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Formation
It is easy to recognize a no huddle offense. Traditionally, after a play has been blown dead by the referee, the offense retreats several yards behind the line of scrimmage, out of earshot of the defense, and huddles around the quarterback to receive the next play. Professional football allows 40 seconds to elapse between plays before a delay of game penalty is called. By skipping the huddle and returning directly to the line of scrimmage an offense employing a no huddle can substantially change the pace of the game and confound opponents.
Sideline Calls
Rather than taking the time to huddle up and call a play, some teams run the no huddle offense by having the head coach or offensive coordinator call the play from the sidelines. In professional football, where quarterbacks are allowed to have a radio receiver and earpiece in their helmet, the coach can simply tell him what play to run through a headset. For leagues or other levels of play that don't allow electronic communication, football teams develop a set of hand signals that allow coach and quarterback to communicate.
Line of Scrimmage
A knowledgeable, self-assured quarterback, such as Peyton Manning of the Indianapolis Colts, is often given free rein by the coach to direct the no huddle offense himself, calling plays through the use of code words at the line of scrimmage, sometimes changing into another play if he sees the defense is aligned a certain way. When you see a quarterback running up and down the line of scrimmage, shouting instructions to various teammates, he is usually changing the no huddle play to something he believes has a better chance of success.
Game Use
Though the Buffalo Bills of the early 1990s ran the no huddle almost exclusively throughout the entire game, traditionally it has been a strategy used late in games to maximize time on the clock when a team needs to score. In this situation, the defense is likely to fall back into what is called the "prevent" formation. This is a bend-but-don't-break approach that invites an offense to run a two-minute drill focusing on short- to medium-range sideline passes allowing the receiver to step out of bounds and stop the clock. Since incomplete passes also stop the clock, spiking the ball--essentially an incomplete pass--is another no huddle tool for stopping the clock. Each team is allowed three timeouts per half. Any remaining timeouts can be used to stop the clock in the two-minute drill. A team trying to catch up through use of the no huddle offense generally stays away from running plays because the clock keeps ticking.