Well, Brady’s offense is built around the idea that high-percentage passes are just as good as running the ball, so spreading the defense out with dangerous receivers is highly effective. Brady has a guy with a unique skill set for that, though, in Wes Welker. Welker’s not as good as his numbers say he is because of how unique he is – put him in another offense, and he’s just a guy. But for Brady, Welker’s a danger because he can line up all over the field.
Manning’s offense isn’t about that. Manning’s not the death-by-a-thousand-cuts passer. He goes downfield more than Brady does and works the mid-range passes a lot more (I THINK – I don’t have any length-of-pass data at my fingertips right now, so I could be wrong). The running game is built around play action and the stretch play, since Manning runs play action better than anyone else in the league.
During one game this season, they showed clips of practice with Manning running plays from the same formation, one play action, one a regular handoff. His stance on each one was identical. It was incredible. Addai took the handoff or the fake the same way each time, cutting and looking for a hole, but Manning scanned the field like an expert even with empty hands.
Remove the running game, and all of a sudden that deception is worthless, and that’s a huge part of the Colts offense.
But it’s Manning & Co.'s job to adjust. Big freaking deal if he’s beautiful at play action, the safeties still won’t buy it when a run nets the Colts 1 yard on avg. “Manning’s Game” needs to be whatever will get the job done. You saw Brady suddenly turn to the deep bomb with Moss (although sometimes with slight embarrassment.) Peyton needs to turn to the short game. White seems to be a great fit for that role, and their RBs can catch, so utilize them.
BTW, Brady did the “dink and dunk” with great success before Welker was a Patriot. Not to reignite the what makes a good QB debate, but Welker is one the best slot receivers in the game. He’d rack up huge yards on any team that knows how to use him.
jeffd
3743
I read someone speculating that he has trouble with pass defenders “freelancing” and has trouble making good reads in that sort of situation. I have no idea if thats the case or not, but many of his picks the past few games have been straight up bad decisions, not the fault of his receivers.
Cubit
3744
A combination of what others have said, but also the o-line. This is the worst offensive line I’ve seen in Indy since Manning arrived. This just compounds the issues created by the poor running game and injured receivers.
jeffd
3745
Here’s what the Outsiders say about Manning in this week’s Audibles::
Aaron Schatz: The Colts’ 10-point halftime deficit to Dallas can’t all be explained by Indianapolis injuries. Peyton Manning has thrown a couple of picks tonight that were just straight-out bad reads, no matter who the receivers were. The Cowboys are also slicing the Colts with draws (what else is new) and the Colts offensive line is so bad that Jay Ratliff knocked over Mike Pollak and nearly got the ball out of Manning’s hand before he was able to hand it off to Mike Hart.
OK, Colts come back to 20-14, but again Peyton Manning doesn’t recognize the defense properly, and doesn’t seem rookie linebacker Sean Lee in a middle zone, so when he throws the ball to Blair White, Lee easily comes over jumps in front of the ball for the pick-six. That’s Manning’s second pick-six today. This isn’t like the end of the Pats game when Jermaine Cunningham was in his face. This isn’t a tip drill like what happened to Chad Henne earlier. These are just bad throws against improperly read defenses. The guy is still one of the best two or three quarterbacks in the league, but I think after today we can take him off the MVP candidate list.
Tim Gerheim: After seeing the replay of the Super Bowl-clinching interception in Bob Costas’s weekly overdramatized editorial commentary, I wonder: does Peyton Manning struggle with freelancers? Tracy Porter looked like he came out of nowhere on that play, but that was just from a single rapid replay. But Aikman took pains today to emphasize that Jenkins was freelancing when he tipped the ball on the interception in overtime today. Jenkins was watching Peyton and came off his man to undercut Tamme’s route. (It was obvious that Tamme was Lee’s man.) I think some of Manning’s interceptions against teams like San Diego and New England that have tended to have his number are similar plays. I can certainly imagine a player as meticulous and organized as Manning failing, in the speed of the play, to anticipate defenders abandoning their assignments and taking chances on picks. It would be awesome to look at video of all his interceptions over such and such period and see if there’s anything to this idea.
