NBC’s Football Night in America Quotage For Week 10

“It takes accountability throughout that organization.” – Rodney Harrison on the Eagles disappointing season
“I don’t like the call and I don’t like the reasoning.” – Dungy on Falcons’ OT fourth-down call
“They took a commanding lead in the Andrew Luck derby.” – Peter King on the Colts falling to 0-10

NEW YORK – November 13, 2011 – Following are highlights from Football Night in America. Bob Costas hosted the show live from MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., and was joined on site for commentary by Sunday Night Football commentators Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth. Co-host Dan Patrick and commentators Tony Dungy, Rodney Harrison, Peter King and Mike Florio covered the news of the NFL’s 10th week live from Studio 8G at NBC’s 30 Rockefeller Plaza studios in New York. Alex Flanagan reported from Candlestick Park in San Francisco, Calif., on the Giants-49ers game.

ON EAGLES

Collinsworth: “It’s been bad for Philadelphia so far (this season). It’s awful right now.”

Florio: “DeSean Jackson was deactivated because he missed a team meeting, and the news gets worse for Jackson. There’s a sense in the locker room that he’s been moping and pouting and putting his desire for a new contract above his desire to help the team win football games. So when Jackson rejoins the team, it could be an awkward week. Actually, it could be an awkward rest of the season for Jackson.”

Harrison: “I’m jumping off the bandwagon. It all starts at the top with Andy Reid. He must do a better job of making sure his team is prepared. Every week he comes on TV and talks about the lack of preparation, but it takes accountability throughout that organization. Defensively, they’re blowing coverages, they’re giving up big plays, and there are penalties by veteran players. It’s just not good right now.”
Dungy: “It’s not, and I can’t blame it all on the coach. I don’t see the mental toughness from these players. You talked about fourth-quarter leads, and we saw today, a false start penalty, Nnamdi Asomugha lining up off-sides, and dropped balls.”

Harrison: “You talked about mental toughness, some of that has to come from the head coach.”
Dungy: “I hate to tell this to the Philly fans, but if you get rid of Andy Reid, you will not find another coach as good as Andy. They better keep him.”
Harrison: “Well, they’re 3-6, so they might as well start looking.”

ON CARDINALS

King: “Mark my words; John Skelton takes the field against the 49ers next Sunday.”

ON FALCONS

Dungy on Mike Smith’s fourth-down decision: “That decision is one that basically hands over control to the New Orleans Saints in the NFC South.”
Dungy: “I don’t like the call and I don’t like the reasoning. If you’re going for it to win the game, then that’s one thing. But if you’re going for it because you’re afraid, that’s another thing.”
Harrison: “I love the call…you’re playing against Drew Brees…once the ball goes back to him, coach Mike Smith knows that the game is over.”
Dungy: “You have to trust your defense.”

ON BEARS

Dungy on takeaways: “They hadn’t been getting them. The last couple of weeks they have. This is Lovie Smith-type defense.”
Harrison: “I think the biggest move they made is the changing of safeties. Once they put those safeties in, there were no big plays over their heads and (better) tackling in an open field.”
Dungy: “The Bears defense. They are back. Lovie Smith loves takeaways. They got six of them today.”

ON BRONCOS

King: “I asked coach John Fox after the game, ‘Is Tebow your starter for the rest of the year?’ He said, ‘at this rate, yes.’”

Harrison on if the Broncos can win with Tebow: “Two passes. Are you kidding me? There’s no way. Maybe in the AFC West.”
Dungy: “They can win the West. They beat Oakland. They beat Kansas City. I don’t know that they can beat anybody else without a better passing game.”

ON 49ERS

Dungy: “San Francisco’s for real.”
Harrison: “They might be the best team in the National Football League. I believe Alex Smith can lead this team to a Super Bowl. Trent Dilfer did it, Kerry Collins, Jake Delhomme. You don’t have to be a marquee name in order to lead your team to the Super Bowl.”

ON COLTS

King: “The Indianapolis Colts lost to go to 0-10 today, but they did something good in the process. They took a commanding lead in the Andrew Luck derby. They’ve got a two-game lead now over both St. Louis and Miami. If you watched the Colts play this year, you can’t imagine they’re going to win at all the rest of the year, never mind twice. The Colts are going to have the chance to take Andrew Luck next April.”
Patrick: “Colts, genuinely bad.”

ON LIONS

Harrison: “Detroit has to find a way to try and run the ball. No way can Matthew Stafford drop back and throw the ball 60 times.”

ON BILLS

Harrison: “They played hard in this first half of the season. They got beat obviously today but it’s over for the Bills. They had a nice run. Two teams from the AFC East will make it to the playoffs, but it won’t be the Buffalo Bills.”

ON JETS-PATRIOTS

Costas: “When you talk about rivalry, this has become one. Not just because Ryan’s Jets are contenders and they meet at least twice a year, but you’ve got Spy Gate going back a few years and then you have a New York-Boston thing. It’s always there, Red Sox-Yankees. It’s sometimes Celtics-Knicks and Bruins-Rangers. Here you’ve got the Giants and the Patriots because of what the Giants did to spoil that almost perfect season by beating them and last week, and you’ve got the Jets and Patriots ongoing.”
Michaels: “All those things, and I think how Rex has ratcheted it up. Think about the Patriots through their history: Miami used to be their big rival, then it was Buffalo, and then the Jets became the rival. It goes back to Parcells. Parcells leaves New England and comes here. Belichick is going to be the head coach of the New York Jets…And now, of course, you have the two teams fighting for first place. This is as big of a regular-season game that the Jets have played in a long time.”
Collinsworth: “It’s interesting. I went to both of the teams’ practices this week, and you would think that the Patriots would be much more up because of the fact that they’ve lost a couple of games in a row, and the Jets may be more confident coming in. But every team has that team that they have to beat, and that’s all that anybody from the Jets can talk about. ‘This is our moment. This is our chance for a home playoff game. This is our chance to win this division,’ because they haven’t been able to do it. They haven’t been able to beat the Patriots when it mattered.”

Collinsworth on potential Revis-Welker matchup: “You’re going to have the best against the best.”

Patrick on Rex Ryan acting as a Patriots fan in upcoming Adam Sandler film: “I asked Adam Sandler about Rex Ryan’s acting. He said, ‘He was pretty good, very convincing acting like he was a Patriots fan.’”