NBC’s Football Night in America Previews Week 12

I forgot that I had NBC Sports’ preview for Sunday Night Football and I hadn’t posted it. So let’s do that now before we go to Monday Night Football. Here’s what NBC’s crew is saying about San Diego-Indianapolis which airs at 8:20 tonight.

PEYTON MANNING & PHILLIP RIVERS TO AIR IT OUT WHEN COLTS HOST CHARGERS ON “SUNDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL”

COVERAGE BEGINS WITH “FOOTBALL NIGHT IN AMERICA” AT 7 PM ET

“Neither one of these teams can really afford to let one slip.” – SNF’s Cris Collinsworth

“As we get closer to the end, they all sort of become little, mini playoff games.” – Collinsworth

NEW YORK – November 24, 2010 – Peyton Manning and Phillip Rivers, the league’s top two leaders in passing yards, meet on “Sunday Night Football” when the Indianapolis Colts (6-4) host the San Diego Chargers (5-5) in a game neither team can afford to let slip, according to SNF analyst Cris Collinsworth. Through 10 games, Rivers has passed for 3,177 yards and is on pace for 5,083, which would leave him a yard short of Dan Marino’s NFL single-season record of 5,084 set in 1984. Manning is second in the league with 3,059 yards and is on pace for 4,894, which would rank third all time.

Calling Chargers-Colts will be six-time Emmy Award-winner Al Michaels (play-by-play), who is in his 25^th season as the voice of the NFL’s premier primetime package; 11-time Emmy Award-winner Collinsworth, who last year, his first in the SNF booth, won the Emmy for outstanding event analyst; and sideline reporter Andrea Kremer about whom TV Guide said is “one of TV’s best sports correspondents.”

Coverage begins with “Football Night in America” at 7 p.m. ET Sunday with Bob Costas, who won the outstanding studio host Emmy last year, hosting live from inside the stadium. Dan Patrick will co-host “Football Night” from NBC’s 30 Rockefeller Plaza studios joined by Super Bowl-winning head coach and Emmy-nominated Tony Dungy, two-time Super Bowl winner Rodney Harrison, and Sports Illustrated’s Peter King. Alex Flanagan will report from Soldier Field in Chicago on the Eagles-Bears game.

“Football Night” (7:30-8:15 pm) is averaging 8.3 million viewers through its first 11 weeks, its most ever for that time frame and up 11 percent vs. 2009’s 7.5 million viewers.

COLLINSWORTH: “It becomes a really big game because the Colts are now, sort of, on the brink of the playoffs. The Chargers are trying to fight their way back in a division that most people still feel like they have the most talent in. But neither one of these teams can really afford to let one slip at this point. As we get closer to the end, they all sort of become little, mini playoff games.”

DUNGY ON THE CHARGERS: “San Diego has had two things going for them in the past against the Colts. The first is a great pass rush from their outside linebacker. They put a lot of pressure on Peyton without having to send extra guys. The second thing is they always presented tough matchups with their big receivers against the smaller Colts defensive backs. Rivers has had two big days in the playoffs (against the Colts).”

HARRISON ON THE COLTS: “They have guys who are really fast on turf and who play with a tremendous amount of confidence. The most important thing is after that loss to New England, the Colts are coming back home and will be playing with a sense of urgency knowing that they have to win this game against a San Diego team that is, quite frankly, not intimidated by the Colts. But the Colts play different at home.”

More coming up.