Kelly On Scheduling: ‘We’ll Play In A Parking Lot’

Peyton Manning began his preparations for the Eagles the moment he walked off the field Monday night.

From Mike Klis of the Denver Post:

After Peyton Manning dissected the Oakland Raiders for a 37-21 victory Monday night, the Broncos quarterback waited more than 40 minutes before holding his press conference. Why?

Because with a shortened week before the Broncos play the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday, Manning started up his usual weekly preparation with a 30-minute “cold tub.” This helps aid in body recovery. Ordinarily with a game on Sunday, Manning would take his cold tub on Monday.

When Manning did meet with a diminished group of media (most of the printed press was upstairs trying to make deadline) he seemed to be out of breath as he talked. He was actually still shivering from the cold tub.

With the Eagles off since Thursday, Manning is in catch-up mode. And he doesn’t sound particularly happy about it.

“We’re coming off of a short week – it was nice of the NFL to give Philly [10] days and give us six,” Manning said. “So we’ve got to handle that.”

Kelly was informed of Manning’s comments, and was asked if he had any thoughts in response.

“No,” he said.

Is that a nice edge to have?

“Scheduling,” said Kelly. “When do we go play? If we’ve got to play in a parking lot, we’ll play in a parking lot. We don’t care. We played three games in 11 days so, I don’t care. We only worry about what we can control and we don’t control the scheduling.”

Kelly said that he watched the Broncos last night and again this morning. He and his coaching staff met all day on Monday and began implementing the game plan.  They have already broken down the Broncos’  preseason games and their first two regular season games. The Eagles got a head start, and they’ll need it. Manning is on fire to start the season, completing 73 percent of his passes for 1,143 yards with 12 touchdowns and no interceptions for the 3-0 Broncos.

“Offensively, very difficult when you see a quarterback playing at that level right now,” said Kelly. “He’s got a lot of weapons. You’ve got [Wes] Welker, [Demaryius] Thomas, [Eric] Decker, in whatever order you want to put them in, three really good running backs, so it’s a tough challenge for us this week.”

Chung sits out practice

Patrick Chung was unable to practice Tuesday because of a shoulder injury he sustained against the Chiefs. His status for Sunday is unknown. Earl Wolff will hold down his spot until he returns. Injury aside, Kelly said that there are no plans at the moment to change the starting personnel on defense.

Michael Vick and LeSean McCoy are both healthy, according to the head coach.