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‘Village Idiots’ key to Falcons offensive success
By: J. Michael Moore | October 15th, 2009
http://www.atlantafalcons.com/2009/10/% ... e-success/
FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. – A lot was said and written last week about how the Falcons opponent, the San Francisco 49ers, had taken on the fiery personality of Head Coach Mike Singletary, the Hall of Fame linebacker.
What was left unsaid was that a unit that manhandled the vaunted 49ers’ defense, the Falcons offensive line, has taken on the personality of its position coach Paul Boudreau, a 23-year NFL coaching veteran whom right tackle Tyson Clabo describes as “just a salty, mean old man.”
[hil]Here is Boudreau’s basic theory on coaching:
“If they can tell a defensive lineman when the ball’s thrown to sprint 10 yards and go knock the crap out of our guy 10 yards down field, we can knock the crap out of him as he’s running, too. Now our job is to hit people. It’s the only job in America where you won’t get arrested for it. You got a seven-second play and you’ve got 65 plays.
“You’ve got seven seconds of making hell for that guy. And if that guy is really feeling good about himself and he can pile-drive our receiver or our running back down field, we want to make sure he has his head on a swivel so they can’t go for the ball.”[/hil]
A native of Arlington, Mass., a working-class inner suburb of Boston, Boudreau brings a gritty mentality to his unit with the stated goal of physically punishing an opponent and, if necessary, getting him off his game.
Boudreau refers to his group — starters Sam Baker at left tackle, Justin Blalock at left guard, Todd McClure at center, Harvey Dahl at right guard and Clabo at right tackle – as “the village idiots.”
Quarterback Matt Ryan is a bit more generous in describing the fivesome that has kept him sack-free for the last three games.
“Todd’s kind of the old vet,” Ryan said. “He’s the glue who keeps the whole group together. Harvey and Tyson on the right side – Tyson, he’s funny, real dry sense of humor. Harvey’s a little bit crazy, a really good guy. The left side of the line’s a little more quiet than the two on the right, Sam and Justin, but those guys do a great job as well.”
By definition, offensive line is a physical position. It’s a little different, say, from what place kicker Jason Elam does. So what does it mean to have a physical offensive line?
Ask defensive lineman Chauncey Davis, who has to practice against Boudreau’s group twice a day during training camp and then every day during the season.
[hil]“The difference between our offensive line and other people’s offensive line is that they’re going to the whistle,” Davis said. “You think you’re about to turn and run, but they’re right there with you and they’re running down the field with you and they’re on you and they push you and they keep you away from the ball.
“Some guys just say, ‘all right’ and do their job and then you can turn and run and make a tackle. It’s a big difference knowing that you got the offensive line pushing you, but there’s not too many offensive lines that do that.”[/hil]
Head Coach Mike Smith said he thought one of the reasons the Falcons did not get their running game in gear early was that players needed to keep on their blocks down field.
[hil]It’s Boudreau’s job to instill that relentless mentality.[/hil]
Like any master motivator, his tools are part carrot and part stick.
“We’ll we’ve got a little system,” he said. “It’s amazing. These guys get paid millions of dollars and, on Friday, I have what I call ‘Fast Friday.’ The last guy down the field has to pay each of the other guys a dollar.
“You can imagine how cheap these [guys] are when it comes time to pay another guy a dollar. So a little peer pressure and I’m the judge and jury of the whole deal… We turn on film and we see some lineman walking back to the huddle while their buddy’s down field getting the crap knocked out of him, so we want to make sure that we show up on film.”
Perhaps if one player personifies the group, it’s Dahl, 28, who was undrafted out of Nevada-Reno. In May, CBSSports.com NFL writer Pete Prisco dubbed Dahl “the meanest player” in the league.
How did he get that way?
[hil]“He’s been cut by four teams,” Boudreau said. “He got noticed here for the right reason. You can get noticed for a lot of reasons. You can walk in with your hat on sideways. You can walk in late. You can go out at night and get in trouble. You get noticed for those things. You can also get noticed by being out there, knocking the crap out of somebody and, if you knock the crap out of somebody, you’re going to get my notice. It’s going to be good for you because you’re going to get a chance to make our team and be on our team.[/hil]
“That’s his chance. His chance was to show us something, get noticed. Well, when we he got here the first day, even without pads, he got noticed. And as long as he keeps on doing that, he’ll have a long career in this NFL.”
Clabo said the old cliché about players’ being a different person when they step on the field could not be truer than it is with Dahl.
“You hear that a lot but nobody really understands it,” Clabo said. “But he really is a different person. When he’s here when he’s walking around, you look at him like he’s hardly awake half the time. He’s got his eyes half shut. He just looks like he’s having a day at the beach but Sunday afternoon rolls around and he just comes to life.”
[hil]On Sunday, Dahl became the focus when he and Singletary shouted at each other on the field during the game. After the game, Singletary realized his error and told reporters, “I wish I had more coaching etiquette.”[/hil]
But the equation is different when it’s the player who is distracting the opposing team’s head coach.
