In the aftermath of the Steelers' victory over the Colts, I was walking around my house in a kind of dazed/excited/exhausted stupor when my wife made a fantastic football observation: "How do the Colts ever expect to win big games? Peyton Manning can’t be both the quarterback and the offensive coordinator.” It took me a minute to wrap my head around the idea of Peyton as QB and coordinator, mostly because the replay of Jerome’s fumble was playing on a continuous loop in my brain. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that she was right: As long as Peyton has to do the job of two men, he will always lose to teams who fill the roles of quarterback and offensive coordinator with two different people.

In all fairness, the Colts do employ an offensive coordinator. Rumor has it that his name is Tom Moore, and that he does what most offensive coordinators do during games---call plays. Sort of. While most coordinators call ‘the’ play, Moore send in three plays and lets Peyton choose which play he thinks is best based on how he reads the defense. Peyton then goes to the line, reads the D, changes the play, reads the D, changes the play again, flaps his arms like a chicken, does the hokey pokey, goes in and out of the shotgun, changes the play, and finally snaps the ball.

The Indy offense works because Peyton often does a great job of picking the best play of the three and because the Colts have some outstanding offensive talent. And it’s hard to argue with the regular season results: Peyton holds the league record for touchdown passes in a season, regularly makes the Pro Bowl, and the Colts score a ton of points. In the playoffs, however, everything falls apart. It seems that every season the Colts lose in the playoffs because a well-coached defense holds them to 10 or 15 points and picks Peyton off a few times. After the game all of the talking heads ask the same clichéd question – “What is the matter with Peyton in the playoffs?” – when, at least to my wife (and now me), the answer is very clear: Peyton is doing the work of two men!

Tom Brady is easily the most successful playoff quarterback in the league right now, and he is often lauded for being a good ‘game manager.’ This means that Brady hits the open receivers, knows when to take a sack or throw the ball away instead of forcing a pass into coverage, and knows when to audible. Though it may sound simple, this is a huge responsibility. Defenses often go out of their way to disguise coverages or otherwise trick the quarterback, and Brady does an excellent job of not falling for the defense’s tricks. As with all of the players on the Patriots (and most teams) Brady does the duties specified by his job – he takes the play call from the coordinator, adjusts if it looks like a good idea, and executes the play.

Peyton, on the other hand, has a lot more responsibility. He essentially has to do the job of both the coordinator and the quarterback. While Brady gets the play and has the option to change it, Peyton has to pick the play first, and then change if he sees a problem. That can’t be an easy job. Defenses know that Peyton is up at the line of scrimmage calling plays, and that he has a lot of room to call audibles. Even a casual observer can tell that Peyton seems to change the play call every time a defensive player moves. If you’re thinking, “The defense should just move around like crazy before the snap,” you are on the same page as Dick LeBeau and Bill Belichek. In each of his last three playoff losses (Pats in 2003 and 2004, Steelers last weekend), Peyton faced a defense that used a lot of pre-snap movement to confuse him. On several occasions the Steelers faked a blitz but only rushed three or four; Peyton played right into their hands by calling quick slants that were easily defended. Last season, the Pats used the same tactic; Peyton responded by calling several middle screens that were easily stuffed by the linebackers.

The Steelers also made a point of ‘showing’ one type of defense (Cover 2, for example) but then dropping into a different coverage (like Cover 3). While a lot of teams might do this on defense, most quarterbacks only have the responsibility of reading the defense and making the right throw. Peyton is also calling the play based on the defense. I don’t put it past him to think that he made the right call on the play, but when he realizes that the defense switched on him, he freezes. I would probably have the same reaction. It’s a lot easier to react to a situation that is handed to you (calling someone else’s play and having the defense switch on you) than it is to synthesize a plan and adjust it on the fly (pick the play, then pick up on the defense’s switch).

There is one other fundamental flaw with the Peyton as coordinator plan – Peyton is a quarterback, and all quarterbacks love to throw. The Colts only ran the ball three times in the second half on Sunday. They were playing catch-up the entire half, but to only run the ball three times (versus about 20 passes) is absolutely ridiculous. By calling pass after pass, Peyton did the Steelers a favor. Defensive coaches often talk about making a team ‘one dimensional’; if the defense knows that the offense is passing, it makes stopping the pass a lot easier. On Sunday, Peyton made his team very one dimensional even though the halftime deficit (14-3) was more than manageable. Since Peyton is always calling the plays, there was no way for someone to stop him and get the Colts back into a more balanced offense.

Until the Colts start asking Peyton to play – not play and coach – they will keep failing on offense against competent defensive teams.

----Dr. Burgher

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