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QB-PEYTON MANNING (on having a bye week before New England)
"Well, hopefully it will be a good thing. I think we've used the time wisely. We sort of worked on ourselves last week. There were some guys that were injured that were able to play through the Houston game that really needed a rest and it gave some guys a chance to heal up, so hopefully we can use that rest and go into this week of practice with good momentum and go up there and play well on Monday."
QB-PEYTON MANNING (on if he is going into this game with a better feeling about this team than the ones in the past)
"It's hard to say. We've always had good teams around here for the past few years. All we are is off to a good start. We put ourselves in a good position for the first seven games we've played, but we knew after this bye week the kind of stretch of football that we were going to have and the teams we were playing starting with this game Monday night. So, this will really tell the tale what kind of team we are, what kind of team we have, starting on Monday. Hopefully, like I said, we can start this, really the second half of the season on a good note."
QB-PEYTON MANNING (on how much it helps this year because the Colts are a more balanced team with an improved defense)
"I think that's what you have to have to be truly a good team, to be able to play well in hopefully all three phases—offense, defense and special teams. But I think we're feeding off of each other right now, defense giving the offense good field position, and offensively, we're trying to keep our defense out of tough spots. We're protecting the ball for the most part. We're not having many penalties. We're still hoping our special teams can come through and give us some more field position. But in order to beat good teams, you have to be able to play well in all three of those phases. And we've done that so far this year, but I think we still need to get even better."
QB-PEYTON MANNING (on K-Mike Vanderjagt's lack of field goal opportunities this season and still counting on him)
"Sure, Mike's always there, he's always ready. We know what we have in him. We certainly know and Tom Moore knows that when we cross a certain part of the field that we are in field goal range. And you take that into account, knowing, 'Hey, we have three,' but you'd like to be able to go ahead and score seven. That's always been the mentality. He's always good to go and always ready. No doubt, everybody has a lot of confidence in him, but the idea is when you get down there in the red zone to try to put touchdowns up. At the same time, if you have to settle for three, we know we're in good shape in that category."
QB-PEYTON MANNING (on the return of
