Mark Craig: Swagger you want, swagger you'll get

METAIRIE, LA. — Somewhere, there's a smile on the face of that cantankerous old Buddy Ryan. One of the greatest defensive minds in NFL history has disciples on three of the four NFL teams still standing heading into Sunday's conference title games.

His son Rex is head coach of the Jets. Leslie Frazier, a starting cornerback on Ryan's famed 1985 Chicago Bears defense, is the Vikings' defensive coordinator. And Gregg Williams, who served as Ryan's linebackers coach with the Oilers in the mid-1990s, is the Saints' defensive coordinator.

"Buddy's got three of his guys out there really looking to hit the quarterback as much as we can on Sunday," Williams said. "So you know he's feeling pretty good right now."

Each disciple goes about it a little differently, but all three of them are successful because they've taught their defense how to play with that Buddy Ryan swagger.

"Buddy Ryan will tell you this," said Williams, who often begins a sentence that way. "Unless your defense is feared, then it's really not a legitimate defense."

After back-to-back seasons with a great offense, a terrible defense and no playoff appearances, the Saints fired defensive coordinator Gary Gibbs. Head coach Sean Payton said he needed his defense "to play with a swagger, to play like our offense plays." Williams needed to get the heck away from Jacksonville and his one-year nightmare with Jaguars coach Jack Del Rio.

Williams swaggered from the first snap of the first organized team activity in March. He graded every player on every snap and posted the results. He talked Payton into a practice routine in which the league's No. 1 offense competed against his defense regularly. He demanded that each loose ball -- even incompletions -- be treated like a turnover that had to be returned and blocked a specific way.

"Gregg came in here saying we're not going to be the poor stepchild to our offense," said All-Pro safety and former Viking Darren Sharper.

Under Williams, the Saints were second in the league in takeaways with 39. That's 17 more than they had last year and as many as they had in their previous 28 games.

Including last week's 45-14 divisional win over the Cardinals, the Saints have 22 takeaways and 21 of their 36 sacks at home. In Sunday's NFC Championship Game, they face Brett Favre, who has suffered 23 of his 37 sacks and seven of his nine turnovers (five interceptions, two lost fumbles) on the road.

Favre is 4-0 against teams in which Williams was defensive coordinator or head coach from 1997 to 2007. But in the past three meetings, Favre has thrown seven interceptions and only two touchdown passes.

Williams failed in his only attempt as an NFL head coach, going 17-31 with the Bills from 2001 to 2003. But he sure carries himself like a head coach. Actually, he swaggers like old Buddy himself.

He said his teaching methods are modern, comparing them to walking a player "down the path" rather than "forcing it down their throat." However, he was quick to add that, "I am old-school in the respect that if I can't get you to walk down the path, I'm probably going to get you to walk out the door."

If a player stays and doesn't play the way Williams wants, they "turn into a highway cone and stand over by me." If a player shows a lack of aggression during film review, Williams said someone in the room usually speaks up and says, "Oops, he's going to play highway cone next."

"I don't have any finesse players on my defenses," Williams said. "I don't believe in cover corners. Everybody has a facemask and shoulder pads. When we get inside the white lines, we try to perform and transform our identity into being very tough, very fast. And nasty."

There goes Buddy smiling again.