Jets' Matt Slauson prepares for big game against Buffalo Bills, having put his doubts

Jets' Matt Slauson prepares for big game against Buffalo Bills, having put his doubts, critics to rest

By Jenny Vrentas/The Star-Ledger

Team meetings usually end at 9 the night before Jets games. But Matt Slauson stays up until about 11 p.m. in the hotel conference room, weary eyes fixed on a big-screen television.

The Jets’ left guard has coined a new Saturday night routine this year. He watches one full game of the next day’s opponent with tackles D’Brickashaw Ferguson and Wayne Hunter. Then, he studies two more games on his own, freshly memorizing the pass-rush moves he’ll see in a matter of hours.

Last night’s playlist? The Buffalo Bills vs. the New England Patriots, Giants and Philadelphia Eagles. A different player has emerged from such work, which offensive line coach Bill Callahan lauds as “tireless.” A player well ahead of the weak link Slauson sometimes felt like last season.

“Last year, I went into almost every game terrified,” Slauson said. “I was scared a lot of the time. Now, I’m not playing with fear, I’m playing with confidence. And I think it’s helping a lot.”

The Jets need Slauson, and the offensive line, at their best in a critical month that begins with today’s game at Buffalo.

Since the Jets recommitted to the run in Week 5, the line has helped running back Shonn Greene to the second-highest per-game average in the AFC through that time frame: 89.7 yards, behind only Buffalo’s Fred Jackson. The play up front is central to maintaining this renewed Jets identity, and building on back-to-back victories.

Slauson understands the brunt of responsibility the Jets line bears, which fueled his quest to close the gap between him and center Nick Mangold and right guard Brandon Moore. His growth this year has been in areas as general as pass protection, and as specific as tightening his hands to become less vulnerable to bull rushes.

His new confidence on the field has extended off it, too, as Slauson has become a candid and interesting locker-room voice, sometimes making waves (when he deemed Hunter an “upgrade” at right tackle from the retired Damien Woody) or earning a scolding from the team’s public relations staff (when he announced the Jets’ plan to return to ground and pound).

Bridging Ferguson and Mangold, first-rounders and Pro Bowlers, and replacing Alan Faneca, a nine-time Pro Bowler, Slauson originally felt every bit like a “sixth-round pick who kind of got shoved in there.” No more.

“You know what’s great,” coach Rex Ryan said, “is nobody questions that left guard position (anymore).”

Mangold said it was in training camp this summer that he and Slauson began to work in synch without verbal cues, like Mangold and Moore have established through six years side by side. In the Week 6 victory against the Dolphins, Slauson made one of those non-verbal adjustments to create time for a 38-yard touchdown pass to Santonio Holmes, a move quarterback Mark Sanchez proudly dubbed “Alan Faneca-like.”

The line was directed to slide to the right side, but the Dolphins’ disguised cornerback blitz from the left would leave linebacker Karlos Dansby free. Slauson quickly adjusted to pass off the nose tackle and pick up Dansby, giving Sanchez enough time to find Holmes.

Slauson, who is now also the team’s backup center, said reps at that position in practice while Mangold nursed a high ankle sprain have sharpened his field vision. Callahan called Slauson’s reaction “a great save.”

“That play shows that ‘Slau’ and I are starting to get onto that level where we really don’t have to say anything,” Mangold said. “Even if the right call isn’t made or we aren’t in the right position, we still get it done.”

Slauson admitted he worried whether he would be able to make such a jump forward this year, because the lockout blocked him from his usual meticulous technique work with Callahan. He moved home to Nebraska with his wife and newborn son and trained at his alma mater, the University of Nebraska, without the benefit of coaching or film work.

So Slauson did what he could. He labored in the weight room, using a heavy dose of squats to build muscle throughout his body, which boosted his playing weight to 325 from last year’s 313. He set himself in his stance against air, visualizing different movements by his opponent to practice hand and feet placement.
Callahan, Nebraska’s head coach during Slauson’s career, has been familiar with his relentless work ethic since college — though the third-year player has taken it to another level in the NFL.

He stays late after practice every day, fine-tuning technique through extra drills and working with the younger players, a leader-in-training. Callahan knows Slauson absorbs everything in the meeting room, because if he asks his player at the end of a workday what he’s learned, Slauson will rattle off four or five items.

Slauson’s Saturday night film study is a new wrinkle this year, which has helped him enter games with a keener sense of how the opposing defensive line will try to attack him. He selects his film reel carefully, choosing one game in which an opponent excelled. He also likes to pick games featuring the league’s elite left guards — such as the Patriots’ Logan Mankins or the San Diego Charges’ Kris Dielman — so he can watch how they beat their opponent’s best moves.

“He means the world to me, because he has developed by and large because of his own doing,” Callahan said. “He is a smart guy who knows how to get better, and I think that’s the ultimate compliment that you can give a player. But boy, he has come a long way from where he has started. It’s incredible in that sense.”

Slauson’s linemates heaped on praise, too. Moore said Slauson is “quietly having a great year,” and Ferguson said he continues to be impressed by Slauson’s “eagerness to be great.”

Slauson admits he, too, can see the difference on film. He now watches a more fluid, instinctive player who is in better position more often. The difference is reinforced when he looks back at last year’s film, another of his study habits.

He rewinds to 2010 to see what opponents may see in him during their scouting, particularly division teams that played him twice last year. It’s also a reminder not to revert to the technique errors that recurred last season. But he’ll sometimes cringe, understanding why opponents still often place their best defensive lineman over him for most of the game.

“I’m still kind of unproven, so I think everybody likes to face me,” Slauson said. “Plus, they see on film how I played last year and a lot of times last year, I didn’t play great; I was just holding on for dear life. A lot of coaches see what I did last year, and they still see me as a weak link. But I don’t mind.”

Slauson spent the season opener handling Dallas’ Jay Ratliff and the Week 3 game at Oakland dealing with Richard Seymour. He may not see Bills first-rounder Marcell Dareus as much today, though. Buffalo moved Dareus to nose tackle in last week’s game, which would put him on Mangold, and potentially Moore in sub packages. But the Jets must be prepared for different alignments.

The Jets have run all over the Bills under Ryan, averaging more than 45 carries and 279 rushing yards in four games. But Buffalo’s defensive front, while without Kyle Williams because of injury, is much improved this year: Bigger, more physical and more active, apt to use stunts and games to confuse the opponent. Last week against the Redskins, the Bills recorded a whopping 10 sacks.

Slauson nodded at that last stat, coolly noting: “I feel like we’re a better line than Washington is.”

He confides that he’s not always as self-assured as he sounds in his public comments, but he likes to have fun. His linemates rib him endlessly — “Offensive linemen aren’t supposed to say that!” they tease — but no one truly seems to mind. Slauson is simply coming into his own.

“We need to embrace that attitude, be completely confident in ourselves and our play,” Slauson said. “Because if we go into games scared, then we are not going to win.”

http://www.nj.com/jets/index.ssf/2011/11/jets_matt_slauson_prepares_for.html

Excellent article!