QB-PEYTON MANNING (on what the offense tries to accomplish this week)
"Just try to improve. I try to start with my play, try to really concentrate on reading coverages and making good decisions with the football. We're going ones against ones, or starters against starters, so you're getting good looks. You're playing against good players and I'm just trying to do my job to execute the offense. I think that's kind of where Coach (Tony) Dungy wants the focus to be, everybody concentrating on doing their job a little bit better. Hopefully, everybody does that and it'll result in the overall team playing better. That's what I focused on (Wednesday), and hopefully we have another good day (Thursday).
"Everybody has to focus on their side of the ball. Offensively, our job is to score more points. As the quarterback, my job is to protect the ball better and be accurate with the football and make good decisions in the run game and the pass game. That's something that I haven't done well enough in two out of the three games, and it's something that I plan to do a better job of starting this week and next week."
QB-PEYTON MANNING (on why things haven't gone well on offense this season)
"(The mistakes) are definitely correctable. It's just a little thing here or there. Coach Dungy points this out a lot, but those little things here or there are enough to get you beat. He always talks about what else is going on around the league, how there are some teams that are 3-0 that a play here or a play here, they could be 1-2 or 0-3. There's a play here and a play there where we could be 3-0, but we're not and there's a reason for that. We need to earn those plays and everybody needs to raise their level of play a little bit. As far as I'm concerned, that starts with me."
QB-PEYTON MANNING (on if it is an advantage to have the bye week so early)
"I thought it was a little early when the schedule came out, but what are you going to do? I think now, maybe it's a good thing. I hope it's a good thing. I hope we can turn it into a positive. I know from an injury standpoint we can definitely use it as a positive and get some guys, hopefully, back out on the practice field starting next week to go down to Houston. We need to use this week to get better and improve. We started talking about just focusing on the Colts and not necessarily preparing for an opponent or worrying about this blitz or this coverage and just worrying about how the Colts can get better. Hopefully, we can get better this week and use it to our advantage and try to get on some kind of streak starting next week."
QB-PEYTON MANNING (on if the offense is close to clicking)
"I think, offensively, we showed some flashes against Jacksonville. We showed it on the first drive of the first half, the last drive of the first half and then the last drive of the second half. So, I guess you could definitely say it's there, but we have to do it, we have to find that consistency. Flashes don't win games for you, so we need to be more consistent. I need to be more consistent. That's how we've won in the past and that's what we need to get back to. You can't just do that on Sundays. It starts with being more consistent in practice each day and each week and building on that. Hopefully, we can find it. I definitely feel like it's there. It's definitely somewhere to be found, and hopefully it can come soon."
QB-PEYTON MANNING (on three touchdowns on eight possessions being a good ratio)
"Yes. But, at the end of the day, we lost. They had the ball last and they made the plays and that's how the game ended up. Whenever that happens, you certainly go back and look at the times you had it and say, 'Boy, we could have got a field goal here,' or, 'It would have been nice to have held the ball a little longer here.' When you win a game, you do that, and when you lose a game, you probably do it a little bit more. We definitely had some chances to score some more points and maybe to build a bigger lead. Obviously, it would have been nice to score that last touchdown to go up by nine points or 10 points as opposed to just one point, or at least make them have to go score a touchdown. It's our job to score more points, and that's what we're working on."
QB-PEYTON MANNING (on the injuries on offense)
"Those all factor in in some way, but at the end of the day you still have to find a way to win. We've won in year's past with new guys and injured players. Everybody in here is a professional athlete and getting paid to do a job. We have to find a way to do that job better and I guess I need to do my job better."
QB-PEYTON MANNING (on if the offense tries to do more when the defense struggles)
"Football, unlike other sports, is a team game, although it's often described as if you have two separate teams. Ultimately, it's a team game. The key is to feed off each other. I'm disappointed the other day because (DB) Kelvin (Hayden) makes a great play on an interception, gets us in great field position and I throw an interception and gave it right back to them, and maybe switched the momentum back to them, and they go and score. So, that was me not doing the job and feeding off that defense. That's what we would like to get back to doing. Those guys are fighting hard. There are a lot of new players out there on defense, but they're fighting hard and they're not giving up. Yards and time of possession is one thing, but they're not giving up many points. That's something, as an offense, we ought to be able to handle. We ought to be able to score more points than we have been scoring in order to win some of these games. That's what we need to do. That starts with just our execution and hopefully I can do a better job with the quarterback play."
QB-PEYTON MANNING (on Wednesday's deflation of the RCA Dome)
"It will be different. It certainly will. I will definitely miss that dome. That dome provided a lot of great memories for a ton of people here in Indiana, but certainly for me and my family. I know Yankee Stadium is getting a lot of the attention this week, but the RCA Dome will not be the same after (Wednesday) now that the roof's being deflated and it'll be gone soon. It's a special place and I'll always have great memories in that place."
QB-PEYTON MANNING (on if he will watch games on Sunday)
"I'm going to try to rest. It's a good time for everybody to get some rest. We'll work this week, and the idea is to use the weekend to get some rest and come back next week ready to go."