Ned Macey: Speaking of quarterbacks, Manning is obviously playing terribly right now. My thought on Manning. He is the best in football at analyzing a scheme and understanding the oppositions coverage both pre and post-snap. He’s also very accurate with his throws, when set. However, I don’t think he’s as good at reading what is actually happening as other top quarterbacks. I think he too often makes his decision too early, knowing who has single-coverage. Unfortunately, rather than Wayne/Harrison/Clark, he’s got Blair White and Pierre Garcon. These guys don’t always win their one-on-one match-up. If he didn’t anticipate defenses and coverages, then he would not make the plays he does make, so you obviously can’t say that he should hold the ball an extra half second. It is just that his skill-set is not as perfect in a chaotic situation. He’s the best in the game when people are doing what they’re supposed to be doing, but when his receivers can’t win one-on-one match-ups, and his line is porous, he throws picks. (He also throws a lot more picks when Tony Dungy is not his coach, which is something I want to think more about.)
Cubit
3746
whoa. Josh McDaniels has been fired.
Sarkus
3748
It’s hard to believe this isn’t somehow related to the taping scandal. Maybe some details about McDaniels involvement or something. Not that he didn’t deserve it for on the field reasons, but it seems likely they’d let the season play out at this point if that was the thinking.
Unless McDaniels pushed the issue or something.
Edit: RB coach Eric Studesville named interim head coach. Schefter on ESPN is pushing the scandal as a key reason while the NFL Network clips I’ve seen seem to be ignoring altogether. As Schefter pointed out, the Broncos had not quit on McDaniels so the need to make a change now is unclear unless other reasons are involved.
Okay, whoever our kicker is these days!
If only Jeff Fisher were next to get the axe…
Cubit
3751
As with Rimbo, you know not what you wish for.
Lorini
3752
Anyone seen Rex Ryan’s “best team”? They don’t seem to be on TV right now.
What does that have to do with Rimbo? I didn’t say fire Fisher and keep Young. Fire them both. But please tell me what I am wishing for. Please tell me how great Fisher is. I’m sure you’ve heard all about it from the media. How many Titans games do you watch? How many winning seasons does he have in his 17 years with the Titans? Any idea? How many playoff games? How many playoff wins? How many SB appearances? What exactly would I be giving up?
Cubit
3754
lol wut. Am I not allowed to have an opinion because you don’t think I am a Real Fan™? Who do you think could be doing better as the Titans coach?
I didn’t say you couldn’t have an opinion or anything about you being a real fan. Where are you getting that from? Very few people around the nation get to watch the Titans play much, so I’m guessing you get most of your info about them from the media. Am I incorrect? I don’t get where you keep reading all this extra stuff into what I wrote.
Here’s the thing. Fisher has coached this team for 17 years. In that time, the Titans have 6 winning seasons. 6!! Out of 17. Those aren’t 6 playoff seasons. That’s just 6 seasons above 8-8. However, they did go to the playoffs in all 6 seasons. They have not won a playoff game since 2003 (when they won one).
Fisher is highly overrated as a coach. He has great contacts in the media, but he hasn’t actually done much.
Now, to be fair, I should add that he has a TON of 8-8 seasons. So he isn’t a BAD coach. He’s just not that good. He’s stock average, and I don’t think his message is working any more for this team. That doesn’t mean it won’t work for some other team. It might. But he’s not getting much of a response from his players anymore.
Sarkus
3756
The national media seems to be turning against Fisher remaining in Nashville, for what that’s worth. For example, Michael Silver on Yahoo talked about it perhaps being time for Fisher to go in a column today. But Fisher is signed for another year and Adams is going to have to be convinced that he needs to eat that contract, especially given the uncertainty over next season. That didn’t stop Dallas, Minnesota, and Denver from firing their coaches, of course, but in two of those cases they could live with making their interims the head man and in the case of Denver it appears that they may pursue a “with cause” claim against McDaniels over the whole taping thing.
As for the Jets/Patriots game, I’ve been listening to the Jets “home” broadcast on the 'net and it’s pretty hilarious the way things are going. Their increasingly high volume approach is very entertaining.
Wow. From a 6-0 start last season to being fired 22 games later. Not even St. Tim could save him.
I love this game because I get to hear Mike Tirico get snarky, saying things like the “vaunted Jets defense.”
jeffd
3759
I sound like a broken record I know, but football outsiders cuttingly has the 2010 pats offense being almost as good as the 2007 pats offense, which as the best ever. After this game, I think the 2010 pats will be the best. And that is scary.
Sarkus
3760
Calm down. They look great in this game, but let’s not get carried away. They lost to the Browns, remember? And even if their offense is that good, their defense still needs to improve. Once they went down 17-0, the Jets offense was completely off of whatever gameplan they had going in.
