Critics of his cold-weather performance
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Even after coming in from the cold, Peyton Manning was hot.
Following one of the best cold-weather performances by a quarterback in the past decade, Manning issued an icy retort for all his critics who say he crumbles in the cold.
He had a salty response to his critics during a postgame interview with Broncos’ flagship radio station KOA in Denver following the Broncos’ 51-28 dismantling of the Tennessee Titans on Sunday.
“Whoever wrote that narrative can shove it where the sun don’t shine,” Manning said during the interview.
This after lecturing his receivers when they dropped passes and getting into heated discussions with offensive coordinator Adam Gase after the Broncos had trouble finishing off drives.
Manning said it was just the fire that burns in both of their bellies and “we were both frustrated when we’re down there close and have to settle for a field goal.”
They wanted touchdowns to quiet the critics who had been eager to see how Manning would handle temperatures in the teens.
After all, going into Sunday’s game he had a 3-7 record in freezing temps, including last season’s home loss to Baltimore in the playoffs and last month’s loss at New England — defeats that coach John Fox pointed out last week shouldn’t be pinned on Manning given the blunders committed by others.
“I think the better he continues to play in the cold, I think the less chatter there will be about that,” Fox said Monday. “I was asked about that before and after. I’m just really glad he’s on our side. I don’t care about the weather.”
Asked if he likes it when his quarterback — who has an overall career record of 174-83 — gets fired up, Fox said, “I like him pretty much either way.”
Despite what he said on radio, Manning was more diplomatic during his postgame news conference when asked if he had tried to silence critics of his cold-weather play Sunday when the Broncos became the first team since the 1970 merger to top 50 points three times in a season.
“Yeah, I wasn’t trying to answer it, because I didn’t give it validation in the first place,” Manning said. “We had a good plan and I thought we threw the ball well and guys caught the ball well.”
If Manning needs to get his hackles up over something this week, it’s that the Broncos have a short turnaround. He wasn’t happy three months ago when the Broncos kicked off the season on a Thursday night, then didn’t play again for 10 days, followed by a Monday night game before finally getting into a regular routine.
Now, they have to play a division game against San Diego midweek. When someone asked him how hard it is to condense his preparation into such a short time frame, Manning retorted, “I’ve done it, I’ve played enough Thursday night games where I know the habit, if that makes sense.”