Preparing for any team at the beginning of an NFL season can be difficult because of changes made during the offseason. New additions provide new challenges and that's the situation the Steelers find themselves in as they prepare for their Week 1 matchup against the Falcons.
After three years as the defensive coordinator for the Rams, Raheem Morris was hired as the Falcons' head coach in the offseason, replacing Arthur Smith. Along with that, Morris hired Jimmy Lake and Zac Robinson as his defensive and offensive coordinators, respectively, which presents a unique challenge for the Steelers.
With a new head coach and two new coordinators, the Steelers will almost have to guess what the Falcons are going to do in terms of defensive and offensive schemes, philosophies Robinson has called in the past and defenses Lake and Morris have deployed.
"Week 1 presents some challenges in terms of forecasting what their personalities might be in all three phases," Mike Tomlin said during his Tuesday press conference. "They didn't play a lot of their starters in the preseason, and obviously even from a schematic standpoint, you get limited exposure to what people's intentions are regarding the preseason and what it is that they do."
While there will be unknowns, Tomlin and the Steelers have an understanding of where the three coaches come from. Morris, Lake and Robinson were all in Los Angeles last season when the Steelers earned a 24-17 victory. So, Tomlin says they can use that film to develop an understanding of Atlanta's philosophies, however, there will also be different personnel involved.
"One thing I know about Coach Morris and company, he's going to utilize the talents of the people at his disposal," Tomlin said. "Some of the things that they did in L.A. will be similar to what they do in Atlanta, some of the things will be different, largely based on people and putting them in position to play well. We've got some challenges from that perspective."
So while coaches are responsible for scheming up a gameplan to stop and attack their opponents, how do players prepare to battle against the unknowns? Cam Heyward said the Steelers just need to "rely on good technique, play good assignment football early on and have fun doing it."
"I think we have a good group of guys, we kind of have a good balance between the offense, defense and special teams," Heyward said. "But to overcome the anxiety, the stuff you don’t know, just do well with what you do know."
A lot of players around the Steelers' locker room echoed that sentiment on Wednesday. Alex Highsmith said they'll need to play fast and play hard, Broderick Jones said it's somewhat of a "guessing game" still as they start to watch film of what the Falcons have done in the past but also what their coaches have used.
But as the game carries on, the Steelers will also have the opportunity to adapt to what the Falcons are doing. They'll be able to adjust their game plan and find efficient ways to attack and defend their opponent and that's something Donte Jackson believes the Steelers will be able to do well when the time comes.
"There are always going to be challenges, whether you think you know an opponent as well as you can, there's always going to be things that you are going to have to adjust to during a game," Jackson said. "So we are really confident in the fact we'll be able to adjust to anything that we aren't prepared for and the things that we are prepared for, we expect to knock it out, play it out and just compete."
