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QB-PEYTON MANNING (on what this week is like as far as preparation)
"I think the idea is to get better as a team. Good practices and study yourself a little bit. Obviously you don't know who you're playing, so you really try to work on yourself and the things we need to improve on. We get some guys back that haven't been practicing, who have been injured, so it's good to have most of the team back."
QB-PEYTON MANNING (on it being a long time since the full team has been together)
"Certainly it would be nice. Hopefully everybody will be back. We got a lot of guys back for practice today which certainly helps, but hopefully everybody can be back for next week to practice and be ready to play in the game."
QB-PEYTON MANNING (on if it's better to go against the starting defense rather than the scout defense)
"You always like any chance you get to go against the starting defense because you're playing against guys like DE-Dwight Freeney and DB-Bob Sanders, and it just gives you the best possible look you can have. For this week, we hope to get some real positives out of it on both sides of the ball."
QB-PEYTON MANNING (on if he'll watch the games this week)
"Yes, I'll watch. My brother (Eli) is playing Sunday. I'll watch him play and it will just be good football for the fans. Wildcard weekend is always an exciting time. It's going to be some really good football."
QB-PEYTON MANNING (on having a lot of good teams in the playoffs)
"I've been saying that for the lat couple years, especially in the AFC. It's an extremely competitive conference with a lot of good football teams. A number of teams finished with double-digit wins and missed the playoffs. That tells you how competitive it is, and we feel fortunate to be in. All that does is gives you a chance, and now you have to go out and earn it."
QB-PEYTON MANNING (on how big the bye is to the team)
"I think it's only a good thing if you use it wisely. If you use it to get some guys healthy and you have good practices, guys get a chance to get rested and another week to study yourselves and our potential opponents. It's important to use it the right way, and hopefully we will."
QB-PEYTON MANNING (on if home-field is only good is you take advantage of it)
"Well, I think everybody likes to play at home. You hope your fans can be an advantage from a crowd-noise standpoint, from an energy and enthusiasm standpoint. Players feed off the crowd and the crowd feeds off how the team is playing. So hopefully we can keep our crowd into it by playing well. You certainly feel like it should be an advantage, but you still have to go out there and convert third downs and score touchdowns in the red zone and protect the ball. It still comes down to Xs and Os and execution on the field, but you like being able to play in front of your home crowd."