[hil]“This game is about focus,” Boudreau said. “If you’re focused on your job and that other guy is worried about getting hit or if that other guy is worried about you instead of worrying about his football team, you’ve taken the focus off of us. And our big thing is that’s half the battle.[/hil]
“People talk about Michael [Turner] carrying the ball too much. Well, if you’re down field and I got five guys down field taking the hits off of Michael, he might be able to carry the ball ten more times because he ain’t getting hit. And that’s the big thing and if that means they get out of their comfort zone and they’re out of their focus, that’s good for us.”
[hil]Said Dahl: “As long as we’re not hurting our team and if we’re getting under their skin, that’s exactly what we want to do. Aggravate them and not hurt ourselves. And I think we set a pretty good example of that on Sunday.”[/hil]
McClure, who, in his 11th season with the Falcons, is the team’s longest-tenured player said this group of linemen is the closest and most physical that he has been around. That closeness is evident in the way the players turn to sit towards each other in the locker room, with Clabo sitting in the middle of the hall across from tight end Justin Peelle.
And you can hear Boudreau’s words echoed in the leader of the group.
[hil]“We take pride in the way we play and it kind of takes other teams out of their game,” McClure said. “They start looking to come after you instead of going after the ball carrier.”[/hil]
Bears head coach Lovie Smith could see that cohesion come through on film.
“You look at offensive lines in general, they’re normally the closest group on the field,” Smith said of the Falcons line.
“That’s what I see. I know they started a lot of games together. Just guys who played hard throughout the play, a tough group. Whenever you have a commitment to the run the way the Falcons do, it starts up front.”
It’s an idiosyncratic group from Boudreau on down.
Boudreau was worried that a story about the line and a mention of its lack of sacks over the last three games would prove a jinx.
Baker’s beard is a hirsute protuberance that extends several inches from the bottom of his chin. During training camp, sweat drips from it like a dirty melting icicle.
“I can’t speak for everyone else, but I like the beard,” Clabo said. “I want a little more. I’ve been lobbying for him to braid it into two points, but he’s not really feeling that.”
It’s a good thing he didn’t speak for Dahl on that matter.
“I hate it,” Dahl said. “I hate it and I think he should cut it off immediately. There’s nothing good about that beard.”
With such colorful characters — mean, dry-humored, long-bearded — it’s easy to understand why Boudreau calls them the village idiots.
[hil]“When you think about it, we’re all a bunch of village idiots,” he said. “Really, what do you have to go out here every day and do? Go out and hit a sled. Everybody else catches a ball, does somersaults. We gotta hit somebody and get in a huddle and hit somebody again.
“You’ve got to have some kind of a deal, so that’s our deal.”[/hil]
By: J. Michael Moore | October 15th, 2009
http://www.atlantafalcons.com/2009/10/% ... e-success/
FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. – A lot was said and written last week about how the Falcons opponent, the San Francisco 49ers, had taken on the fiery personality of Head Coach Mike Singletary, the Hall of Fame linebacker.
What was left unsaid was that a unit that manhandled the vaunted 49ers’ defense, the Falcons offensive line, has taken on the personality of its position coach Paul Boudreau, a 23-year NFL coaching veteran whom right tackle Tyson Clabo describes as “just a salty, mean old man.”
[hil]Here is Boudreau’s basic theory on coaching:
“If they can tell a defensive lineman when the ball’s thrown to sprint 10 yards and go knock the crap out of our guy 10 yards down field, we can knock the crap out of him as he’s running, too. Now our job is to hit people. It’s the only job in America where you won’t get arrested for it. You got a seven-second play and you’ve got 65 plays.
“You’ve got seven seconds of making hell for that guy. And if that guy is really feeling good about himself and he can pile-drive our receiver or our running back down field, we want to make sure he has his head on a swivel so they can’t go for the ball.”[/hil]
A native of Arlington, Mass., a working-class inner suburb of Boston, Boudreau brings a gritty mentality to his unit with the stated goal of physically punishing an opponent and, if necessary, getting him off his game.
Boudreau refers to his group — starters Sam Baker at left tackle, Justin Blalock at left guard, Todd McClure at center, Harvey Dahl at right guard and Clabo at right tackle – as “the village idiots.”
Quarterback Matt Ryan is a bit more generous in describing the fivesome that has kept him sack-free for the last three games.
“Todd’s kind of the old vet,” Ryan said. “He’s the glue who keeps the whole group together. Harvey and Tyson on the right side – Tyson, he’s funny, real dry sense of humor. Harvey’s a little bit crazy, a really good guy. The left side of the line’s a little more quiet than the two on the right, Sam and Justin, but those guys do a great job as well.”
By definition, offensive line is a physical position. It’s a little different, say, from what place kicker Jason Elam does. So what does it mean to have a physical offensive line?
Ask defensive lineman Chauncey Davis, who has to practice against Boudreau’s group twice a day during training camp and then every day during the season.
[hil]“The difference between our offensive line and other people’s offensive line is that they’re going to the whistle,” Davis said. “You think you’re about to turn and run, but they’re right there with you and they’re running down the field with you and they’re on you and they push you and they keep you away from the ball.
