Relax, Colts fans, franchise QB looks like he's ready to go

Relax, Colts fans, franchise QB looks like he's ready to go
August 29
Indianapolis Star


"Stop your worrying. Stop your grousing. The Franchise, Peyton Manning, will be ready to go when the Indianapolis Colts open the season Sept. 7 against the Chicago Bears.

Seriously, was there ever a question?

"I would be shocked if (Manning) isn't there (for the season opener),'' coach Tony Dungy said after Thursday night's typically unwatchable preseason loss to the Cincinnati Bengals. "He'd have to have a dramatic setback (to miss the game).''

By setback, he means "getting hit by a bus.''

Gnash your teeth about center Jeff Saturday's knee and the fact the Colts don't seem to have much in the way of a second- or third-string quarterback, but as far as the big question of the preseason, consider that one answered.

Manning wasn't around after the game to talk to the media, but his pregame work said virtually everything that needed to be said. After a limited practice Tuesday and a more complete session Wednesday, there was Manning at Lucas Oil Stadium before Thursday's game, engaging in a full pregame warm-up.

Has a man every looked so good in a uniform?

He was throwing, running, sweating, doing everything that Manning does when he's not making commercials.

He looked sharp.

He looked crisp.

He looked like Peyton Manning, as opposed to The Mighty Quinn Gray and Jared Lorenzen, whose battle for the No. 3 quarterback job has held this entire city breathless.

"Peyton wanted to simulate what he's going to do on game day and see how everything felt and if he wanted to alter his routine for (next Sunday),'' Dungy said. "I think he came away feeling pretty good about it. He wanted to see how loose he would be after the wait in the locker room, and we had an exercise bike on the field for him.

"He was pretty happy with the way his routine went. And he told me on the sideline that if he'd started the game, he would have felt in good shape and ready and loose enough to go.''

Manning's knee problem flared up perilously late in the summer and there was a lot of speculation, neither confirmed nor denied by the Colts, that doctors had to go into the knee a second time to address the continued swelling. But over time, Manning has come out of hiding from his "undisclosed location'' and slowly returned to the fold, and two weeks of practice should be more than enough time to get ready.

Will he be as sharp as he would like without taking a single preseason snap? Probably not.

Will he be good enough to give the Colts what they need to beat Kyle Orton and the Chicago Bears? Absolutely.

Manning's return was the easiest call of the preseason. He has missed one snap due to injury in his 10-year career, leaving a home game against Miami with a busted jaw. He played the next few weeks with his jaw wired shut, reduced to drinking his meals through a straw. Along with his other, more apparent virtues, the dude is tough."





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