Seahawks star Richard Sherman says they cracked Peyton Manning's hand signal code during the Super Bowl so they were able to predict every play

Controversial defensive corner back Richard Sherman said that he and the other defenders were able to 'crack the code' on Manning's hand signals

Said they figured out which plays went with which hand motions during the first quarter of the Super Bowl

Sherman equated the game to a mental match, saying they were 'playing chess, not checkers' on the field on Sunday

Seattle won 43-8 in a surprisingly low-scoring game for the Broncos



The Seattle Seahawks have revealed that a good part of their defensive strategy at the Super Bowl came from the fact that they were able to decode Peyton Manning's hand signals on the field.

Controversial corner back Richard Sherman said that he and his fellow defenders cracked the code that the Denver Broncos quarterback was using, meaning that they knew exactly what to expect for each play.

'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.



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Cracking the code: The Seattle defense allegedly figured out what plays were associated with each of Peyton Manning's calls, meaning that they were able to prepare for them precisely each play

Reading the field: Manning reportedly changes his hand signals each game, but Seahawks' corner back Richard Sherman said that they were able to break the code during the first quarter of the Super Bowl

Not change enough: Though he only said 'Omaha' twice during the game, he did stick to his same hand signals throughout, meaning that the Seahawks were able to use their cracked code in all four quarters

If true, that would explain why the Broncos had so much trouble scoring, getting their only points on the board in the third quarter.

'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-agrandizing speech following the NFC Championship playoff game, later described the Super Bowl as 'playing chess, not checkers'.

Victorious: Richard Sherman got hurt during the game, but that didn't stop him from celebrating afterwards

New title: The Super Bowl loss means that Manning has taken over the title of 'most post season losses by a quarterback' which was previously held by Brett Favre

Manning's hand signals are known within the league for being one of his common traits on the field, just as the call 'Omaha' is associated with the 37-year-old.

Manning is so closely associated with 'Omaha' that 15 companies pledged to donate $1,500 to charity each time that he said it during the Super Bowl.

Instead of his 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.)

In post game interviews, however, Manning and other Broncos offensive linemen explained that the noise at MetLife stadium stopped some of their verbal messages to one another.

Hero's welcome: The Seahawks arrived back Monday ahead of the Wednesday parade in their honor

Home ground: Sherman, who is now on crutches, and the team arrived back in Seattle Monday morning

'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 per cent 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.

The other problem that plagued Manning was that he didn't switch up the system after realizing that it wasn't working.