“He didn’t rush up and down his line hollering out what to look for and, personally, I don’t blame him...let THEM figure out what to do.”
Disagree. Manning was in the process of stepping up toward the center on the first play from scrimmage to deliver a line audible when the jittery Denver center snapped the ball over his head resulting in a safety.
This is a classic move by Manning that was repeated several times during the game even after the disaster on the first play.
Manning was in the process of stepping up toward the center on the first play from scrimmage to deliver a line audible...
++++++
I’ll will bow to your knowledge of his intent.
That’s not what happened at all. Manning blew that play. Here’s what the center had to say:
“It was real loud. We were trying to go on the cadence. I thought I heard him. I didn’t. He was actually walking up to me because he had already said the cadence, and I snapped it.”
Manning had already given the cadence for the snap and the center snapped the ball at the proper cadence. Manning stepped up to make a last minute adjustment...
But it was loud... REAL LOUD. Most Super Bowls are simply not very loud as most attendees aren’t fans, the seats are sold to corporations and businesses. But when the NFL released tickets late in the week due to weak sales (because of the weather), Seahag fans swooped in and bought them up. They traveled very well.
Most Super Bowls are fairly quiet affairs, not this game, this was a Seattle home game, and John Fox being the genius that he is never thought to bring in loud speakers to simulate crowd noise because “we didn’t think it was going to be a factor.”
So extremely loud crowd drowns out Peyton as he’s trying to change the cadence, but too late, the center snaps on the cadence.
Ramirez stepped up and took responsibility, but the blame for that play is firmly on Peyton, he should have just stuck with the original call.