Special Teams Coordinator Michael Ghobrial
October 25, 2024
Q: What makes the Steelers so good at blocking kicks?
MICHAEL GHOBRIAL: Number one, they're coached up really well. (Steelers Special Teams Coordinator) Danny Smith has been doing a hell of a job in this league for a long time, so I got tremendous respect for him. And their players play the game the right way. They're very fundamentally sound. They play together. They play with purpose. And obviously, like you guys know, they've been able to pressure and block kicks very well. So again, tremendous respect for them. Tremendous challenge for us this week.
Q: What is it about your return game that you look at and say, ‘why haven't we been able to break anything or get anything really out of that’?
MICHAEL GHOBRIAL: Yeah, I think it starts when you want to get your return game going, you've got to hold up on the perimeter, number one, to knock a hole in it. And when I say knock a hole in it, you've got to get your return game started. So, when you're talking about punt return, that's the first priority is we've got to improve on the perimeter. The second thing, based off of a certain situation in the game, down and distances, there are certain things that we may feel more inclined to do based off of pressuring or return. In some cases, you may get a return out of a pressure. You may get no return out of a pressure. But the number one thing is we've got to improve in terms of our perimeter play, and then our guys have to do a better job of sticking and staying on their blocks for a longer period of time. The nature of any punt play, it's really the toughest 7 to 10 seconds of any football play. I mean it's so long when you think about what you're asking your return team to do and what you're asking your punt team to do. At one point, you don't have the ball, so you've got to make sure you're playing defense first, because you don't want to give up a fake. And at another point, you're getting the ball, so it's that transitional period where it is a long time to do right. So, we've got to put our guys in a better position. That starts with me in practice in terms of feeling what that length of a play feels like to be able to execute the early down part of it and the later down part of it.
Q: How do you get better at that perimeter? Is it personnel, scheme? What's the change that would make that be better?
MICHAEL GHOBRIAL: Yeah, I think the personnel, that's what we have. My job is to get those guys better, so when we're on the field, it is legitimately practicing that play for that entirety, whether it's a full cover, understanding that you still are trying to get your guys ready to play a game, so not necessarily burning them out as well. There's balance to that, and I think that's what coaching is. At what point are you pressing these guys to make sure that they're ready to play physically to where you might have to take off a little bit of that physical element, but also understand there is a mental clock in this game. They understand the length of that play as well, but they also have to feel what that feels like, so you could do it at a tempo pace, but just making certain they understand these are your block mechanics as we get closer and closer to the return.
Q: How's (kicker) Graham (Gano) doing?
MICHAEL GHOBRIAL: All injury questions are going to go to (Head Coach Brian Daboll) Dabs.
Q: I know he's been out here. I was just wondering if he got to the point where you were able to at least see him kick at any point yet. Or is he still like ramping up physically?
MICHAEL GHOBRIAL: Yeah, I haven't had the opportunity to see him do the physical stuff. My focus has been on our guys. I see Graham around. He's got a smile on his face, and I know he's chomping at the bit to get ready to get going again.
