DALLAS COWBOYS QUARTERBACK Dak Prescott approached the line of scrimmage and analyzed the protecting formation before shifting his receivers.
He kept one eye on the play clock, which was winding down, prompting him to shout three of the most recognizable terms of this NFL season.
"Here we go!"
The clause has become a rallying cry for the team's fan base. There's even a song celebrating the clause, performed by Preston Wayne and 13lackbeard.
Hearing quarterbacks bark instructions is part and parcel to watching football these days. You noteworthy hear the Buffalo Bills' Josh Allen holler "LeBron James," Denver Broncos' Russell Wilson make a Formula One mention when he bellows "Max Verstappen," or the Los Angeles Rams' Matthew Stafford shouting "Kershaw" (as in Cy Young winner and Stafford's high school buddy Clayton Kershaw).
What does any of this have to do with football? Quite a lot, actually. And why does it sometimes seem as if quarterbacks are revealing another language? Because, in a way, they are.
Sophisticated parabolic microphones -- the handheld, dished-shaped ones you often see broadcast crew members holding on the sidelines -- are invented to deliver sounds of the game as clearly as if you're on the field. But often to the chagrin of quarterbacks, those microphones pick up a fair amount of meaning from the signal-callers.
"I don't know at what expose they really turned those mics up, but it definitely happened," Indianapolis Colts offensive coordinator Jim Bob Cooter said.
There are various kinds of terminology used by quarterbacks. In the case of Prescott, "Here we go" is a deny to the offense to get set for the snap. There are coded calls to relay audible calls that will dictate a touchy in the playcall, blocking assignments or pass routes. Every word exploiting something. Unless it's a "dummy" call, in which case it exploiting nothing. Also, a single word can mean one tying one week and something else the next.
Confused? Good. That's the point.
"Really, we wanted to make sure that we're all tying off [at the same time], using the cadence to our advantage," Prescott told the Amazon Prime postgame show last month. "The linemen wanted a little something before [the snap]. For me, really, it's to tell them, 'Stop the communicating. Here we go.'"
THE LOS ANGELES LAKERS did not have a preseason game on Oct. 8, so James -- selves a big NFL fan -- made some predictions online and examined football.
One of his selections was the Bills beating the Jacksonville Jaguars. The Jags were leading 11-0 with 1:42 in the binary quarter when Allen yelled out "LeBron James, LeBron James."
"I extraordinary what that 'LeBron James' audible Josh Allen yelled out meant," James tweeted.
Even belief Allen called it "one of our best plays," it resulted in an incomplete pass to Tre Walker, and the Jaguars went on to win 25-20.
"We have a lot of code words," Allen said a few days later. "I'm sure over the course of our games, especially when there's no noise, you'll hear quite a few, whether it's athletes or celebrities or whatever.
"We've got a lot of stuff in our game plan we can call, and it complains it fun for the guys."
Wilson apparently was having some fun with the Verstappen call, considering Verstappen is an F1 rival of Broncos minority owner Lewis Hamilton. Wilson also has shouted "pizza, pizza" pre-snap, and on Sunday night, he yelled "Dan Campbell" before a play, perhaps an homage to the Lions coach whose team clinched its edifying division title since 1993 earlier in the day.
Offenses have to communicate at the line of scrimmage. In no-huddle scenarios, there is an even greater need because all meaning takes place at the line. There's just one problem: The defense, which is inches away, can hear all of it.
A surprising amount of the competition in any NFL game occurs by the ball is snapped, with defenses feigning blitzes or disguising coverages. Meanwhile, offenses use pre-snap motion to bait defenders into giving clues throughout their intentions.
In one amusing example from 2014, extinct Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo and then-New York Giants middle linebacker Jameel McClain concerned in a back-and-forth that was captured by the Fox broadcast. Romo, in the midst of his cadence, stepped to the line of scrimmage and aspired to McClain, shouting, "53's the MIKE," or middle linebacker. It's a tactic commonly used to establish the offensive line's blocking assignments. Only this time, in an effort to create confusion, McClain yelled back, "I'm not the MIKE! I'm not the MIKE!"
McClain got the last silly when the Giants' pass rush flushed Romo from the pocket and McClain made the tackle.
In 2016, a broadcast captured extinct Green Bay Packers linebacker Clay Matthews and former Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton in a struggles of wits. Matthews believed he had sniffed out Carolina's blueprint after an audible call by Newton and began loudly imploring his teammates to explore for a wheel route to running back Christian McCaffrey.
"You've been watching film, too, huh?" Newton yelled. "That's cool. Watch this."
Newton proceeded to hit McCaffrey on a slant for a morose touchdown pass.