“Some guys just say, ‘all right’ and do their job and then you can turn and run and make a tackle. It’s a big difference knowing that you got the offensive line pushing you, but there’s not too many offensive lines that do that.”[/hil]
Head Coach Mike Smith said he thought one of the reasons the Falcons did not get their running game in gear early was that players needed to keep on their blocks down field.
[hil]It’s Boudreau’s job to instill that relentless mentality.[/hil]
Like any master motivator, his tools are part carrot and part stick.
“We’ll we’ve got a little system,” he said. “It’s amazing. These guys get paid millions of dollars and, on Friday, I have what I call ‘Fast Friday.’ The last guy down the field has to pay each of the other guys a dollar.
“You can imagine how cheap these [guys] are when it comes time to pay another guy a dollar. So a little peer pressure and I’m the judge and jury of the whole deal… We turn on film and we see some lineman walking back to the huddle while their buddy’s down field getting the crap knocked out of him, so we want to make sure that we show up on film.”
Perhaps if one player personifies the group, it’s Dahl, 28, who was undrafted out of Nevada-Reno. In May, CBSSports.com NFL writer Pete Prisco dubbed Dahl “the meanest player” in the league.
How did he get that way?
[hil]“He’s been cut by four teams,” Boudreau said. “He got noticed here for the right reason. You can get noticed for a lot of reasons. You can walk in with your hat on sideways. You can walk in late. You can go out at night and get in trouble. You get noticed for those things. You can also get noticed by being out there, knocking the crap out of somebody and, if you knock the crap out of somebody, you’re going to get my notice. It’s going to be good for you because you’re going to get a chance to make our team and be on our team.[/hil]
“That’s his chance. His chance was to show us something, get noticed. Well, when we he got here the first day, even without pads, he got noticed. And as long as he keeps on doing that, he’ll have a long career in this NFL.”
Clabo said the old cliché about players’ being a different person when they step on the field could not be truer than it is with Dahl.
“You hear that a lot but nobody really understands it,” Clabo said. “But he really is a different person. When he’s here when he’s walking around, you look at him like he’s hardly awake half the time. He’s got his eyes half shut. He just looks like he’s having a day at the beach but Sunday afternoon rolls around and he just comes to life.”
[hil]On Sunday, Dahl became the focus when he and Singletary shouted at each other on the field during the game. After the game, Singletary realized his error and told reporters, “I wish I had more coaching etiquette.”[/hil]
But the equation is different when it’s the player who is distracting the opposing team’s head coach.
[hil]“This game is about focus,” Boudreau said. “If you’re focused on your job and that other guy is worried about getting hit or if that other guy is worried about you instead of worrying about his football team, you’ve taken the focus off of us. And our big thing is that’s half the battle.[/hil]
“People talk about Michael [Turner] carrying the ball too much. Well, if you’re down field and I got five guys down field taking the hits off of Michael, he might be able to carry the ball ten more times because he ain’t getting hit. And that’s the big thing and if that means they get out of their comfort zone and they’re out of their focus, that’s good for us.”
[hil]Said Dahl: “As long as we’re not hurting our team and if we’re getting under their skin, that’s exactly what we want to do. Aggravate them and not hurt ourselves. And I think we set a pretty good example of that on Sunday.”[/hil]
McClure, who, in his 11th season with the Falcons, is the team’s longest-tenured player said this group of linemen is the closest and most physical that he has been around. That closeness is evident in the way the players turn to sit towards each other in the locker room, with Clabo sitting in the middle of the hall across from tight end Justin Peelle.
And you can hear Boudreau’s words echoed in the leader of the group.
[hil]“We take pride in the way we play and it kind of takes other teams out of their game,” McClure said. “They start looking to come after you instead of going after the ball carrier.”[/hil]
Bears head coach Lovie Smith could see that cohesion come through on film.
“You look at offensive lines in general, they’re normally the closest group on the field,” Smith said of the Falcons line.
“That’s what I see. I know they started a lot of games together. Just guys who played hard throughout the play, a tough group. Whenever you have a commitment to the run the way the Falcons do, it starts up front.”
It’s an idiosyncratic group from Boudreau on down.
Boudreau was worried that a story about the line and a mention of its lack of sacks over the last three games would prove a jinx.
Baker’s beard is a hirsute protuberance that extends several inches from the bottom of his chin. During training camp, sweat drips from it like a dirty melting icicle.
“I can’t speak for everyone else, but I like the beard,” Clabo said. “I want a little more. I’ve been lobbying for him to braid it into two points, but he’s not really feeling that.”
It’s a good thing he didn’t speak for Dahl on that matter.
“I hate it,” Dahl said. “I hate it and I think he should cut it off immediately. There’s nothing good about that beard.”
With such colorful characters — mean, dry-humored, long-bearded — it’s easy to understand why Boudreau calls them the village idiots.
[hil]“When you think about it, we’re all a bunch of village idiots,” he said. “Really, what do you have to go out here every day and do? Go out and hit a sled. Everybody else catches a ball, does somersaults. We gotta hit somebody and get in a huddle and hit somebody again.
“You’ve got to have some kind of a deal, so that’s our deal.”[/hil]
