FO has a great piece on various aspects of Colts/Pats
As I see it, the no-huddle could adversely affect the deep playoff hopes of at least two contenders. The Patriots seemed overwhelmed by the tempo, and the Denver Broncos were powerless to stop the Steelers when they went to it two weeks ago. One of the main aspects of Denver’s amazing defensive turnaround this year is the timely and intelligent use of substitution packages. A good no-huddle team can, of course, break that right up, as the Colts showed here.
The Colts have the advantage in cases like this because their success does not rely on formation diversity — they run three-wide, single-back most of the time, every year, and it’s the execution of the plays that makes it so hard to stop. That same lack of formation diversity killed New England’s defense, and made Belichick’s decision easier to understand. Manning was orchestrating his microwave offense at a level most quarterbacks would find inconceivable. I don’t know if he’s the MVP this year, but the end of this game brought me back to something I’ve felt all season — as great as Manning’s been in the past, he’s never been quite at this level before
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