Hats off to you and DaBruinz for an impressive yet easy to understand light into what all goes on in the O. Much appreciated!
Can you offer your thoughts on Peyton's animations before the snap? Does he do it to misdirect the D (whereas the Colts O clearly knows what play he is planning to execute) or is he genuinely making frantic adjustments until the last second?
btw - I don't mean to deride Peyton. I think he is among the best to take advantage of the miscues of the opposing D prior to the snap.
Thanks,
Key to understanding this is Manning doesn't really do the huddle, at least, that is- technically discuss a play in there. He gets the base formation and play, then when he goes to the LOS, he alters the base based on the defense he sees. That includes communicating pass routes, direction of play, etc. Sometimes when you think you see him checking off, he is just changing options (e.g. taking the play from the right to the left side). You could say he is given a concept (pass/run) and has the freedom to tweak it based on the defense formations or alignments he sees.
He gets the play from Moore, gives it out in the semi-huddle, then with around 20 or so left on the play clock, you see all that famous funky chicken, wing-flapping hysterics- I have no idea how much of it is fake or misleading, but I'd guess about half of it is. Manning, unlike Brady, is a good actor as we've seen on TV, and I'd have to guess that carries over onto the field, where he can indulge in his inner drama queen. His baby brother, Eli, used to have a key word that would denote that a forthcoming audible was fake, and that word was "omaha" so if his OL heard "Pass 52 cut J hook 22 Omaha" they knew to disregard it.
One of the reasons BB has had great success against Manning for so long is that he has his defense wait until the last possible moment before going into alignment. So you saw a lot of walking or motioning around until there was 5 or so seconds left, which is too late for Manning to audible any more changes.
But Manning and the Colts have gone to the quick counts to try and sabotage this. You never know when Manning is going to flap around or just suddenly pull a quick count, so sometimes he gets defenses to reveal themselves prematurely.
Manning has his ways with defenses that don't have a high IQ or have the same discipline as a BB defense does. He is usually able to goad the other defense in revealing itself(i.e., safety betrays blitz or dropback/LB betrays gap blitz), because they get taken in by what I like to call the Manning Drunken Monkey (Drunken Monkey Form is an actual martial arts form off the Kung Fu branch). But this is not to mistake Manning as someone who just spouts gibberish and flaps his arms- he, along with Brady, are the most prepared QB's in the NFL. They are film room nuts and are almost never caught off guard.
But he does have his problems with a defense that can remain highly disciplined during a game, and stick to its game plan no matter how Manning seems to switch things around. You will know he is having trouble when he starts calling timeouts. I believe he had trouble with the Titans D earlier if I am not wrong.. either this year or last year.. he had to call two timeouts in the first half alone.
