Let’s continue the quotage posts with ESPN’s Sunday NFL Countdown. Take a gander.
ESPN’s Sunday NFL Countdown Notes and Quotes: Week 8
ESPN’s Sunday NFL Countdown host Chris Berman and analysts Cris Carter, Mike Ditka, Tom Jackson, Keyshawn Johnson and Ray Lewis previewed today’s NFL action with Wendi Nix, analyst Ron Jaworski and Insiders Chris Mortensen and Adam Schefter. Excerpts:
On the Seattle Seahawks – are there long-term concerns?
Jackson: “I think they’ve got a chance to rebound. But it is going to be difficult. Boom, they’re a coin flip away from 2-4.”
Ditka: “This is simple. People have matched their physicality. They hit everybody in the face last year and people backed down. Now they’re standing up to it. I’ll tell you, Seattle’s going to be there at the end of the year, believe me. They will be there at the end of the year, but they gotta get through this rough time right now.”
Carter: “I think their biggest problem is the leadership that they lost in Red Bryant and Chris Clemons… when you lose these veteran players, all this leadership is turned over to these younger players so now the team and the heartbeat of the team becomes these younger players.”
On the Arizona Cardinals – are they for real?
Carter: “Guys, not turnin’ the football over is always a winnin’ formula. They are tied with three other teams as far as four turnovers and the collective record of these teams is 18-7, so we know that will travel. They’re doin’ it with only 12 offensive touchdowns. Larry Fitzgerald – not to our liking, Key – but he is on a career low as far as total path – 700 yards if he finishes on the pace that he’s on now. They’re doin’ it with a lot of different bodies. And you gotta give the head coach and the defensive coordinator a lot of credit for winning in a lot of different ways.”
On the Chicago Bears…
Ditka: “First of all, they gotta run the ball effectively. They’ve got to make a commitment to running the ball 25, 30 times a game and get away from tryin’ to please everybody out there catching the passes. There’s plenty of balls to go around if they can establish the running game. Defense, you gotta line up, and you gotta stop people. You gotta tackle somebody. You gotta get in somebody’s way. You gotta play with enthusiasm. The quarterback: get in the game. You’re the leader of the football team. Act like it. Lead.”
Jackson: “Let me give him [Cutler] a solution rather than the blame. You cannot be aloof. You cannot be isolated. You cannot be distant from the football team when you are the quarterback. They’re looking to have you lead the football team and I believe everything that we saw in the last week – you know, from Brandon Marshallspeaking up because he feels like he’s filling a void – you know, I think that can all be improved upon if No. 6 actually takes the lead with this football team and gives them some direction as the face of the franchise.”
Johnson: “Lovie Smith in my opinion is not the Chicago Bears head coach today because of that quarterback.”
Carter: “Now Marc Trestman – he’s at the crossroads as far as leadership. Now is he going to turn this team around because they don’t have great personnel, they don’t have great defense and they don’t have great special teams, which they always had before. So for me, I like to spread the blame around to the rest of the team. This is not a talented roster. The front office hasn’t done a great job of puttin’ a whole bunch of players out there and this is the result of it.”
Lewis: “Study like you mean it. Prepare like you mean it. Practice like you mean it. Then come out and play like you mean it… one man don’t win and lose ballgames.”
On the Seahawks’ offense vs. the Carolina Panthers’ defense…
Lewis: “The reason why people are running the ball against them [Carolina] so well because everybody is playin’ as individuals.”
Johnson: “All these problems can get solved by Seattle if they just turn around, hand the ball to Marshawn Lynch, play their style of football.”
Jackson: “I picked Carolina because I don’t know that they now have enough weaponry, the Seattle Seahawks, in order to do anything other than give it to their bell cow who is Marshawn Lynch.”
On Percy Harvin – is the talent worth the trouble?
Lewis: “One of the number one things that’s hard to pay for in any locker room is leadership. It’s priceless. You can’t pay for it… somebody needs to become a bigger brother to let Percy know it’s not just about your talent. It’s about what you can do for a team with the right mentality.”
Carter: “How do you tell a guy who’s makin’ all this money what to do?”
More from Lewis: “Money does not make you a leader… it does not give you a voice.”
On the Indianapolis Colts vs. the Pittsburgh Steelers…
Jackson: “I think that Todd Haley has a very tough job trying to protect Ben Roethlisberger by changing him into a distributing West Coast quarterback when Ben’s already gone to three Super Bowls and won two moving those feet of his and moving that big body better than anybody we’ve ever seen.”
On the Green Bay Packers vs. the New Orleans Saints…
Lewis: “Talkin’ about the Saints’ defense, we don’t know who they are right now.”
Jackson: “Without him [Aaron Rodgers] they’re average and with him they are Super Bowl contenders.”
And that’s it for the quotage. I don’t have Fox’s nor NFL Network’s and I expect NBC’s later tonight.
