Rams News

Coordinating Rams defense is a two-man job this year

Thursday, September 3, 1998

By Jim Thomas
Of The Post-Dispatch

* Coaches Peter Giunta and John Bunting are sharing the job of replacing Bud Carson.

In an organization with two presidents and nine vice presidents, should we really be surprised that the Rams have co-defensive coordinators?

Probably not.

"I don't think you should be afraid to do things differently," coach Dick Vermeil said.

Vermeil certainly succeeded on that count in naming Peter Giunta and John Bunting co-defensive coordinators. The move may be unprecedented in the annals of NFL football. But Vermeil sincerely believes that two heads are better than one when it comes to replacing the retired Bud Carson.

"I just felt this was the best way for us," Vermeil said. "I did not want to break into a new defensive scheme. I saw real strengths in both, that if I put them together with one responsibility, I'd have a young Bud Carson. There aren't many Bud Carsons. Bud could be a professor and a nasty son of a (gun) all at the same time. That's a nice quality."

Picture Giunta as the professor and Bunting as the, uh, nasty guy in Vermeil's cloning experiment. But how exactly will it work?

"We're going to play off each other and work well together like we have last year, and like we did this preseason," Giunta says.

And argue a lot?

"No," Giunta said. "We discuss things. We were together with this system last year. We know the strengths and weaknesses, and how it's going to affect our people.

"I'm sure during the course of the season we'll have discussions and maybe disagreements about running this front or this coverage. But that's healthy. That's the only way you learn and grow: by saying this is what I want to do and why I want to do it."

But at the end of the day, Giunta has the tie-breaker vote.

"The key point here is, Peter's got 51 percent of the vote," Bunting said. "So he is the signal caller. We have mutual respect for one another, so that unlike maybe some other situations where there's only one way to do it - Peter listens.

"This co-coordinator thing, people can make a big deal out of it if they want to, but nobody really has. The players are fine with it. In and around the office, everything goes very smooth. The title itself is almost meaningless.

"We've known each other a long time. So there's no egos here that can mess things up. I don't have one, and Peter doesn't really have one. So it's working out fine."

On game days, Giunta makes the defensive calls on the sidelines. Bunting will offer suggestions from the more sanitized, less emotional atmosphere of the coaches' booth, which is at press box level in most stadiums.

Giunta likes being on the field, because "you get to communicate with the players directly. You don't have to wait to call them on the phone, or have somebody relay the message for you.

"But you lose a little bit. You can't see as well, obviously, on the field as you can upstairs. But you have a feel for the players. You can see the look in their eye and get a good feel for the tempo of them on the field."

But you can see things in the booth that can't be seen in the organized chaos of the sidelines, such as what kind of pass-blocking protections the opposing offensive line is using. And there's another benefit, according to Bunting: "I don't have to worry so much that I'm going to hurt this guy's feelings, because I don't even see him. When it comes down to it, I've got a (player) on the phone. I'll tell him exactly what's going on."

As a linebackers coach, and former NFL linebacker, Bunting is more zeroed in on the front seven and run defense. As a former defensive backs coach, Giunta is more familiar with pass defense and the secondary.

When it comes to formulating a game plan, which Giunta and Bunting did earlier this week for the first time as co-coordinators, they mesh their areas of expertise. Most of the discussion, and any disagreements, are supposed to take place at this time. Not on game day.

If you could tap into the Rams' defensive headsets Sunday afternoon against New Orleans, you'd be unlikely to hear Bunting and Giunta arguing about what front or coverage to use - with maybe 20 seconds to make a call between plays.

"That's all done," Giunta said. "All that stuff is done in the game plan preparation."

While the defense is on the field, corrections can't really be made. Instead, Bunting might simply tell Giunta, "Stay away from this." Or: "We're getting killed in that."

The real adjustments have to wait until the defense is on the sidelines, and then they have to be made quickly, because the offense could be off the field in a flash, with a three-and-out series or a turnover.

But beyond the logistics of working the game, the real test for Giunta and Bunting will be what kind of adjustments they make on the fly. And whether they make the right calls at the right time. Carson was a master at both.

Only then will we know if two heads really are better than one.

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