QB Cadence

[edave]

I'm curious what kind of crazy things you've seen a quarterback say during the cadence used to start the play. To me, it's one of those insider kind of things.

Earlier this season, Ryan had a game where he was using Philadelphia themed words at various times in the game, I didn't write them down at the time but it got me curious again.

Rodgers almost always uses green 18. Going back over some other games I have, Favre was doing it before him. In at least one game while playing for the Vikings (against the Packers), Favre used green 80.

I found an older article where Greg Bedard asked Favre about cadence:

http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/sports/31881259.html

Favre: "Most people use blue, green because it's just....Let me see, what's the best way to explain it. It's more rhythmic. Blue-18 is better than Black-18. A lot of teams use a black or red as a hot. When you hear that, there's an audible coming. And everyone's different. Some people when they say 'On 1,' it's really snapped on 1. Ours is more rhythmic. It's 'Blue-18, Blue-10, set-hut.' It all kind of runs together. I could use lavender is I wanted."

Favre: "When I got here, under Mike Holmgren, the number you call is the actual defensive front and it even went back to Montana and those guys. It was was 'Blue-34' or 'Blue-43.' And so when I first got here, I had to do that. I don't know why they ever did that, but it was just, I guess, a way to keep the quarterback involved or whatever. The fronts you see nowadays, it would be 'Blue-52-wide-boss' for me. So it's just kind of evolved to 18 or 58. So...."

And then there are the bailout words, or words that could indicate a big change but might not. Some I've noted over this season are...

Rivers: kansas, kansas

Luck: mexico, mexico

Peyton Manning: jose, jose, jose

And this week again from Manning: prison, prison

This week Rodgers was asked about using green all the time. He said he averages a couple blues every game but I'm not hearing them.

[packa7x]

QB cadences are extremely interesting. Since I see A LOT of Giants games, I hear Eli yell "Omaha! Omaha!". What that means is, the snap count is now live. So if the play is 42 y flat sluggo on two (not a real play), Eli will come out and go, "redddd 90...red 90...hut...hut hut....green 18....green 18....Omaha! Omaha!" at this point, the snap count is in effect, "green 18...green 18 set...hut hut!"after the 2nd hut would be the snap.

In my HS it was pretty simple. It was always "green 18" unless we audibled. We numbered our gaps on offense from 1 to 9, so our audibles would tell us which way the play was going. We ran the Deleware Wing-T, so we mostly ran. Thus our audibles were all runs. "Red 90! Red 90!" that's a run off left end. "Redddd 10! Redddd 10!" that's a run off right end. You get the drift.

What I had most fun with though (lineman bias) was the dummy calls on the line. Based on the defensive front, the linemen had calls they had to make...

Goin: means you were pulling (guard or tackle)
Staying: means you weren't pulling, but the backside lineman still needs to seal the edge
X: the tackle blocks down and the guard pulls shallow and hits the tackle's man
Blue: the guard and tackle down block in opposite directions

Very simple calls, so to ensure nobody figured out our signals, everybody just started yelling stuff. My senior year was the best because I played center, so I'm only in the huddle for the first time the QB calls the play (they call the play twice in the huddle...."ex: Wing Right Tight, 21 sweep on two (center leaves the huddle and gets on the ball) wing right tight, 21 sweep on two ON TWO, ready? BREAK." I'd be out there scanning the defensive front and when the other 4 linemen would come to the line, I'd point to the Mike Backer and just start yelling "RUBBER BABY BUGGY BUMPER!! RUBBER BABY BUGGY BUMPER!!! BIG MAC BIG MAC!!!" we'd all yell the most insane stuff. Great times.

[wxwax]

Glad you brought it up, edave. I'd love to read a comprehensive history of the cadence and snap count, how it evolved, what it all means.