He could only watch from the Georgia Dome sidelines as the Cadillac Williams-heavy game plan—the one that worked so well against the Falcons just 12 months earlier—was obliterated. And the man who had more swagger and confidence than any of my previous coaches started to panic.
That's when I learned a valuable lesson: In the NFL, the enemy of success is complacency. Gruden's 2006 roster was nearly identical to the one he fielded the previous year. His playbook was untouched in the offseason. Michael Vick and Co. didn't go on vacation when we made the playoffs the year before; Atlanta studied and made adjustments.