NBC’s Football Night in America Quotage For Week 7

We close out the Sunday NFL pregame quotage with Football Night in America from NBC.

“FOOTBALL NIGHT IN AMERICA” NOTES & QUOTES – WEEK 7

“He’s going to have to throw the ball a lot better, but he makes plays to win games.” – Dungy on Broncos QB Tim Tebow
“The Bears have to pay this guy and keep him happy because he is their best player on offense.” – Harrison on Bears RB Matt Forte
“They are playing for first place in their division, a home game, and you give up 41 points? They quit.” – Harrison on Titans

NEW YORK – October 23, 2011 – Following are highlights from Football Night in America. Bob Costas hosted the show live from the Superdome, in New Orleans, La., 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 seventh week live from Studio 8G at NBC’s 30 Rockefeller Plaza studios in New York. Alex Flanagan reported from O.com Coliseum in Oakland, Calif., on the Chiefs-Raiders game.

ON BRONCOS

Collinsworth: “I think the debate is only going to get louder now for those people that say Tim Tebow can’t play. They’ll point to the statistics of that game as proof. For those people that say Tim Tebow is a winner, they will point to the last five minutes of that game when he came from behind to win it. So, the confusing situation gets more confusing as we go.”
King on his conversation with Tebow following the game: “As if the story wasn’t great enough already, they have to make that two-point conversion to send the game into overtime. Tebow told me that he audibled out of a run left to the run right, and he makes it! And then they end up winning that game, and the Tebow magic show has begun.”

Dungy: “In crunch time he was great. He’s going to have to throw the ball a lot better, but he makes plays to win games.”

ON BEARS RB MATT FORTE’S CONTRACT SITUATION

Harrison: “Matt shows a lot of patience. He has great vision. When he is in the open field he has the speed to finish plays. The Bears have to pay this guy and keep him happy because he is their best player on offense.”
Patrick: “He seems to be negotiating his new contract every time he handles the ball.”
Dungy: “That’s the way to do it. Don’t complain; just do the job on the field. He’s going to force these guys to pay him.”

Harrison: “Each week he’s making more money.”

ON LIONS

Dungy: “They lost some of that early energy they had. They have also lost their running back. And with no running game, Matthew Stafford hasn’t been the same.”
Harrison: “All the guys are just going to have to step up their game.”

ON JETS

Collinsworth: “Just a huge game for the Jets. You’ve got to say Darrelle Revis is now making a bit of a case to be defensive player-of-the-year. Once again, making the huge interception, and setting up the gateway.”
Michaels: “And how about Plaxico Burress? A lot of people in New York are wondering when Sanchez and Burress would get together. That’s been answered after today because Burress caught three touchdowns passes.”
King: “Plaxico Burress, had his coming out party with the Jets today: three touchdowns. He told me after the game that he was so emotional afterwards that he broke down and cried. And he said to me, ‘Listen, of all those days I was there in that prison, these are the kind of days I dreamed about.’”

ON CHARGERS

Dungy on two-minute drill at the end of the game: “Very disorganized. You expect more from Philip Rivers and that veteran offense.”
Michaels: “San Diego had a perfect opportunity to, not run away with the West right now, but take a big step. They normally don’t start very well. It kind of reminded me of that Jets-San Diego playoff game a couple years ago, especially at the end of the game. You could see the frustration on Philip Rivers’ face. He couldn’t get the play call in in time, wasted a lot of time, and again, the Chargers blew a big opportunity in New York.”

ON TITANS

Rodney: “They quit. Look at the tape, Dan, they quit. They are playing for first place in their division, a home game, and you give up 41 points? They quit.”
Dan: “Do you agree, Tony?”
Tony: “They looked bad, yes.”

Patrick: “Tennessee put a stamp on this and mailed it in.”

ON BUCCANEERS

Florio: “In Tampa, LeGarrette Blount already out with a knee injury, his back up, Ernest Graham, ruptured an achilles tendon. Maybe it’s time to bring out Ronde Barber’s twin brother.”
King: “You mean Tiki-time in Tampa?”
Florio: “If it’s Tebow-time. Tiki-time.”

ON DOLPHINS

Peter King on Dolphins replacing head coach Tony Sparano: “Their owner Stephen Ross, I believe, is going to look at Bill Cowher after the season. He’s been out of the game a long time. I talked to a source very close to Bill Cowher and he told me money will have nothing to do with Bill Cowher’s decision. It will only be about what place gives him the best chance to win.”
Florio: “Unless Dolphin’s owner Stephen Ross calls an audible, Tony Sparano will remain the head coach, at least for the near term. But, 0-6 this year, 1-12 at home since December 2009, it’s just a matter of time.”

ON FALCONS

Collinsworth: “This is a football team starting to play as we thought they might this year.”

ON COLTS

Dungy: “I would’ve gone with Curtis Painter (to start the season) and of course hindsight is always 20/20, but that was always our philosophy, ‘Next man up.’ That’s what I would’ve done.”
Harrison: “I have been on a 1-15 team and I knew within that locker room we had guys quit. When I look at the Indianapolis Colts, I look at the team and no one has quit.”

ON REDSKINS

Harrison: “They are an average team, your Redskins (points to Tony Dungy). Offensively, they are turning the ball over too much. Defensively, that’s supposed to be one of the strengths of this team, they can’t stop the run.”

ON RAIDERS:

Patrick: “Six picks, 14 penalties. The Raiders were manhandled today, how does that happen?”
Dungy: “Very, very disappointing. They had a chance to move into a first place tie and just played terrible football with all the mistakes. They just didn’t look like a good team today.”

ALEX FLANAGAN INTERVIEW WITH NEW RAIDERS QB CARSON PALMER:

Palmer: “It’s been a wild week. It’s been absolutely crazy and then today it got even crazier. I’m just disappointed in my performance and our team’s performance. We have a lot of work to do.”
Flanagan: “Three picks, one of those though a deflection. What do you attribute them to?”
Palmer: “I just have a lot of work to do. I know about 10 percent of the offense, and I haven’t had hardly any reps at all this week. I have to get a lot of reps, have to get in the playbook, and get comfortable.”

Flanagan: “Carson, you’ve never come into a game off the bench like you did today. What was going through your mind? Were you nervous?”
Palmer: “No, I didn’t know I was playing until ten minutes before I went on the field and started throwing footballs. I didn’t have time to be nervous. I’m just trying to get prepared and trying to think through it.”

ON CARDINALS

Patrick: “LaRod Stephens-Howling (Cardinals RB). Sounds like someone out of a Stephen King movie.”

ON VIKINGS QB CHRISTIAN PONDER

Patrick: “He seems like he wasn’t lost. He felt like it was his team.”
Harrison: “The thing that really impressed me was that Green Bay came out and they challenged this guy. They blitzed him up the middle, they blitzed him on the edge, and he stood in the pocket, and he made some plays. But the biggest thing that impressed me was he got outside the pocket and he really showed that he is a terrific athlete.”