Seahawks Scheme to Stop Thomas
Oct. 3, 1998
It seems like an obvious mismatch. On one side of the line tomorrow will be Kansas City linebacker Derrick Thomas, a Pro Bowl selection in all nine of his NFL seasons and destined for the Hall of Fame. Blocking him will be Seattle tackle Walter Jones, a second-year player with 16 career starts.
Coaches have a word for this sort of thing. They call it . . . a challenge.
"I asked him Wednesday: `You're not scared, are you?' offensive line coach Gregg Smith said of Jones. "And he just laughed. He knows exactly what he has to do.
"To be honest, if I had to pick one guy to go block (Thomas), he'd be the guy I'd pick because he's a good athlete, he's nifty on his feet and has good hands. He can match up with just about anybody."
If Jones can just about take care of Thomas, he'll be doing something. Kansas City likes to move Thomas around, generally setting him up away from the tight end, so he can blindside the quarterback with regularity. But Jones will have to handle Thomas most of the time.
"I know he's going to come out with his lunch pail this game, but I'm not going to get caught up in the hype of Derrick Thomas," Jones said.
Jones is not alone in this. He is going to get help from blocking schemes, such as the line shifting in Thomas' direction, and the backs gearing to provide secondary help once Thomas gets through.
"We want to scheme things enough so we can always bring some help if we can," Smith said. "He's such a good player, and such a good player at home. When there is so much noise, he can beat guys on the snap count. You can be a fraction of a second late and he has the advantage on you.
Walter knows it's a big challenge in front of him, and he'll do his best. There will be times when Derrick will win some battles. That's why we want to throw as much help as we can. Sometimes he's going to be left alone on him, and he has to take care of business."
Arrowhead Stadium, which is excessively loud, provides an advantage to defensive players, particularly Thomas. That's one reason the Seahawks have not won there since 1990. The defender doesn't have to worry about hearing the signals or audibles. He just moves with the snap of the ball.
"You have to go out and not be intimidated by the stadium, the crowd noise," Jones said. "If we can go out early, jump on them quick and get the crowd out of the game, then it'll be just us versus the Kansas City Chiefs, a whole different ballgame. But if we let them stay in it and think they can win, the crowd is going to be behind them."
This week in practice the coaches had the offensive players work particularly hard on everyone knowing and understanding the play "so we don't have to do a lot of stuff at the line of scrimmage, not too many audibles," Smith said. "Just go up, put our hand on the ground and let's go. That's what you have to do in a loud stadium."
Jones added: "That'll stop them from doing all the stuff they do. It means they have to get down and play us straight on, instead of all the tricks they do."
