Perhaps the Seahawks win at this year's Super Bowl wasn't just about good play. It has been revealed that a part of the Seattle Seahawks defensive strategy came from the fact that they were able to decode Peyton Manning's hand signals on the field, UK MailOnline reported.
Admitting that they knew exactly what to expect for each play, controversial corner back Richard Sherman said that he and his fellow defenders cracked the code that the Denver Broncos quarterback was using.
"We knew what route concepts they liked on different downs, so we jumped all the routes. Then we figured out the hand signals for a few of the route audibles in the first half," he said.
This would greatly explain why the Broncos found it so difficult to score and get their only points on the board in the third quarter, UK MailOnline reported.
"All we did was play situational football," Sherman told Sports Illustrated's blog The MMQB (The Monday Morning Quarterback). "Me, Earl (Thomas), Kam (Chancellor)...we're not just three All-Pro players. We're three All-Pro minds."
The Stanford-educated football player, who took criticism and was fined for his self-aggrandizing speech following the NFC Championship playoff game, later described the Super Bowl as "playing chess, not checkers."
According to UK MailOnline, Just as the call "Omaha" is associated with the 37-year-old, Manning's hand signals are known within the league for being one of his common traits on the field.
Fifteen companies had pledged to donate $1,500 to charity each time that Manning said "Omaha" during the Super Bowl.
Instead of Manning's typical double digit mentions, he only said it twice during Sunday night's big game. (By comparison, Fox Sports reported that he said it 31 times during the AFC title game.)
However, Manning and other Broncos offensive linemen explained in post game interviews that the noise at MetLife stadium stopped some of their verbal messages to one another, UK MailOnline reported.
"None of us heard the snap count," Denver offensive lineman Manny Ramirez said.
"I thought I did and when I snapped it, I guess Peyton was actually trying to walk up to me at the time. I'm not 100 percent sure. It's unfortunate things didn't go as planned."
As for the hand signals, Manning is said to change them every game but this time the other team was paying very close attention early on, explaining how they were able to thwart his plans in the first quarter, according to UK MailOnline.
Even after realizing that it wasn't working, Manning somehow didn't switch up the system.
"Now, if Peyton had thrown in some double moves, if he had gone out of character, we could've been exposed," Sherman said.
