had the football, it was Emmitt left, Emmitt right, Emmitt left, Emmitt right, Emmitt right, Emmitt left and it was “power” the whole way down the field. There wasn’t a whole lot of deviation on the play call. They were going to need to stop stunting and go back and play more traditional defense and at least mix it up a little bit. And they never really did. They kind of just stuck with what they were doing. And that’s why we had so much success in the second half. I’ve always felt the way that Jimmy handled that whole thing because we were really frustrated coming in at halftime. And remember, Troy had the concussion against San Francisco in the championship game and it was just one week before the Super Bowl. So we were gonna lean on the run game a little bit more but they stuffed it in the first half and it was a little bit of “what’s going on here?” Then for him to be out at the locker-room door and to be saying, “Hey, we know what they’re doing. Don’t anybody panic, go in and take care of your business? We got the long Super Bowl halftime, we have plenty of time. Let’s make sure everybody’s (knows) what we’re doing. And we’ll go out here in the second half and we’ll force these guys out of what they’re doing and we’ll take advantage of the game plan that we have in place.” It’s Hudson Houck and it’s Norv Turner and everybody’s in on the X’s and O’s and all that stuff, but Jimmy to be there being real positive and knowing what we were going to be able to do in the second half. I thought it was, if not his best coaching moment while we were there, it was definitely near the top. Full Article (subscription required): That Was Just Jimmy 4 2 1 1 3
Beast Posted July 27, 2021 Posted July 27, 2021 (edited) Yeah, real fun read. I had a ***** blast reliving that. Edited July 27, 2021 by Beast 1 1 1 32 3
Blainorama5 Posted July 27, 2021 Posted July 27, 2021 You bring this up on the first day of training camp? Is this supposed to be some sick twisted form of motivation for us??? Yes, it's a painful memory that I had almost erased from my brain. Thanks!! 😉 1 1
Last Guy on the Bench Posted July 27, 2021 Author Posted July 27, 2021 (edited) 2 minutes ago, Blainorama5 said: You bring this up on the first day of training camp? Is this supposed to be some sick twisted form of motivation for us??? Yes, it's a painful memory that I had almost erased from my brain. Thanks!! 😉 3 minutes ago, Beast said: Yeah, real fun read. I had a ***** blast reliving that. Ha ha. Sorry. Guess those few decades haven't been such a balm to everyone. Edited July 27, 2021 by Last Guy on the Bench
BringMetheHeadofLeonLett Posted July 27, 2021 Posted July 27, 2021 Thank you Sir may I have another!?!? 1 5
Blainorama5 Posted July 27, 2021 Posted July 27, 2021 1 minute ago, Last Guy on the Bench said: Ha ha. Sorry. Guess those few decades haven't been such a balm to everyone. Nope. 😢 2 1
Jauronimo Posted July 27, 2021 Posted July 27, 2021 This just underscores how badly we were outcoached in at least 2 of the 4 trips to the Super Bowl. 6 5 1
mushypeaches Posted July 27, 2021 Posted July 27, 2021 2 minutes ago, Jauronimo said: This just underscores how badly we were outcoached in at least 2 of the 4 trips to the Super Bowl. Let's correct that to 4 out of 4 and we'll be closer to the reality of what happened 6 1 1 1
GaryPinC Posted July 27, 2021 Posted July 27, 2021 3 minutes ago, Jauronimo said: This just underscores how badly we were outcoached in at least 2 of the 4 trips to the Super Bowl. Walt Corey was badly outcoached in every one. And yet Marv stuck with him. That's on Marv, much as I love him. 1 1
Logic Posted July 27, 2021 Posted July 27, 2021 Over a quarter-century later and everyone here is like “TOO SOON!!! 🤬” Gotta love Bills fans. 3 1 3 1
transient Posted July 27, 2021 Posted July 27, 2021 3 minutes ago, Jauronimo said: This just underscores how badly we were outcoached in at least 2 of the 4 trips to the Super Bowl. Parcells, Gibbs and Johnson were all big game coaches. Marv... not so much. He can credit his HOF talent for getting him into the HOF, cuz it wasn't his coaching. 2 1 1
TC in St. Louis Posted July 27, 2021 Posted July 27, 2021 Halftime at the Super Bowl is way too long. During regular season and playoffs, it's about 12 minutes. Teams have more time than ever to make adjustments. And if you're ahead, why make adjustments? Look what happened to Atlanta when they were killing New England. They were so far ahead they didn't need any adjustments. Mean time, New England changed everything and won the game. 1
