Tonight, NBC’s Football Night in America will air its package of NFL highlights, but also preview tonight’s New England Patriots-New York Jets game. Bob Costas will interview Jets coach Rex Ryan while analyst Rodney Harrison will talk with two members of his former Patriots team, Wes Welker and Deion Branch.
We have the excerpts from the interviews from tonight’s show. Look at the transcript below.
“FOOTBALL NIGHT IN AMERICA” PREVIEW – WEEK 10
BOB COSTAS INTERVIEWS REX RYAN; RODNEY HARRISON INTERVIEWS DEION BRANCH & WES WELKER“He’s somebody you’d like to drink a beer with.” – Rex Ryan to Bob Costas on Bill Belichick
“You want to prove them wrong.” – Wes Welker to Rodney Harrison on people writing off the PatriotsNEW YORK – November 13, 2011 – Bob Costas interviewed New York Jets head coach Rex Ryan, and Rodney Harrison interviewed Patriots wide receivers Deion Branch and Wes Welker together for tonight’s Week 10 edition of Football Night in America, which will also include highlights, analysis and reaction to Week 10’s afternoon games.
Football Night airs each Sunday at 7 p.m. ET with Costas hosting the program live from inside the stadium. In addition to his interviews, Costas is joined on site by Sunday Night Football commentators Al Michaels (play-by-play) and Cris Collinsworth (analyst) for reaction to the afternoon games.
Dan Patrick co-hosts Football Night from Studio 8G at NBC’s 30 Rockefeller Plaza studios and is joined by Super Bowl-winning head coach Tony Dungy, two-time Super Bowl winner Rodney Harrison, Peter King of Sports Illustrated and Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk on NBCSports.com. Alex Flanagan will report from Candlestick Park in San Francisco, Calif., on the Giants-49ers game.
Football Night is averaging 9.0 million viewers and a household rating of 5.5/9 (7:30-8:15 p.m. ET) through the first nine weeks, both up 10 percent from last year’s first nine weeks.
INTERVIEWS: Below are excerpts from Costas’ interview with Ryan and Harrison’s interview with Branch and Welker together.
REX RYAN WITH BOB COSTAS
COSTAS: It’s been a relatively quiet week by Jets standards. Is that by design, a let-sleeping-dogs-lie thing with the Patriots down a little bit?
RYAN: No. We don’t care if they’re down, up. Who cares? We know that this game is huge. We know we have to find a way to win this game. That’s kind of where our focus has been.COSTAS: Would you rather be in the position up by three and Brady’s got the ball and it’s up to your defense, or down by three and your offense is on the field?
RYAN: That’s a great question. I’ve got confidence in both sides of the ball. The strength of our defense is just the whole package. Statistics are what they are. I know we’re not ranked very high offensively, but we are in the red zone. So, I’m confident either way.COSTAS: You’re in this movie with Adam Sandler. Not only are you in the movie, but you play a character, who is kind of a sleazy lawyer and a crazy Patriots fan with a Bill Belichick bobble head on his desk.
RYAN: That’s the facts. I tried like crazy, studied my lines like crazy, just so they’re not having to retake something just because of me.COSTAS: How would you describe your acting?
RYAN: Not very good. I’m not Robert DeNiro, that’s for sure.COSTAS: Do you think Belichick will like the scene?
RYAN: Oh yeah, no doubt. I think the funny thing about Belichick is, he’s a great guy and he’s funny. He’s somebody you’d like to drink a beer with and all that. He’s more normal outside of football than he is (inside it). His football persona is what it is and it should be. He’s looked at this way. But outside of the game, he’s just like you and I.COSTAS on the Jets losing streak earlier this year: Do you ever look in the mirror and say, Rex, you screwed up?
RYAN: I do that anyway. I have a ton of confidence, there’s no question about it, but sure, I go back and, ‘Oh, God. I wish I had this play to do over. I shouldn’t have done this.’ But I’m growing as a head coach in this league. It’s only my third year and obviously I’ll be better next year than I am this year and I’ll be better five years from now. I’m trying to work on an extension (joking).
COSTAS: (laughing) You listening Mr. Johnson?COSTAS: So if somebody says to you, you’re going to have another five or six years as an NFL head coach, you’re going to win a couple of Super Bowls and then it’s going to end for whatever reason, or, you can have a 20-year run and the highest winning percentage in the game, constantly make the playoffs, but never win a Super Bowl. Which of those two do you take?
RYAN: I’ll take number one. I want to win championships. One time I want to sit back and say, ‘You know what? We were the very best. We’re world champions.’ If I win it this year and for whatever reason say, ‘You know what. That’s it.’ I’ll be satisfied.DEION BRANCH & WES WELKER WITH RODNEY HARRISON
HARRISON: Is there a blueprint to stop this offense? Tight man-to-man coverage, jamming you guys, not threatening down the field…forcing Tom Brady outside the pocket, putting pressure up the middle. Is that the blueprint?
BRANCH: No, that’s not a blueprint. It’s a lack of execution. That’s the blueprint for us. If we execute, we’re okay. We only have to throw the ball down the field, five or six times a game. Hey, if we’re still scoring, still getting passing yards, whatever. It’s not a big deal.HARRISON: Do you expect the Jets to follow that so-called blueprint?
WELKER: For sure. That’s what they’ve always done in the past. They haven’t changed. They’ve always been a get-up-in-your-face type team like we’ve seen over the past. I just have to come back harder the next time and play better, and everything will fall into place.HARRISON on ex-Patriots, including him, criticizing this year’s Patriots: Does that bother you?
BRANCH: We hear the rumors. The thing for us is to stay focused on what is at task, and that’s our next game, which is the Jets. We’ve got to stay in house…go out, work hard, practice hard, and try and put the same thing on the football field on Sunday.
WELKER: (joking) We understand that you all just want to start controversy and everything else, and get more Twitter followers and everything else.
HARRISON: (joking) Well, if you played better, Wes, I wouldn’t have anything to criticize.
HARRISON on people writing off the Patriots: Does that motivate you?
WELKER: You try not to listen to a lot of stuff out there but you can’t help a little bit of it, and, yeah, you want to prove them wrong…whatever motivates you, it doesn’t matter as long as you are going out there, playing and doing what you need to do to win games.
And we’re done with the pregame quotage for now. Expect NBC’s Football Night in America’s quotes in the vicinity of 10 p.m. ET
