The game that made playing defense illegal.

The game that made playing defense illegal.

Believe It or Not Once Upon a Time Payton Manning unquestionably one of the greatest quarterbacks to ever play the game was seen as a choker he was seen as somebody who couldn’t get it done in the playoffs who would Wilt in big moments I mean a lot of people out there just said he was flat out overrated for years on end we’re talking about easily the king of hot take segments being about him on sports TV it was rough for a while look Colts in a nutshell improved they know that they got to get more pressure people on defense but as far as well we can’t win a big I mean you know with pton Manning and stuff I think now here they go now looking back on that narrative today yes it’s incredibly stupid Payton’s Legacy is probably second only to Tom Brady himself in terms of NFL history however back then just 5 years into his career the sentiment of pton Manning being overrated was very real if I was going to try to explain this to a young NFL fan that wasn’t around back in the day just look at how a lot of modern fans see Dak Prescott and talk about Dak Prescott and all the narratives that go with Dak Prescott and that was pton Manning except worse and among the main reasons for why that doubt and skepticism just kept persisting year after year after year the origins of that entire narrative really goes back to one game the 2003 AFC Championship a truly unforgettably unfortunate performance that sent so many shock waves throughout the NFL that it ended up directly contributing to changing how referees officiated the sport now before I dive into this tape and rehash two decade old interceptions for no other reason than just making Millennial Colts fans relive childhood trauma which is my favorite weekend activity I do want to thank factor for help to make this episode possible in the first place factor is one of my oldest sponsors on this channel at this point and if you’ve been watching me for years you’ve seen them every single month literally four years and there’s a 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get 50% off your first box so you can try it out and you’re going to get 20% off your next box as well thank you once again to factor for making this episode possible and with that let’s go back in time and watch the greatest playoff meltdown that nobody ever talks about well you know the story these two teams are playing so well coming in here today but it’s such a tall order for the Colts because the Patriots are unbeaten in nine outings here at home the GM hot buttons of this game Phil for the Indianapolis Colts can they keep pton Manning clean our Story begins on the very first Colts Drive of the day when they were trying to answer a touchdown from the Patriots on their own opening drive Payton marched down the field in 10 plays which set up this 11th play of The Possession from the New England 5 yd line the offense was actually working pretty well and everything was going great until you know it wasn’t Running Out of Time throws towards the end zone intercepted picked off by Rodney Harrison the all 22 angle of this play is particularly egregious and keep in mind that this footage to the best of my knowledge has never been seen before the good Folks at NFL throwback were kind enough to dig this one out of the Vault for me so shout out to them they were a huge help in making this show but pre- snap Payton is anticipating that Marvin Harrison Senior is going to be drawing the double team which is probably a good assumption because he almost always does and so Payton’s going to be focusing on working this front side combination against this fire zone call from New England now just as pton thought he would Marcus perul did actually end up kind of getting lost here on his release New England kind of messed up up in terms of sorting out who had who and he ended up coming open on this angle route wide open I would even say but because Payton retreated so far behind the pocket to a crazy depth of 13 yards which he didn’t really have to do and I mean this is insanely deep we gave Patrick Mahomes crap all the time for going 11 yards deep let alone 13 so this is just nuts but because Payton went so far back and he threw this ball off his back foot he missed it by like five yards and left it way too far inside and he gave Rodney Harrison plenty of time to close his distance all the way from the backside to pick it off in the end zone this int was devastating at the time I mean throwing away any Red Zone opportunity like that in a game like this is always going to be devastating but what happened right after that pick just Twisted the knife even more Manning goes to work from his own 41 play fake buys him time now on the roll and throws and it is intercepted Ty Law picks it off back across the 40 to his own 41 yd line this second pick Happened One Colts offensive snap after the first one and I mean literally on the very next play that pton Manning touched the ball but unlike that first pick which was just a bad ball by pton thrown from a really awkward angle this second pick I would argue is a classic case of a Hall of Fame caliber Corner making a Hall of Fame caliber play I know a lot a lot of people who watched this channel might not have been around to watch Taw in his prime but folks I’m telling you this man was not to be messed with this is one of the best reps of cover two I have ever seen in my life watch him mirror and match the release in number one like he’s supposed to do and then he picks up number two to the flat once number one declares inside but he doesn’t just blindly charge to the flat he’s taking a perfect 45° angle and gaining depth because he knows that the worst thing he can do as a cover two corner is to get caught to Gallow in the flat and allowing this number two to sneak back behind him on say a smash concept so he’s gaining his depth and he’s watching Payton’s eyes but once Manning starts running to his right now it’s game on when a QB like Payton is moving right he was not going to be one of these modern quarterbacks that does a crazy Short Stop style throw and firing it all the way back to his left like a lot of the freakier guys today do if he was moving right that ball was going right that’s just how pton played so law immediately flips his hips and makes a beline to undercut the sail route that he just instinctively knows is about to be run behind him pton let the ball go fully expecting that this was going to be a nice chunk play to start out the drive but not half a second later law came from out of nowhere to snag this thing with one hand Brady then goes back down the field the other way to get another field goal and New England took a commanding 13 nothing lead actually wait just a second hold that thought High snapping us through his hands and he kicks it out of the end zone for the safety make that 15 nothing now after a few more fumbles a couple more field goals and the Colts finally getting their first touchdown of the day we found ourselves deep in the third quarter with the weirdest possible sequence of events to ever result in a score of 21 to7 and at that point this happened Manning on the Move flips it incomplete is it picked off yes Ty Law again another errant ball in the snow and another brutal interception now you would think at this point that the Colts misery would be over right they’re only down two possessions after all they still have a full quarter to go I mean if anybody can put together a couple late scoring drives to even things up it’s pton Manning I mean hell his own defense finally came through for him