and, if you believe CHFF he’s a better playoff QB than Manning. I think his Cardinals numbers last year are factored in too, for what it’s worth.

I may need to do a MHR-U piece on the no huddle. It is getting a lot of attention for Denver fans recently, and there is a lot of material one could put into an article.

There are many reasons to go no-huddle. Against Denver, the #1 reason is because we like to heavily rotate our front 7. How do we counter that?

When a team goes hurry-up, they risk mistakes. This is the major draw back of the hurry-up. The trade-off is that the defense has to keep their guys on the field, and this wears them down. The best way to counter a hurry-up (in my opinion) is to stop the momentum. This can be done with a radical shift in formation, a major “show blitz” where the QB might have to call a time out, a defensive time out, or (in an extreme case) a purposeful penalty to stop the clock.

Some DCs will have three or four set plays to counter the hurry up (such as a base man or zone play). For example, when I see my defensive players caught on the field, I may call a simple zone play, and leave the team in that play for two or three downs, then switch to very simple man play. This prevents confusion from trying to send in more complex plays during limited time. (Many defenses fall into the mistake of trying to “do it all”, which causes players to be confused and out of position. Coaches need to remember that remembering formations, sets, and assignments are a lot easier for the coach on the sideline holding the play chart than for the players).

“Show blitzes” (bringing a lot of guys to the line) are good, because confusion on the part of an offensive line is perhaps the top way to cause a time out during a no-huddle. They are better than actual blitzes, because an actual blitz is going to wear down a defensive player quickly.

As with any good conditioning program, endurance training is key to countering no-huddle.

The best way to counter the no-huddle is to keep things simple. The offense may pick up some yards and even downs, but they are also risking mistakes by playing a quick series of plays. Don’t give up the big play, don’t try to make too many adjustments in assignments, and just outplay the opponents.

If things are this simple, why has Denver been exposed? My guess is that much of what we do is predicated on certain players with certain assignments in certain situations. This makes simplification very difficult. As the defense gets more experienve playing together and with the new DC, the effects of no-huddle should clear up over time. Remember, most of our starters on defense are new to the team, and our defensive system is radicaly different from last year. Over time, the things we do on defense will seem even simpler to our guys, and we’ll do a better job handling no-huddles.