Indianapolis Colts QB Peyton Manning (left) and Jacksonville Jaguars
QB David Garrard || John Raoux/AP Photo
Quoting the Indianapolis Colts | What they were saying after a 35-31 victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars . . .
Indianapolis Colts Head Coach Jim Caldwell . . .
* On the victory: "Our team has done a tremendous job of measuring up to every challenge throughout the year. We have had to go through bye weeks and have been able to get the win. We have had short weeks, all types of field conditions, weather and whatever else, but they seem to do what it takes to get the win.”
* More on the game: “This was an old-time shootout at the OK Corral. It was a heck of a game and our defense did a nice job of holding (Maurice) Jones-Drew. . . . He was awfully impressive, but we were able to slow him down when it counted."
* On Colts WR Reggie Wayne: “Anytime he gets the opportunity to get single coverage, he is going to do some damage and sometimes when there is some double-coverage too. He deserved it. He’s a heck of a competitor.”
Indianapolis Colts QB Peyton Manning . . .
* On a 65-yard game-winning touchdown pass to WR Reggie Wayne: “We haven’t gotten him the ball probably as much recently as we’d like. I will say he’s dictating a lot of coverage. He is drawing a lot of attention. You still want to get him the ball but his presence is allowing some other guys to be open. Jacksonville really had pretty good coverage on the play. They were in sort of a double-coverage and we had good protection on the play, which helped. That allowed me to hold the ball for a little bit and put the safety sort of in that in-between position where I had (Austin) Collie going down the middle and Reggie down the sideline. What a great job by Reggie getting into the end zone.”
* On rallying in the fourth quarter for a seventh time this season: “I think it says we’re screwing up enough early in the game to have to come back. But there is no panic. I will say that. It’s focused guys saying ‘This is what it is. Let’s go do it.’ There’s still some things we’re building on.
* On the season: "We’ve had some extremely close games. Do we feel fortunate to be undefeated? Certainly. Anybody that’s followed us each week can go back to a lot of games and say ‘Boy if we don’t make that play, we’re not undefeated.’ The key is that we have gotten better and learned from prior games. The main thing is that we can play our top level of football down the home stretch.”
* On failing to pick up a first down late in the fourth quarter: "I do not like not being able to put the game away when you have a chance to. You hate to give it back to them. Defensively, we made the huge stop when we needed it. “
* On the victory: “It’s the same way it was last year at the same date, it seems. We knew Jacksonville would lay it all on the line and that’s what we did too. We prepared hard in this short week. We played Sunday, were off Monday, got in there Tuesday and Coach Caldwell gave us the plan. So, we came down and made the plays that we had to make. We knew it would go down to the wire and feel fortunate to win.”
Indianapolis Colts TE Dallas Clark . . .
* On the victory: "These guys are a good team. Physically, they play with a lot of heart and we knew we had to earn everything we got."
Indianapolis Colts WR Reggie Wayne . . .
* On the 14-0 start: “It’s definitely not easy and this team keeps playing football no matter what the situation is. We want to keep this train going and keep winning games.”
*On the game-winning touchdown reception: “Throughout the game, he was playing off and coming inside at the quarterback. I thought there was a play somewhere in the game that I could run by him and control the safeties with a route.”
Indianapolis Colts DE Raheem Brock . . .
* On defensive effort: "We knew Jacksonville had their backs to the wall and wanted that playoff start. We started off a little bit slow on defense and the offense kept us in the game. We were able to finish it off in the end."
Indianapolis Colts CB Jacob Lacey . . .
* On defense: "It was great to hold them to no points in the fourth quarter. It was going back and forth but we did a good job rallying as a team and not giving up at any point, and we came out with the victory.”
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