stillers4me
11-28-2010, 07:04 AM
Sunday, November 28, 2010
By Gerry Dulac, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The year was 1996 and the Steelers were the defending American Football Conference champions, a team that had lost to the Dallas Cowboys in Super Bowl XXX after making back-to-back appearances in the conference title game.
After a loss in the season opener in Jacksonville, the Steelers had won four consecutive games heading into an Oct. 13 meeting with the Cincinnati Bengals at Three Rivers Stadium, a game Bill Cowher remembers for more than just a 20-10 victory against their division rival.
The Steelers were down to just three healthy receivers -- Charles Johnson, Andre Hastings and Corey Holliday -- because of injuries to Yancey Thigpen and Ernie Mills. But that didn't bother Chan Gailey, the team's offensive coordinator who often liked to use five wide receivers in some of his formations.
"I came into a meeting on Monday night and said we only got three healthy receivers and we were running four and five wides, and we took two tight ends and put together a running plan with one wide receiver on the field," Cowher recalled the other day. "Chan said we'll make the players think this is a great plan and this will be a little different, but we'll have something that won't be predictable and the players will buy into that.
"That's what Chan does -- he makes you feel good about where you are. He accentuates the positive when most people won't be able to find the positive."
Thomas Chandler "Chan" Gailey is doing the same thing in his first season as head coach of the Buffalo Bills
Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10332/1106444-66.stm#ixzz16a8LF9NJ
By Gerry Dulac, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The year was 1996 and the Steelers were the defending American Football Conference champions, a team that had lost to the Dallas Cowboys in Super Bowl XXX after making back-to-back appearances in the conference title game.
After a loss in the season opener in Jacksonville, the Steelers had won four consecutive games heading into an Oct. 13 meeting with the Cincinnati Bengals at Three Rivers Stadium, a game Bill Cowher remembers for more than just a 20-10 victory against their division rival.
The Steelers were down to just three healthy receivers -- Charles Johnson, Andre Hastings and Corey Holliday -- because of injuries to Yancey Thigpen and Ernie Mills. But that didn't bother Chan Gailey, the team's offensive coordinator who often liked to use five wide receivers in some of his formations.
"I came into a meeting on Monday night and said we only got three healthy receivers and we were running four and five wides, and we took two tight ends and put together a running plan with one wide receiver on the field," Cowher recalled the other day. "Chan said we'll make the players think this is a great plan and this will be a little different, but we'll have something that won't be predictable and the players will buy into that.
"That's what Chan does -- he makes you feel good about where you are. He accentuates the positive when most people won't be able to find the positive."
Thomas Chandler "Chan" Gailey is doing the same thing in his first season as head coach of the Buffalo Bills
Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10332/1106444-66.stm#ixzz16a8LF9NJ