Tony Dungy Defends Mike Zimmer's Defense

  • 3 days ago
Super Bowl-winning head coach and analyst for Sunday Night Football on NBC, Tony Dungy, joined Shan, RJ and Bobby on Friday's show to preview the primetime matchup between the Dallas Cowboys and the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Transcript
00:00Coach, we've asked the question about Mike Zimmer and if what he's trying to do is a
00:08little outdated.
00:09Do you think that's part of the case?
00:11No, I don't.
00:14People can look at it that way, but it's not the case at all.
00:18We actually went through this our Super Bowl year in Indianapolis in 2006.
00:23We had a dynamic offense with Peyton Manning.
00:26We're putting up a lot of points.
00:27We built our defense to stop the pass and to protect leads in the fourth quarter.
00:32In the first part of the year, we were ahead most of the time.
00:35We're winning games.
00:36It's not a problem.
00:37We started out 9-0.
00:38But in the second half of the year, the weather got a little colder.
00:42Our offense wasn't as efficient.
00:45We're in tight games.
00:46People are running the ball.
00:47We lost four out of, I think, seven games coming down the stretch.
00:51Our run defense was not very good.
00:53We had some injuries, just like the Cowboys are facing.
00:56We lost Bob Sanders for a time, and we weren't the same, and people were running the ball
01:00on us.
01:01But we got to the playoffs, and we knew what we had to do, and we didn't change the scheme
01:07at all.
01:08So I don't think with Coach Zimmer, it's the scheme.
01:11Sometimes it's just emphasis.
01:14They're going to have to emphasize run defense this week, in my opinion, because I'm the
01:19Pittsburgh Steelers.
01:20With what I have, and I've got a young quarterback, I want to run the ball and see if Dallas can
01:25stop it.

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