We will wrap up the Sunday NFL pregame show quotage with NBC’s Football Night in America. As usual, Bob Costas tries to be snarky and it fails. You’ll see what I mean below.
Take a look.
“FOOTBALL NIGHT IN AMERICA” NOTES & QUOTES – WEEK 4
“To me, they look like the most complete team in the National Football League.” – Rodney Harrison on the Texans
“It wasn’t quite a Ryder Cup collapse, but it was close” – Cris Collinsworth on the Bills
“Right now, New Orleans does not have confidence. That’s the difference between last year’s team and this year’s team.” – Tony Dungy on the SaintsNEW YORK – Sept. 30, 2012 – Following are highlights for Football Night in America. Bob Costas opened the show live from inside Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia where the Eagles are hosting the New York Giants. Costas was joined on-site by Sunday Night Football commentators Al Michaels (play-by-play) and Cris Collinsworth (analyst), and Hines Ward, the former Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver, Super Bowl MVP and newest addition to NBC Sports’ NFL team.
Dan Patrick co-hosted the program from Studio 8G at NBC’s 30 Rockefeller Plaza studios and was joined by Football Night analysts Tony Dungy and Rodney Harrison, and NFL insiders Peter King of Sports Illustrated and Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk.com.
Following are highlights from Football Night:
ON FALCONS
Harrison: “The Atlanta Falcons are finally showing the maturity and the belief that they can win close games in the fourth quarter. I don’t know if they would have been able to win games like this a year ago, or even two or three years ago.”
ON GIANTS-EAGLES
Ward: “Every time you play a divisional game, the opposing team dissects everything about you. Your releases, your tendencies, they know everything about your game. You have to adjust your game a bit. For Cruz, he has to add some new wrinkles into his game. Add some double moves, some speed releases. There is one guy in Philadelphia who knows his moves, Nnamdi Asomugha. If Nnamdi doesn’t adjust his play to Cruz, look for a long day today.”
ON TRASH TALK
Ward: “Any time you talk about someone’s mama, that usually upsets them and gets them out of their game. They take it personally. So you don’t want to use a mama joke.”
ON THE NFL POTENTIALLY RETURNING TO LOS ANGELES
King: The LA City Council unanimously approved, 9-0, a new 75,000 seat stadium for Los Angeles, and I am told the three leading candidates to begin play in 2016 are San Diego, Oakland, and the St. Louis Rams.
Florio: And don’t rule out the Bills and the Jaguars—folks in Jacksonville will love to hear that. I am told if they can get a deal in place by 2013, they can actually start moving dirt and building that stadium by next June.ON LIONS
Harrison: “It’s the same thing every week. Special teams last week. Special teams this week. It’s not about talent. They have plenty of talent. I played on kickoff teams for 15 years. I was 35 years-old, running down on a kick off. There is no excuse for the lack of passion and enthusiasm that they are showing.”
ON BILLS
Harrison: “They are not ready for the show.”
ON CHARGERS
Dungy: “They are still San Diego. They are going to have those performances that you can’t explain, but I think they are the best team in the AFC West.”
ON JETS
Dungy: “Everyone is going to want to take Mark Sanchez out, but I don’t think you can. As a coach, if it doesn’t work, then what do you do?”
Harrison: “Tim Tebow can come in and provide a spark and some type of optimism.”ON PEYTON MANNING
Harrison: “He’s a great quarterback. Obviously he’s a Hall of Fame quarterback, but he needed this game. He started doubting himself. He started saying ‘Do I have still the arm strength? Can I get it done?’ This was a confidence building game for him. He needed this one.”
Dungy: “Don’t worry about the arm strength. He’s going to get those balls where they need to be. The accuracy and the timing, that’s what has got to come for him.”ON THE TEXANS
Dungy: “We had three undefeated teams coming into today. We expected them to stay undefeated since they were all playing at home, but they won in different ways. The Houston Texans are dominating. They played really well.”
Harrison: “To me, they look like the most complete team in the National Football League. They are able to throw the ball down the field, and defensively, we know they can get to the quarterback. But that secondary—creating turnovers, getting to the end zone, just making plays, time after time.”ON THE FALCONS BEING THE BEST TEAM IN THE NFC
Dungy: “They are. They are playing complete games. Winning these games, that’s going to do a lot for their confidence”
Harrison: “I questioned Matt Ryan’s ability to throw the ball down the field. He proved to me today that he can get the ball down the field. They can run, they can do it all.”ON INADVERTENTLY WEARING GIANTS COLORS
Costas: “It has been pointed out to me that I seem to be wearing Giants colors of red and blue tonight. As an objective observer, this was entirely inadvertent Besides, I don’t own a green jacket, having narrowly missed winning the Masters back in 82.”
That will do it.
