Week 17 Coffee

Oehser recaps the Bills ‘game’

* Credit to QB Peyton Manning for speaking to the team this past week regarding to players this past week regarding moving on from the loss to the Jets a week ago. Manning, as the team’s longest-tenured player and the face of the franchise, also has a veteran’s feel for the tone of the situation and he was right to tell teammates it was time to move forward and focus on the playoffs. But there are those who are painting his asking President Bill Polian to let him speak — and asking Polian not to — as evidence of the players not trusting Polian to make decisions for the team. That’s probably reading  bit too much into the meeting. Clearly, players wanted to win the last two regular-season games, but just as clearly — as evidenced by the injury to Patriots WR Wes Welker on Sunday — there are times players have to be protected from themselves. If you ask a lot of Colts players, they would choose to play in the final preseason game. Players want to play, always, and their role is not to worry about injuries or health. That’s management’s role, and that’s the coach’s role and even in professional sports, players are not going to always agree. But not agreeing doesn’t mean there’s a gigantic rift between players and and management as much as a misunderstanding. Manning’s message to the team likely will have a unifying, calming effect, but at the same time, the decision to not play players throughout the final two games may have the effect of having a healthy team and both could be pretty important in the coming weeks.