We have the Sunday NFL pregame quotage for Week 14. We begin with Fox NFL Sunday which had to do without co-host Terry Bradshaw for the first time since the show premiered in 1994. Bradshaw was stuck in the Dallas Metroplex due to the weather issues there this weekend. It’s believed that this is the first time Bradshaw has missed a pregame show gig either with CBS when he co-hosted The NFL Today with Greg Gumbel or with Fox.
This is what was said on Fox NFL Sunday.
FOX NFL SUNDAY NOTES – 12/8/13
Johnson: Detroit Has Talent To Win It All But They’re Sloppy
Strahan, Long And Johnson Offer Playoff Predictions
Glazer Reports Cautions Taken By Broncos Head Coach John Fox’s Return To Sidelines; NFL Head Coaching Prospects*Due to a severe ice storm that hit the southwest this week, FOX NFL SUNDAY co-host Terry Bradshaw was unable to fly to Los Angeles for today’s pregame show. It is believed to be the first time Bradshaw has ever missed a pregame show whether it be on FOX or CBS.
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FOX NFL SUNDAY analysts Michael Strahan, Jimmy Johnson and Howie Long predicted the AFC and NFC playoff picture:
Strahan on the AFC: “It’s going to run through Denver. Denver should be the No. 1 seed out of the west. The Patriots will be the No. 2 seed out of the east. Then, Cincinnati will win the north with the No. 3 seed followed by the fourth in Indianapolis who should win the south. The No. 5 seed will be the Kansas City Chiefs and this is where it gets sticky, the sixth seed. There are a lot of teams contending for this but the two teams with the best chance of winning that spot are the Ravens and the Dolphins.”
Johnson on the NFC: “Seattle is going to have home field advantage throughout the playoffs. New Orleans is going to be the No. 2 seed – all they need to do is split the two games with Carolina. The third seed is going to be Detroit – they’ve got the best team and could win it all. Dallas is going to take the fourth seed. If they stumble, Philadelphia could take it over by winning that last ball game then San Francisco and Carolina will be the two wild cards.”
Long on the NFC: “I’ve got Seattle with home field advantage throughout. I’ve got Carolina beating New Orleans, after getting thumped up by Seattle and gets stuck up their through Tuesday. I see Carolina beating New Orleans both times. I’ve got Philadelphia winning the east. I’ve got Detroit if they win today winning the division but if they don’t, that opens the door for Chicago. New Orleans and San Francisco will be the wild cards.”
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FOX NFL Insider Jay Glazer reported on Denver Broncos head coach John Fox’s new perspective returning to the sidelines following his health issues earlier this season: “Here’s the big thing, he said the football field hasn’t affected me as much as it has away from football saying, ‘you have to remember, I went through a very serious heart procedure. To see my family before that and after that, that was life altering. To see how it affected them really affected me the most.”
Glazer on Broncos monitoring head coach John Fox: “He said that doctors aren’t as concerned about him getting hit, remember they went through his sternum but they put a plate over it. They were more concerned about his overall well-being and how he’s going to be able to deal with it. In fact, on Monday, they actually made him go home early. He said just standing out there for four hours, they’re afraid that that could take a toll on him but said, ‘I feel great.’ As far as on the field today, he is going to step back a little bit, make sure he protects himself and he’s going to have somebody next to him to make sure he stands out of harms way, a little bit.”
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Analyst Jimmy Johnson on Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson hinting that he would play in his home state of Texas for the Dallas Cowboys: “Running backs with only a few exceptions have the shortest career of any position on the field and their peak is only a couple of years. As great as he is, in my opinion, more than a 1 or a 2 [draft pick] for a contender would be overpaying him.”
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Analyst Howie Long on Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin’s gaffe on the sidelines during last week’s game against the Ravens for which he was fined $100,000: “I don’t think he’s intent was bad, it just looked bad.”
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FOX NFL Insider Jay Glazer reporting on who might be on the Houston Texans list as their next head coach and other hot coaching prospects: “The Houston owner has already said they want to hire an NFL head coach who already has head coaching experience in the NFL. Obviously that brings up Lovie Smith. They have not contacted him yet but I expect them to contact him sometime later or this coming week. ESPN has already said that Jon Gruden will not come back out. Another name also, just to keep in mind, is Jimmy Mora from UCLA. I know he just signed a contract extension but it does not preclude him from coming back to the NFL. Now other names to keep your eye on here are Adam Gase, offensive coordinator for the Denver Broncos, his name will get very hot; Mike Zimmer who is the defensive coordinator and longtime assistant of the Cincinnati Bengals; Dan Quinn also defensive coordinator for the Seattle Seahawks and another very hot name here who a lot of teams are interested in is Stanford head coach David Shaw.”
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Analyst Howie Long on Ndamukong Suh saying he’s grown up, and wants to erase his bad boy image: “I believe he can. He showed great restraint last week on the sack safety versus Green Bay, particularly with the comments leading up to that game. Moving forward I’ll tell him the same thing I told my son two weeks ago: There’s a line you don’t cross. Cross it once, it’s an anomaly. Twice, it’s a pattern. Three times, and you run the risk of it defining you and it becomes the narrative. Instead of what a great player you are which Ndamukong Suh is.”
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Analyst Jimmy Johnson assesses the Detroit Lions: “Detroit might be the most talented team in the entire league. They’ve got enough talent to win it all if they weren’t a sloppy team. They’re undisciplined. They turn it over, 25 turnovers, 80 penalties and a sloppy, undisciplined team is easily distracted.”
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Analyst Howie Long on the San Francisco 49ers and Seattle Seahawks: “These are the two deepest teams in football. Why? Because neither one has had to write a big check for their quarterback yet…what it comes down to for me is which young quarterback makes better decisions and makes more plays on the broken plays. [Colin] Kaepernick has shown the ability to do it but Russell Wilson has been doing it consistently.”
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When asked who will be the No. 1 pick of the NFL draft next year, Strahan said: “It’ll be hard not to take [Jadeveon] Clowney or [Anthony] Barr.”
We’ll get NFL Network’s quotage
