Peyton Manning can add the story of the secret naked bootleg to his long list of I can’t believe he just did that moments.
Manning of course fulled everyone when he faked a handoff, and ran left towards the pylon untouched for a touchdown. What we didn’t know until after the game was that Manning didn’t call the play in the huddle, and his teammates had no idea he was keeping the ball according to ESPN.com.
Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning said, in order to get everyone else on offense to sell it as a business-as-usual run play, he didn’t tell anyone, either in the huddle or on the sideline, that he planned to run the naked bootleg for a 1-yard touchdown just before halftime. He made the decision as soon the Dallas defender covering tight end Julius Thomas went in motion with the tight end.
“If you do it every five years, it’s a good tendency-breaker,’’ Manning said.
“So I didn’t tell anybody else,” Manning said, according to USA Today. “See, the only way to run a naked bootleg is if you don’t tell anyone else, because everyone else runs the play and runs full speed.”