Let’s conclude the Sunday NFL pregame quotage with Football Night in America. We’ll have one more piece of quotage tonight and that will be Bob Costas’ halftime commentary on the legacy of former Cleveland Browns and Baltimore Ravens owner Art Modell. I may be angry when I post it, just to warn you ahead of time.
Here’s the quotage from FNIA tonight.
“FOOTBALL NIGHT IN AMERICA” NOTES & QUOTES – WEEK 1
“RG III, he looked like he was a six-time Pro Bowl quarterback, not Drew Brees.” – Rodney Harrison
“If he can stay healthy, these guys can contend for a Super Bowl.” – Tony Dungy on Houston QB Matt Schaub and the Texans
“If I’m a Broncos wide receiver, I’m brown nosing the whole time. I’m baking him cookies. I’m cutting his grass. I’m offering to babysit.” – Hines Ward on how to befriend Peyton ManningNEW YORK – Sept. 9, 2012 – Following are highlights for Football Night in America. Bob Costas opened the show live from inside Sports Authority Field at Mile High from Denver where the Broncos are hosting the Pittsburgh Steelers in a game that marks the return of quarterback Peyton Manning. Costas was joined on-site by Sunday Night Football commentators Al Michaels (play-by-play) and Cris Collinsworth (analyst), and Hines Ward, the former Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver, Super Bowl MVP and newest addition to NBC Sports’ NFL team.
Dan Patrick co-hosted the program from Studio 8G at NBC’s 30 Rockefeller Plaza studios and was joined by Football Night analysts Tony Dungy and Rodney Harrison, and NFL insiders Peter King of Sports Illustrated and Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk.com.
Following are highlights from Football Night:
ON REDSKINS
Dungy: “Everyone’s going to talk about RGIII, but I think you have to give some credit to Washington offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan. He took a lot of heat when he had Donovan McNabb and Rex Grossman. He really made the day for Griffin…He called a beautiful game, but he let Griffin attack that Saints defense.”
Michaels: “Baptism by fire. What a way to start your career [on RGIII]…Washington did not score more than 30 points in any one game last year, they go to New Orleans and score 40. They go to St. Louis next week, good chance to win that game, could start the year 2-0 on the road.”
Patrick on Mike Shanahan: “He’s not getting Donovan McNabb. He’s not getting Rex Grossman. He’s not getting leftovers. He’s getting a guy he can mold into however he wants to.”
King, who spoke with RGIII following the game: “He told me, ‘I was surprised to not be nervous. I felt like I had ice water in my veins.’ And he praised Kyle Shanahan. Not just garden-variety praise, really went over the top for trusting him to throw the ball late when they were trying to run out the clock…He said, ‘Imagine a guy having so much faith in me at the two-minute warning to be throwing the ball when you’re trying to run out the clock.”
Harrison on RGIII: “What I love about him is he didn’t come in and try and take a backseat to Drew Brees.”
Dungy on his winner of the day: “My big winner is Daniel Snyder because he took Robert Griffin III. He’s been looking for that star-power guy. He’s riding home on his plane right now saying, ‘I found him.’”
ON SAINTS
Harrison: “I was very disappointed. With the type of off-season that the Saints had, you’d almost think that it would bring them closer together, that it would actually motivate them. They’re playing at home. They never lose at home. They’re playing against a rookie quarterback. You have to take it to that rookie quarterback. And RGIII, he looked like he was a six-time Pro Bowl quarterback, not Drew Brees.”
Harrison on Saints defense: “They’re not good.”
ON PATRIOTS
Dungy on Stevan Ridley, who ran for 125 yards today: “If they can run like this, Tom [Brady] will be impossible to defend.”
Harrison: “I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself and I know this is the first week, but if the Patriots defense continues to play like this (jeers from Dan and Tony) they are much improved. I think this is the best team in the AFC. This is the first week, I know.”ON 49ERS
Harrison: “Alex Smith, he outplayed Aaron Rodgers. I think he did a great job of spreading the ball around to Crabtree, Moss, Manningham and not just depending on Vernon Davis.”
Patrick to Dungy on if Smith outplayed Rodgers: “Do you agree?”
Dungy: “I agree.”Patrick on 49ers defense: “That was the best defense I saw last year and it looked like they picked up where they left off.”
Dungy on 49ers defense: “They went into Green Bay and completely shut down Aaron Rodgers and that Green Bay offense.”ON BEARS
Collinsworth: “A season ago, before Cutler got hurt, (the Bears) looked like they were going to make the playoffs, and it looks like they picked up right from where they left off (before Cutler’s injury).”
ON VIKINGS
Harrison on Adrian Peterson: “I was very impressed with his ability to run between tackles, show a lot of confidence, he wasn’t hesitant. The guy was absolutely awesome today… If I’m the Vikings, I’m still being very careful with the way I bring this guy along… Guys are going to target his knee and they’re going to try to take him out.”
ON FALCONS
Harrison on his big winner of the day: “Last time they played, against the New York Giants, they only scored two points. They go on the road into a hostile environment in Kansas City and put up 40 points.”
ON EAGLES
Michaels on Mike Vick’s lackluster performance: “In this league, you have to win ugly…Vick today had it when he needed it.”
Dungy on Mike Vick: “They’ve been talking all year in Philly, ‘Stay in the pocket. Don’t run. Sit in the pocket and throw.’ If he’s going to do that, they better start protecting him better. He sat in the pocket and got killed. They better have some better pass protection or tell him to start running again.”
ON BROWNS
Collinsworth: “The only thing that saved Mike Vick in Philly (sic) today was the fact that Brandon Weeden was playing quarterback on the other side. You hate to put it like that…”
Costas: “You hate to be harsh but it’s hard to be worse than this – 12 of 35, no touchdowns, four interceptions and a rating, no misprint, of 5.1 for Brandon Weeden.”
Collinsworth: “But you hate to be harsh.”
Costas: “I hate to be harsh…ouch.”ON TEXANS
King on quarterback Matt Shaub, who signed a four-year extension today: “I talked to Matt Schaub today and he said, ‘The great thing about this is now I can think about football only. I don’t have to think about the contract.’”
Dungy on Schaub: “If he can stay healthy, these guys can contend for a Super Bowl.”
ON DOLPHINS
Patrick: “The show Hard Knocks continues there for the Dolphins and quarterback Ryan Tannehill.”
ON THE REPLACEMENT OFFICIALS
King (prior to end of Seattle-Arizona): “It’s turned out to be a non-story. We haven’t seen the kind of huge errors that are determining the outcome of games… I talked to NFL Vice President Ray Anderson, and he told me, ‘We’ve seen nothing that’s stood out as a glaring mistake.’”
Note: Later in the program, King reported that officials incorrectly awarded Seattle a fourth timeout late in the game.
ON BEN ROETHLISBERGER
Ward: “The one thing about Ben, every time he was in the huddle, I always knew we had a chance to win every ballgame…He’s a true winner.”
Ward on new offensive coordinatorTodd Haley: “I think they brought Todd Haley in to run a more controlled offense instead of the backyard football. Ben loves to make plays on every play, and I think that can be his biggest strength but his biggest weakness as well.”
ON PEYTON MANNING
Ward: “If I’m a Broncos wide receiver, I’m brown nosing the whole time. I’m baking him cookies. I’m cutting his grass. I’m offering to babysit.”
Collinsworth: “If he corrects you on something, which he does a lot, don’t say a word. Because if you talk back to Peyton when he’s telling you exactly what to do out there, you are going to have a major issue and you’re not going to get the ball.”
That will do it for the pregame quotes.
