Peyton Has BREATHER PLAYS?

At some point in the first half on a third and five, Peyton Manning took a 3-step drop and fired a quick slant towards Pierre Garcon.  Garcon sat between two defenders while Manning led him a little bit and the pass glanced off Garcon's hand and harmless out of bounds.  The Colts were forced to kick a field goal.

Phil Simms launched into an explanation of how Peyton Manning calls that "a breather play" - apparently one where Manning can relax and recoup his energy.  As Simms further explained, often these are 3-step drops where he gets rid of the ball quickly.

I am alarmed that nobody else out there picked up on this.

Here is the quarterback who we are told works harder than any other.  He watches film until the wee-hours of the morning to master the defensive tactics of his opponent.  He doesn't even date girls because he's too busy watching film.  (Alright, I kinda made that last part up, but really... have we ever seen Peyton with a girl?)

In the 60-minutes he is in uniform, we are led to believe that every moment counts.  One mistake can cost you a game, or a Super Bowl.

And Peyton Manning has "breather plays”?

I think I get it.  I think Peyton is saying that on these plays he isn’t pressured to read defenses, to look for blitzes and make hot-reads or call audibles.  He isn’t worried about being hit as much and the chances of his failure are low.  Therefore, he doesn’t necessarily have to over-exert himself.

Regardless of what he meant, referring to them as “breather plays” suggests that Peyton, at times, whether physically or mentally, needs a breather!

Randy Moss admits to taking plays off and he is ripped to shreds by the media.  Imagine if Randy Moss had said that he considers some plays to be “breather plays”?  Donovan McNabb’s legacy will forever be tarnished of images of him vomitting in the Super Bowl.  Imagine if after the game he told the media that he needed to call more “breather plays”?

Yet Peyton Manning admits to having “breather plays” and it goes by virtually unnoticed.

It also makes you wonder… was the costly interception Manning threw in the 4^th quarter on the potential game-tying drive thrown on one of Peyton’s “Breather Plays”?

I doubt it.  We’ll have a full analysis of the key interception up on the site tomorrow.  I would have posted it today, but I was kinda busy and frankly, I needed a little breather.