THE DAILY DIGEST | Indy Football Report Editor John Oehser takes a look at what they’re saying about — and what’s going on around — the defending AFC Champion Indianapolis Colts . . .
INDIANAPOLIS – Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning said there will come a time to not discuss the NFL's new umpire placement policy. But that time is not yet now.
Manning, the NFL's Most Valuable Player the past two seasons, said as long as discussion is going on at the league level, then there is something to be gained from discussion at other levels.
And that discussion was the focus when Manning met with the media Monday.
“Once next Monday gets here I’ll be done talking about it,” Manning said Monday. “But if they are saying that there is still maybe some potential room to factor out (what) the best way to do it is, then I think we ought to keep looking at some of the things.”
To review (again):
The NFL has implemented a change under which the umpire, who typically places the ball for the snap, lines up behind the offense backfield rather than around the linebackers. Umpires have been taking a few seconds longer to set, which concerns the Colts, who with Manning often calling plays at the line of scrimmage utilize a quicker-tempo offense than most NFL teams.
The Colts were twice called for illegal snap penalties last Thursday against Green Bay, after which the issue became a national story.
Manning told Sports Illustrated's Peter King over the weekend that comebacks such as the Colts' 17-point, fourth-quarter rally against New England last November likely won't happen if quarterbacks must wait for the umpires to get into position.
“To me, mathematically it has to have some kind of effect,” Manning said. “It just doesn’t seem like they’ve factored those things in when they thought about it. People run two-minute offenses outside of two minutes, and they’ve been doing it for quite some time.
“I just don’t understand it. I don’t understand the penalty at all. Twelve men on the field? What about that guy (defensive player) getting off the field? Do you just sit there and watch him go off the field? Do you turn back and check and say (to the umpire), ‘Hey, are you ready?’ Whatever it is, we have to do (it).”
Manning said the Colts wanted to use the preseason to illustrate the issues.
“I do think because they’ve said it’s a work in progress and the preseason was the time to experiment and see what it is and to show them some of the potential pitfalls of making it,” he said. “I hope they’ll take those things into account. I know people are kind of focused on us, but I’ve talked to some other quarterbacks and they’ve had similar frustrations with it.”
Manning said in addition to preventing a quarterback from snapping the ball to catch a 12th defensive player on the field, the change will affect offenses trying to get a quick snap to prevent a coach from challenging a play.
“The challenge situations are very real,” Manning said. “You try to hurry it up to avoid the coach getting a great look at it (and challenging the play). Let’s just get them an HD slow motion look now. I was curious the other day after they penalized me since I had not run a play, does that mean because you can’t challenge after a team runs a play, but I’ve always thought you could challenge after a penalty because a penalty isn’t a play, but we probably could have gotten all different kinds of angles and looks at it there.
“That to me seems like it wasn’t quite factored in. I do think it’ll give defenses more of a chance to substitute if they have one more second to get that 12th guy off the field.”
Colts Head Coach Jim Caldwell said the NFL's Competition Committee was scheduled to have a conference call Monday or Tuesday, with another scheduled September 10. He said he expects that from those discussions will come a “protocol for handing the new position.”
The guess here continues to be that in that protocol will be something that prevents the new placement from occurring slowly enough to slow the Colts' offense. Officials don't want to be noticed, and the NFL doesn't want them noticed, and it's hard to imagine the NFL allowing this to be a season-long issue.
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