Coach Bruce Arians AFC Championship Week - Ingles

January 20, 2011

Re: Challenge of replacing Santonio Holmes:

It was extremely challenging. You are taking a great player who can do so many different things and who finally learned the offense, and then you put a second-year player [Mike Wallace] in his place, who has done a heck of a job. The sky is the limit for Mike and the two young guys have stepped in and stepped up. So it was kind of a committee to replace him.

Re: The weather this Sunday:

We are very fortunate to have a quarterback that weather does not bother him, whether it’s wind, snow or rain, he knows how to handle it. He has proven that we don’t have to change the game plan because of weather conditions.

Re: Familiarity with the Jets:

There is so much familiarity because of Rex. Having played him for 10 years and going against his scheme for so long it amazes me how he can keep coming up with new stuff. I really think he is the best in the business of what he does. It’s always an extreme challenge to play against him, whether it was Baltimore and now the Jets. Their cornerbacks are a little bit better, and that makes it a lot more challenging. But to have one game under our belt to see what they tried to then, you know something else it coming. He has a litany of blitzes. So you try to get ready for as many as you can.

Re: Hines Ward being able to get open:

He brings guys to his level. He is so smart that if and when a play breaks down, he has a great camaraderie with Ben and a great feel of which way he is going. And it’s also computed in his brain of what the coverage was. He will find a spot, or he is strong enough to shake his guy loose. He is one of the best of improvising that we have along with our quarterback.

Re: Hines:

He’s not the fastest, so if you are a 4-2, you are still playing 4-6. He can still separate. I think that’s one thing that Hines still has and Derrick Mason still has. They still have the great separation. Their game was never predicated on speed. It was smarts and being able to separate from the defender and use their strength. So he’s never lost that. So it doesn’t matter if your corner is running a 4-2, they are not going to run a 4-2 against him. They are going to play at his level.

Re: Wide receiver being a difficult position:

It’s probably the hardest position on offense. There are so many different styles of corners and safeties and things they have to learn. Most have not been exposed to good route running, press man-to-man. The quarterbacks that are coming out that you are dealing with at this level are pretty accomplished, unless you are doing a project. So you try to tailor for what they have done, having been with Peyton Manning and Tim Couch, you do what they do best. And they are normally used to spread offenses. So that part of the game they play pretty well, with their backs to the line of scrimmage. But the wide receiver position, and I will throw the center position in there with it because we have a freak [Maurkice Pouncey] who came in here and did something that I didn’t think was possible, play as well as he has played, made the Pro Bowl and dominated his play, because we are so greedy we ask our center to do so much. And we ask our wide receivers to do so much. Running backs just run. And everybody else you just do your position. College wide receivers don’t play with a guy pressed on them a lot. That’s what usually separates the good ones.

Re: Ben’s scrambling ability:

All throughout the spring and through training camp we don’t have a whistle. Plays are just extended on seven-on-seven and in team to allow that stuff to be taught. You basically learn scramble rules as you go through it. Each play has a little bit of different scramble rules to it depending on where you are at. You really never know where Ben is going to go. Once he gets going then the rules take place. And we have gotten really good at it.

Have you had to work with this group more with Ben?

Yeah, I think you have to learn how to do it with your guy. It was new for our young players to be around him to make plays when the plays weren’t dead. As far as Mike, Hines and Heath, they all knew how to do it.

Re: Using tight ends against the Jets:

They have outstanding linebackers and safety. Matt [Spaeth] played as good of a game that game as he did in a long time. He stepped up knowing that we had a lot of game plans for him. And they have some great tight ends at New England. That’s pretty much the core of their offense. I don’t know if it is a weakness on their defense or that those tight ends were good enough to have success. We left some things out there in our ballgame that we had for Matt. Hopefully we can get them with Heath.

Re: Not having a whistle in the offseason:

There are certain periods that we will let the play be extended until the ball is thrown, seven-on-seven, some passing drills where even if he is sacked we don’t stop the play. We just keep working so that the defense plays against a scrambling quarterback and the offense learns how to scramble. It’s something that Coach Tomlin has always done since he has been here. It’s helped us practice something that is very hard to practice because it is ad-lib. It lets you ad-lib at practice. The defense always gets mad because they think they sacked us. It’s fun.

Re: The fumble last game where everyone versus the Ravens and what you told your guys:

Just listen for the whistle. It was kind of a freaky play. 21 guys stopped. So did he [Cory Redding]. I still think a whistle blew. But that’s neither-here-nor-there.