Peyton Manning Played With Torn Quad

Peyton Manning Played With Torn Quad

Adam Schefter

http://espn.go.com/nfl/playoffs/2014/story/_/id/12154238/peyton-manning-denver-broncos-played-torn-right-quad-last-month-season

Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning played Sunday’s divisional-round playoff game and the past month of the season with a torn right quadriceps, two sources told ESPN.

Manning initially injured his thigh when he rolled out right to throw a 12-yard completion to Emmanuel Sanders late in the first half of Denver’s Dec. 14 victory over the San Diego Chargers.

Following the game, Manning said he injured his leg throwing to Sanders. There was some thought that he got hurt on an 8-yard completion to Sanders with 2:43 to play in the first half, or three plays before he left the field and went into the tunnel to the visitors’ locker room. But after the completion on the rollout with 5:39 left, Manning can be seen flexing his leg and grimacing as he moves to call the next play.

Broncos doctors knew about the injury, and Manning did what he could to intentionally conceal the injury from as many people as he could, sources said.

Manning and the Broncos lost 24-13 to the Colts Sunday night in Denver. He finished 26 of 46 passing for 211 yards and a touchdown.

The touchdown pass, however, came on the Broncos’ first possession of the game and Manning struggled mightily at times to push the ball down the field.

According to ESPN’s Stats & Information, Manning was just 2-of-12 passing for 49 yards on pass attempts that traveled at least 15 yards and just 6-of-21 for 107 yards on passes that traveled more than 5 yards.

Sunday’s game was Manning’s fourth-lowest yardage total in a postseason game in his career and it left the quarterback mulling his future after the game.

“My mindset right now is just disappointment after [Sunday’s] game,” Manning said following the defeat. “I’m disappointed, I kind of need to process this game, we’ll meet [Monday]. I’m disappointed I need to process this game.”

Asked if he could definitely say he was still planning to return to the Broncos next season, Manning said, after a short pause:

“Uh, yeah, I guess I just can’t give that simple answer. I’m processing it. I can’t say that. I could not say that.”

In the second half of the season, particularly since the Broncos’ Nov. 16 loss in St. Louis, Manning topped 300 yards passing just once — in a Monday Night Football loss in Cincinnati — over the last six games of the regular season.

Over the last nine games of the season, six of those on the road, the Broncos went 6-3 as Manning — who has two more years left on his contract — threw 17 touchdowns and 12 interceptions.

“I didn’t play as well consistently in the second half of the season,” Manning said. “I can’t give you a great reason for that. Played well at times, but probably not as consistently, certainly didn’t play as consistently in the second half of the season as I did in the first half.”