Vernon and Mitchell talk about the challenges of facing Manning

Written by Matthew Cannata | Twitter: @PhinManiacs
The Miami Dolphins defense will have their hands full on Sunday with one of the greatest quarterbacks in NFL history - Peyton Manning. Olivier Vernon and Earl Mitchell talked about the challenges of facing someone like Manning and all the things he does at the line of scrimmage.

"Just trying to throw him off his game early, try to get pressure on him, try to hit him as much as we can," Olivier Vernon said. "Force him into bad throws, just getting off of the ball, timing the ball. Just put pressure on him all game. He has a very good line that’s protecting him. He’s a Hall of Famer, a future Hall of Famer and we’ve got to throw all types of things at him that he wouldn’t expect. We’ve got to mix it up.”

Vernon said one of the biggest challenges is the fact that he gets the ball out so quickly so it's tough to get pressure on him. He stressed that everyone needs to do their job and eventually, things will start to click and they'll start making plays. As far as his line calls go at the line of scrimmage? Vernon isn't buying all of it. 

“Sometimes, it’s just fake, he’s just faking it the whole time. As long as we know what we’re doing and what they’re in, what formation they’re in and what to expect, we’ll be fine.”

Earl Mitchell echoed Vernon about Manning's calls at the line but Mitchell said he doesn't pay attention to it. Instead, he focuses on what he needs to do.

“Me, personally, I don’t really pay attention to it. Sometimes you can catch on what the terminology or what the offense is that is there as you’re playing the game. Playing a guy like Peyton, he’s probably not somebody that you can’t really necessarily listen to. I just try to play my keys and just try to get after him the best that I can because he definitely has a lot of fake calls.”

The key to success on Sunday, according to Mitchell, is applying pressure up the middle throughout the entire game.

“That’s something that’s been shown on film. Us, creating opportunities like that, that would be key for us. We’ll do what we can to make success on the same plays that other teams have made, so they could win their games.”

---