The Playoffs Are Different - Written by Lawrence Timmons
 

(From the Lawrence Timmons' blog)
http://www.timmons94.com/blog.html

The Playoffs Are Different
Written by Lawrence Timmons | January 13, 2009

Playing in the playoffs in front of our home crowd was crazy, man. It was a great experience.

You can see how the playoffs are different, especially with a veteran team like we have. Everyone takes the game so serious, everyone plays so perfectly. People are way more emotional, and the older guys on this team have always shown the way. That’s why I love this team so much. No matter who a guy is, if he was drafted in the first round, second round, whatever, the older guys take it like its their job to make us better.

They say that in the playoffs, the team that makes more mistakes is the team that goes home. So they’ve been hard on us young guys. During the bye week they had me, Wood, a lot of the younger guys taking all the reps so we condition ourselves not to make mistakes. That’s helped a lot. When they put that much work in us, you can tell they really care about us, you know?

The harder you are on a guy sometimes, the better off that guy will be. They like to show us some tough love and that’s helped us a lot.

Everybody’s pumped up for the playoffs, but I know that in a game like this you’ve got to know your job. Don’t try doing someone else’s job and you’ll be fine.

I think I’ve done pretty well so far but I missed so many sacks in the San Diego game. I definitely haven’t peaked yet as a player, I need to work on second moves on the rush and I definitely want to make more big plays. Against San Diego I had the opportunity to strip the quarterback one time but I just missed. That would have been a big play and would have saved a field goal. I also could have blocked a kick, I came so close.

Guess I just need to finish stronger.

I am very lucky to be playing on the No. 1 defense in the NFL in my second year in the league. These guys make it fun, James, Pottsie, Troy, Foote, we’ve got about 20 guys on our defense who make an impression.

Against Baltimore we’ve got to really study, because we’ve already played them twice and we know everything about each other. We have to see what they’ve been doing since our last game against them. It’s going to be a tough game, but if we stick to our game plan, do what we do, we’ll be fine.

The Ravens are a “ground and pound” team, we need to stop their running game and make them throw the ball.

What I’m looking forward to is running out of the tunnel, seeing how crazy our fans get. Our fans are crazy during the regular season, I’ve never seen anything like them in the playoffs.

I think it will be a close game. It’s going to be decided in the fourth quarter, maybe even in the last minutes.

My son will be in the stands, watching. He’s only 8 months old but he’s about 25 pounds. He just took 8 or 9 steps the other day. He’ll be up there watching, and it’ll be a good feeling knowing he’s up there and we’re playing for a chance to go to the Super Bowl.


Lawrence Timmons is a linebacker with the Pittsburgh Steelers. His blog for playerpress.com runs at www.timmons94.com.

Re: The Playoffs Are Different - Written by Lawrence Timmons
 

Lawrence is a really smart guy. That's one of the things we liked about him so much when we drafted him. Everything I have ever seen from him has been really mature. The fact that he can admit to his mistakes, particularly to the public, should show you a lot. That's something you look for in a player. I'm really glad we have him this year as he has added invaluable depth to our linebackers.

Re: The Playoffs Are Different - Written by Lawrence Timmons
 

nice read thanks for posting! he seems very humble which is nice to have!:tt03:

Re: The Playoffs Are Different - Written by Lawrence Timmons
 

damn. timmons has spawned the future replacement for casey hampton.

nice read from a guy who seems kinda quiet and shies away from the media.

he created a huge turnover in the last ravens game (plus had that nice non-interception of that ball flacco threw off the goal posts).

he sounds ready to go and play even better. he could be an x-factor with the most gametime we have ever seen from him.

time to unleash the beast.

Re: The Playoffs Are Different - Written by Lawrence Timmons
 

Great blog by Timmons and thanks for posting it Mesa. Great to see the veteran players always willing to help the younger guys. That is why this defense is so great. Also, very nice to hear that Timmons knows he still has to work on things. You might have missed some plays against the Bolts Timmons, but here's another shot to make your typical splash plays tomorrow.

Re: The Playoffs Are Different - Written by Lawrence Timmons
 

Timmons is gonna be sweet.

Re: The Playoffs Are Different - Written by Lawrence Timmons
 

That's why LT is my favorite player.

Re: The Playoffs Are Different - Written by Lawrence Timmons
 

Hearing it straight from a warriors mouth you get a sense of just how tense these players are in the postseason. They say the action is faster. And the biggest thing is minimizing mistakes (ie no stupid Personal foul penalties or drive killers or turnovers).

Great to see these guys with their focus.

Re: The Playoffs Are Different - Written by Lawrence Timmons
 

I love the fact that the older guys are on the new guys and teaching them. That tells me that they care about the legacy of the Steelers and not just thier own legacies. They know that eventually they won't be here and these young guys will be thier replacments.

My next jersey is a Hines Ward jersey. After that I go to a defensive player (so far I have gon Roethlisberger-Polamalu, you know...get the long ass names out of the way)...so after Ward I have a desicion to make, Timmons or Woodley. Both are going to be absolute beasts.

Re: The Playoffs Are Different - Written by Lawrence Timmons
 

Good read. His speed has impressed me most.