Daily Madden: Falcons Defense Dominates As Manning, Refs Struggle
ATLANTA (KCBS) - The Atlanta defense frustrated Denver QB Peyton Manning in the Falcons' 27-21 victory over the Broncos Monday night.
"When you play against Peyton Manning, you can't give him a good strong pre-read, you have to kind of disguise what you're going to do," John Madden told the KCBS morning crew. "Atlanta did the best job of disguising their defense that I've ever seen. I mean they were running an equivalent on defense of a no-huddle offense...They had all their players up around the line of scrimmage, and then the ball would be snapped and they'd all run to their positions."
Manning threw three interceptions in an hour-long first quarter that the replacement officials struggled to control.
"That was something that was kind of embarrassing to the game," Madden said.
In his post game analysis on ESPN, former 49er quarterback Steve Young suggested the NFL owners don't care about the poor officiating because it doesn't appear to be affecting fan interest. John Madden isn't so sure.
"As long as it doesn't affect the fans watching the games, then it doesn't affect the money that the owners make," Madden said. "So therefore you can deduce that because those first two things are true, that the third thing is true, that they don't care. And I don't know about that." (7:20)
Listen to the John Madden segment live weekday mornings at 8:15 on KCBS All News 740 AM/106.9 FM. And catch John's extra report at 9:15 a.m. Mondays and Fridays during the NFL season.
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