Southern Bills Fan Posted July 27, 2021 Posted July 27, 2021 3 minutes ago, transient said: Parcells, Gibbs and Johnson were all big game coaches. Marv... not so much. He can credit his HOF talent for getting him into the HOF, cuz it wasn't his coaching. Marv was a hall of fame leader and motivator but unfortunately an average game day coach. 4 2
transient Posted July 27, 2021 Posted July 27, 2021 (edited) 21 minutes ago, Last Guy on the Bench said: Fun read on Jimmy Johnson in The Athletic. Like many of you, I imagine, I couldn't stand the guy back in the day. But after a few decades have eased the pain I can now look back on him fondly as a beloved old enemy. Anyway, interesting comment by DJ about how they flipped the script on the Bills in our fourth Super Bowl and came back in the second half. Painful, but good to know: I can't remember which Cowboy they interviewed in the "Four Falls of Buffalo" 30 for 30 but they mentioned how, despite dominating the first half of the game, the Bills looked listless and defeated going into the tunnel at halftime, like they didn't have anything left to give after the four SB runs. Edited July 27, 2021 by transient 1
Thurman#1 Posted July 27, 2021 Posted July 27, 2021 25 minutes ago, mushypeaches said: Let's correct that to 4 out of 4 and we'll be closer to the reality of what happened Disagree. Maybe the first. But in all four the major problem was simply that the D was built to stop the pass and we were unlucky enough to run into four opponents in a row with huge offensive lines and power run games. All four were awful matchups for us. 25 minutes ago, transient said: Parcells, Gibbs and Johnson were all big game coaches. Marv... not so much. He can credit his HOF talent for getting him into the HOF, cuz it wasn't his coaching. Disagree. Know what happens with bad big game coaches? They don't make Super Bowls, much less four in a row. Marv was a damn good coach. 2 3
transient Posted July 27, 2021 Posted July 27, 2021 3 minutes ago, Thurman#1 said: Disagree. Know what happens with bad big game coaches? They don't make Super Bowls, much less four in a row. Marv was a damn good coach. The AFC was a weak sister during his time. Someone from the conference had to make it. That roster was dripping with HOF talent and he underacheived with it due to stubbornness and hubris. "Read and react" was a complete waste of that defense under Walt Corey, and you have to give the opposing SB team some respect and not think you can just "out execute" a similarly talented team and win. That's a coaching problem. 2
LABILLBACKER Posted July 27, 2021 Posted July 27, 2021 32 minutes ago, transient said: Parcells, Gibbs and Johnson were all big game coaches. Marv... not so much. He can credit his HOF talent for getting him into the HOF, cuz it wasn't his coaching. This is so true. Great guy and we all love Marv but he was outcoached and allowed his team to party a little too much. We should have won 2 of those. 2 1
Thurman#1 Posted July 27, 2021 Posted July 27, 2021 (edited) 21 minutes ago, transient said: The AFC was a weak sister during his time. Someone from the conference had to make it. That roster was dripping with HOF talent and he underacheived with it due to stubbornness and hubris. "Read and react" was a complete waste of that defense under Walt Corey, and you have to give the opposing SB team some respect and not think you can just "out execute" a similarly talented team and win. That's a coaching problem. No. The problem was the size of that defense through the middle. They were terrific at rushing the QB, as they had to be to get out of a conference that featured Dan Marino. But we had three DLs, and they weighed 265, a 274 pound nose tackle, and Hansen at 278. That's tiny. And unfortunately we had the bad luck to face four NFC East opponents in a row in the SB. And that conference was built around power running behind big physical OLs. The Cowboys OL had three guys over 300 at the time. The Bills simply couldn't stand up to that level of power and strength. And running so much kept Kelly off the field. Horrible, horrible matchups. Much like last year's Bills D without Lotulelei, we were very athletic but didn't have a lot of sand in the pants. A power running game was our kryptonite, and we faced four teams in a row that were built around that. If we'd been as lucky as Peyton Manning's Colts, to face a team one year that they matched up well against, thing would probably look quite different. But we didn't. The NFC East was perfectly set up to beat that team, unfortunately. Marv wasn't a game day genius, but the Bills program was set up terrifically. To get out of the AFC East you had to beat Marino consistently, and that's how we were built. Edited July 27, 2021 by Thurman#1 1 1 1
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