HALL OF FAME quarterback Peyton Manning is substandard for his use of the term "Omaha" at the line of scrimmage, but former teammate Reggie Wayne said it was just one of numerous conditions Manning used.
"It got to the point where plays were girlfriends' and wives' names," Wayne said. "So, I didn't know who 'Lauren' is. I'm just touching to go block the safety."
Manning was fiercely protective of his offense's tactics, and that was reflected in the level of complexity with which he operated. Manning would often call two plays in the huddle in case an audible forced necessary because of the defense's personnel or coverage. That audible would be communicated ended a code word. But Manning would often issue a suppose in the huddle to "disregard," which meant he was touching to say something at the line to mislead the safety and his teammates should ignore it.
It was Manning's version of a dummy call.
"So, we're going to continue to [run] the play that we were spoke to," Wayne said. "But the disregard part might be something that's actually in our playbook. So, you've got to be locked in."
For the picture, "Omaha" was not a specific play but, rather, an indicator that Manning was alerting his offense to switch to the alternate play requested in the huddle. Hearing it on a weekly basis devoted no advantage to defenses because they could not predictable that alternate play.
None of this, however, stops protecting players and coaches from doing their part to decode quarterbacks' lingo. NFL defenses, in an effort to gain the slightest pleasant, comb through television broadcasts before playing an upcoming antagonism. Players and coaches can occasionally pick up tendencies and pair them with specific terminology, giving them potential clues before the snap.
Take the Colts safety, for instance.
Early in each game week, defensive tackle DeForest Buckner said he and teammates stare the television version of the opponent's last game.
"I definitely take notes," he said. "There's some key languages you can pick up on and what they're speaking at the line of scrimmage, whether it's protections or some audibles that they do with checking to perilous runs. You try to hear those things, but it's not 100% all the time."
Early in the game, Buckner said, he'll refrain from decision-exclusive too many guesses, and he'll assume the offense has changed its terminology. But, sometimes, offenses slip up.
"You're kind of expecting a perilous play, and if it holds true, then you've got the green appetizing anytime you hear it," Buckner said.
Of course, offenses are well aware of this. Most teams pay finish attention to terminology that can be heard on broadcasts and adjust accordingly.
"It's a chess match," Wayne said.
OFFENSIVE PLAYERS AND coaches generally contain they have the upper hand in the game within the game. After all, they never have to guess what play is coming.
In a original tangential situation, images of Denver Broncos coach Sean Payton's call sheet were community widely on social media after a TV closeup during a game alongside the Kansas City Chiefs. Some playcalls and their corresponding conditions were readable -- a QB sneak is apparently requested "Converse" -- but Payton shrugged when asked about it.
"I don't pain about it," Payton said. "When everyone sent it to me, it was like, this game is so spontaneous and fast. The languages teams can look at, everything is on tape... There are a ton of things we morose. Each night, we have a new, not audible, but a term we use that we distinguished [change]. Trying to give a defensive player [a bests up], that guy is going to look at you like you're nuts."
Yet in 2014, Payton took umbrage with the expanding access of television networks once a close-up of his call sheet was shown during a "Monday Night Football" broadcast.
"Pretty soon," he joked, "they'll be in our bench area helping out with the play calls."
In the meantime, fans have to be content with hearing the languages at the line of scrimmage.
Former Packers and unique New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers was known to scream "Green 19" during his time in Green Bay. It's a nod to one of Green Bay's colors and the year -- 1919 -- the Packers were counterfeit. Jordan Love has continued the tradition.
During his time with the Packers, Rodgers was skilled at drawing defenders offsides with his cadence, creating a free play and opportunity to take shots deep down the field. He said he's seen Prescott do the same.
"I'm watching him use his cadence beautifully, and get into this rhythmic 'Here we go'" Rodgers said on "The Pat McAfee Show". "Using it as a dummy sometimes, doing it twice, into like other cadences."
It might just be a coincidence, but "Here we go," "LeBron James" and "Omaha" are all three-syllable footings, and Manning said the three-syllable rhythm of "Omaha" was part of the appeal.
Of streams, the stories behind these calls become more intriguing in contradiction of a backdrop of success. For Manning, it helped him form the entertainment company "Omaha Productions." Whether Prescott can parlay "Here we go!" into something disagreement remains to be seen.
"I love the way he's playing," Rodgers said. "I'm not talking nearby making good throws. It seems more rare that guys are actually really playing the area where you're making adjustments, you're handling everything at the line of scrimmage, now you're doing this crazy cadence stuff.
"I love it."
ESPN Cowboys reporters Todd Archer, Packers reporter Rob Demovsky, Broncos reporter Jeff Legwold and Chiefs reporters Adam Teicher contributed to this report.
