Many people feel that one of the marks of a great head coach is the ability to make in-game adjustments. According to Peyton Manning, anyone who tries to tell you those adjustments ever come at halftime of an NFL game is lying.
During the “ManningCast” broadcast of Monday night’s wild-card game between the Dallas Cowboys and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Peyton Manning made a sarcastic remark about the Bucs going three-and-out to start the second half. The Hall of Fame quarterback quipped that “all those halftime adjustments” didn’t really pay off. He then called the idea of halftime adjustments “the biggest myth in football.”
"I don't know if I ever made a halftime adjustment in my entire 18-year career. I think that's the biggest myth in football- the halftime adjustments. You go in, you use the restroom, you eat a couple of oranges, and then the head coach says, 'Alright, let's go!'"- Peyton Manning pic.twitter.com/j17FWpXChq
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) January 17, 2023
“I don’t know about you, I don’t think I ever made a halftime adjustment in my entire 18-year career,” Manning said. “I think that’s the biggest myth in football — the halftime adjustments, right? You go in, you use the restroom, you eat a couple of oranges and then the head coach says, ‘Alright, let’s go.'”
Eli Manning agreed with his brother and said it feels like players are in the locker room for a total of three minutes, so there is no time to make real adjustments related to the game plan.
The Manning brothers were probably exaggerating a bit. There have definitely been times where a coach sees something during the first half that leads to a slightly different approach in the second half, but the point Peyton was making is that talk of halftime adjustments is overblown.
If there were some magical cure for your game plan at the half, the Bucs would not have come out looking just as bad in the third quarter of their 31-14 loss to Dallas as they did in the first two.
