QB-PEYTON MANNING (on opening the regular season)
"It's finally here. Everybody's excited. It's been a long preseason. The five games makes you even happier the regular season is here and the games finally count. It's going to be an exciting atmosphere, a great way to start opening night on Sunday night there in Baltimore, the only game being played at that time."
QB-PEYTON MANNING (on opening up with a high-profile game at Baltimore)
"There's a reason they have these two teams playing in prime-time on opening night. It means that people have expectations for both teams, and certainly we do for ourselves. These are the kind of games that you want to play in. Baltimoreis a team that's going to be in the mix at the end of it, and we hope to be as well, so it will be a great test right off the bat for both teams."
QB-PEYTON MANNING (on Baltimore's defensive backfield)
"It's certainly one of the top, if not the top, secondary across the board out there right now. There's tons of talent, excellent experience with (Chris) McAlister, Samari (Rolle), (Deion) Sanders and Ed Reed, who was the Defensive MVP last year. And (Will) Demps, the other safety, kind of gets overshadowed by these other guys, but he's a top-notch safety. So it's an excellent secondary, and you combine that with their D-linemen and their linebackers, it's a top defense all of the way around."
QB-PEYTON MANNING (on having the entire offense healthy)
"That's exciting. It's nice to hopefully go into opening day with all of your weapons behind you and on the sides of you and in front of you. So, to get Jeff (Saturday) back, we're excited about that. His experience and his level of play has been top-notch the past few years. The idea of getting (Brandon) Stokley back and other guys being healthy on defense, we're going to need everybody healthy and everybody playing at a high level in order to have a chance to win this game."
QB-PEYTON MANNING (on what he misses without Jeff Saturday)
"His experience is huge. The communication between the center and the quarterback in this offense is critical, and Jeff's one of those guys that I say one part of a word and he already knows what I'm talking about. He can finish it. Especially when you're playing on the road when it's loud and there's not a whole lot of time, it's important to have quick communication and the recognition. And Jeff, he knows defenses, he knows coverages. He and I spend a lot of time talking about, 'Hey, what are you looking for here,' and 'what should I expect here?' So it's good to have him back in there."