and promptly picked off Brady in their own End Zone this is where the magic happens this is where the comeback starts right not a heavy rush at all far sideline short picked off tyw coming back over the middle to the 25 to the 30 yd line third interception of the day for tyw well okay well here’s what went wrong on pick number four this is a fourth and 13 and the Patriots are in kind of a quasi Tampa two that also has a bonus dropper and the DBS are also matching like it’s a Zone match coverage I’m not 100% sure what Bill bich even calls this look specifically but think of it like a better version of a prevent defense that has all the benefits of the last line of defense deep down the field but it still allows the DBS to be aggressive in trail position so they can take away anything that pton wants to throw underneath or at the sticks now that trail technique is key because any DB in a trail technique is going to feel like they have all the freedom in the world there’s no reason for them to panic when a receiver is going vertical and they don’t have to stay on top of the route because they have safety help behind them and what that allows them to do or in this case what it allows Taw to do again for the third time in the same game is it lets him be ultra aggressive and play the ball rather than the man his head was turned the second he saw Marvin senior break out to the sideline here he did not care at all where the receiver was or where the route was going he knew the safety had his back so he could just find the ball attack the ball and essentially put the biggest nail possible in the Colt’s coffin now speaking of aggressive DBS I’m sure by now a lot of you are wondering when I’m going to get to the elephant in the room you know that whole illegal contact thing the rule or rather the lack of enforcement of said rule that the Colts raised so much hell about in the following offseason that the NFL competition committee made it a point of emphasis in the very next year so that DBS couldn’t play so aggressively some people might argue that the ref’s letting the p Patriots get away with mauling Colts receivers is the only reason why Indy’s offense melted down in the first place and that the Colts definitely would have won that game if the game were called fairly well those people are wrong when looking at the tape from this game the Patriots didn’t really get away with illegal contact the entire time yes they played very physical at the line of scrimmage and I mean they pressed the hell out of every Colts receiver within the boundaries of the rules but they were not getting away with illegal contact more than 5 yards down the field that point is heavily misrepresented in the history books in my opinion just based on watching the tape for myself the only time the Patriots really got away with it was very late in the game and I’m talking the final 2 minutes that’s when New England’s defense completely took the gloves off basically threw out the rule book and just started legitimately committing penalties and getting away with it there were holds there was illegal contact I mean there’s a real gripe there I’m not denying that but it was not for the entire game however the reason why the Patriots started actually committing those penalties in the final 2 minutes is because they didn’t care if they were going to get flagged they just happened to not get flagged at that point in the game the only thing that mattered to them was the clock not yardage if they got flagged for legal contact and lost five yards and gave up a pre-ir down they didn’t care they were up by seven in the last 2 minutes of the game as long as time was bleeding off the clock and the Colts didn’t get more than those five yards the Patriots cons considered that a win all they were trying to do was just prevent chunk plays so yeah they mugged the out of those guys it was blatant it was bad and the Colts were right to be mad about it that those weren’t called but when it comes down to it the Colts didn’t lose that game because the Patriots cheated or bent the rules in the final two minutes and they didn’t lose it because their defense failed them I mean they held Brady to under 250 yards and forced two turnovers themselves so they played great the Colts lost because Manning in really bad way had an all-time bad game on an all-time big stage and the performance of this offense overall was so bad that they allowed those uncalled penalties in the last 2 minutes to matter more than they otherwise would have or should have that my friends is how lazy narratives around playoff choking or just being straight up overrated are really formed now was that narrative very dumb yes of course it was dumb pton is on the Mount Rushmore of quarterbacks for a reason and even back in 2003 he was already among the League’s best but that in essence is my point with all of this we have learned nothing in the last 20 years to this day we still Define great quarterbacks by their worst moments and we use those moments as justification for why they shouldn’t get long-term contracts at the top of the market or why they just don’t deserve their accolades everyone is overrated apparently and it’s just exhausting so the next time you want to look at the Trevor Lawrence deal and raise an eyebrow or you scof at to a making $50 plus million do a year which of course he’s going to or Jared gof or even Brock pie next year just remember this game remember that even great quarterbacks are capable of frightening levels of mediocrity from time to time and if you are a fan of a team that just paid one of these quarterbacks and you’re wondering if they’re overrated or if they’re worth the money just rejoice in the fact that you have one of them in the first place yes there will be some heartbreak okay there’s going to be some playoff stinkers like that that’s just going to happen from time to time or if you’re a Cowboys fan probably every time but still trust me as a Texans fan coming from me you do not want to know what’s behind door number two I would have killed to see my team throw four picks in the AFC Championship game okay cuz that means we would have made the AFC Championship game we’ve still never made one in my lifetime I’m 33 I was a literal child when this very same 2003 Colts offense was picking apart Dom Capers all right I’ve seen some just trust me if there’s any message you can take away from this video please let it be this The Grass Is Always Green where you water it folks great quarterbacks are still going to have bad games it just happens but it doesn’t mean that they’re not great quarterbacks so if you have one you keep him that’s it all right I think that’s all I have for you today uh but I hope you guys enjoyed this kind of Vintage Film breakdown throwback type episode uh now that I work with the NFL with their access pass program which is kind of giving creators you know more resources to do any NFL content they want uh I now have access to literally every scrap of all 22 going back to the last couple decades so if you’ve always wanted to see any particular game or topic or season or whatever you know broken down in a way that we didn’t used to be able to now I have the resources so now I can make literally anything you want so you know give me your thoughts ideas Inspirations in the comments below I would love to read through those and uh you know see what we can make together uh all right yeah definitely that’s all I have for you now so thank you all for watching this late in the episode uh I will see you all very soon with something entirely different

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