MMQB: Matt Flynn, Peyton Manning, QB play

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Monday Morning QB Tuesday Edition: http://sportsillustr...hp&sct=hp_wr_a2

There's a play early in the game that catches my interest, a fairly important play. Detroit was up 9-0. Green Bay had a 3rd-and-9 at their own 33. Flynn came to the line, looking at a four-man rush. Nothing odd there. The play-caller in the first half of this game was Aaron Rodgers. Yes, Rodgers, resting this game because the Packers had clinched their top playoff seed. And Rodgers told Flynn Saturday that he'd be aggressive. So here, instead of just trying to get nine or 10 yards and move the sticks, Rodgers called for the three receivers -- two wideouts split out, tight end Jermichael Finley in the slot -- to all run vertical routes. Flynn came to the line with 14 seconds left on the play clock. At 12 seconds, he began a hard count. "Getting the defense to show their hand,'' he said. Middle linebacker Stephen Tulloch took a couple of steps back. In film study that week, Flynn saw that Tulloch would likely be covering the tight end in the slot on this call, and that he always liked to give the tight end some cushion, maybe dropping to 12 or 13 yards and then coming in to try to separate the tight end from the ball. At seven seconds, Flynn gave the three receivers an alert; he was changing Finley's route to a 10-yard curl. He snapped the ball with four seconds left on the play clock. Finley ran nine yards, turned around, and the ball was in his gut. First down, barely.

So Flynn had to combine his film study from the week, the stones to check off from a play Rodgers wanted to run, and the trust with his receiver to throw the ball to a spot before Finley turned around. It worked. It was one play in a long game. Instead of punting to the Lions there and maybe going down 16-0 to a hot quarterback on the next series, Flynn kept the chains moving.

Peter King is great when he goes in-depth like this. MMQB: http://sportsillustr...ency/index.html

But I don't think Manning needs a great arm to kill you. For a 2009 story on Manning's great season for SI, I phoned Qadry Ismail, who played one season for the Colts, in 2002. He told me about a ball that traveled 17 yards in the air, in the first game he ever played with Manning. The point here is, even if Manning's arm isn't the same as it was -- and there is no indication that by opening day he will be diminished in arm strength -- he'll still be dangerous. Ismail's story, which he called a "CIA, burn-after-reading secret'' from the Colts playbook in the 2002 opener at Jacksonville:

When Manning gave Ismail a shoveling motion or said the words "Crane! Crane!" Ismail would run a dig route -- a curl in which the receiver goes downfield a certain distance, plants his foot suddenly and turns to face the quarterback. Having seen the signal a couple of times early in the game, Jacksonville corner Jason Craft then taunted Ismail. "I know what y'all are doing!" Craft hollered. "Every time he gives that [shoveling] signal, you run that little in route!" Ismail could have said, "Are you seriously challenging Peyton Manning?" Instead he told the cornerback he didn't know what he was talking about, then told Manning and offensive coordinator Tom Moore on the sideline, "He's bragging like he knows what we're doing. He's going to jump that route!"[/i]

Manning filed the information and talked with Moore about using it later in the game. Sure enough, with the ball at the Jaguars' 12 in the third quarter, Manning told Ismail that "Crane!" would be a dummy call, and instead of the dig he should run a hitch-and-go (basically a dig, stop and sprint back upfield into the end zone). "I made a living off double moves," says Ismail, "and that was the easiest one I ever ran. Peyton gave me the crane sign at the line. I pushed upfield five yards and stuck my foot in the ground as hard as I could. The DB made a beeline to that five-yard spot and looked for the ball, but I just ran into the end zone, all alone. What a simple TD."

Said Ismail, "When I was there, he told me, 'Hey, I'm just a gym rat. This is what I'm about. I love the game.' He wants to squeeze out every ounce of talent he has and pour it into the art of quarterbacking, being the absolute best quarterback who has ever played."