PITCH, POWER, PERFORMANCE to keep things simple, I believe thats what Tango Uniform was referring to when he meant "fly the airplane first".
he never mentioned to look "outside" to see what the airplane is doing
It is much easier for a pilot's brain to look at the Pitch, the N1, at the speed tape and the VSI/ALT to understand what the airplane is doing instead of calling out some "obscure " FMA readouts ...