“He is not going to get any better…It’s time to move in a different direction.” – Rodney Harrison on Eli Manning
“They’re not running the ball well enough now to make up for Drew Stanton’s erratic play.” – Tony Dungy on Cardinals
“I haven’t seen a dominant defensive player like this since Lawrence Taylor.” – Harrison on J.J. Watt
“I just lost my mind.” – Bengals Head Coach Marvin Lewis to Peter King on the late-game challenge
STAMFORD, Conn. – November 30, 2014 – Following are highlights from NBC’s Football Night in America, the most-watched studio show in sports. Bob Costas opened the show live from inside Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Mo., to preview Broncos-Chiefs. Costas was joined on site by Sunday Night Football analyst Cris Collinsworth, sideline reporter Michele Tafoya, NBC NFL analyst Hines Ward, and NBC Sports’ Josh Elliott.
Dan Patrick co-hosted Football Night from NBC Sports Group’s Studio 1. He was joined by Super Bowl-winning head coach Tony Dungy; two-time Super Bowl winner Rodney Harrison, Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk on NBCSports.com, and NFL Insider Peter King. Kathryn Tappen reported from Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wis., on the Patriots-Packers game.
In addition, Costas interviewed Denver Broncos WR Emmanuel Sanders, and Elliott spoke with Kansas City Chiefs QB Alex Smith.
Following are highlights from Football Night in America:
ON GIANTS
Patrick: “Time to start over in New York?”
Dungy: “It really is.”
Patrick: “Where do you start when you start over?”
Dungy: “I think that you start with the coach, and Tom Coughlin should not be fired. You don’t fire coaches that have won two Super Bowls, but he should step down. This is going to be a long-term rebuilding process.”
Harrison: “Last week I talked about the Giants needing to play four quarters. Tom Coughlin has been talking about that the entire year. Eli is still making rookie mistakes. They are 3-9 at this point. He is not going to get any better. And an older quarterback like Eli, that’s not very athletic, guess what, he gets less athletic the older he gets. It’s time to move in a different direction.”
ON CARDINALS
Dungy: “They’re not running the ball well enough now to make up for Drew Stanton’s erratic play…I said two weeks ago they were going to win the division easily. I’m not so sure now.”
PACKERS
Harrison: “Not a finesse team. They’re a very physical team.”
ON COLTS
Harrison: “Yes, they are flawed…Every week it seems like he’s (Andrew Luck) running for his life. He’s been so careless with the ball.”
Dungy: “I’d be more concerned with the defense, giving up these big-chunk plays, giving up almost 400 yards to Colt McCoy. You can’t do that in the playoffs.”
ON CHARGERS
Harrison: “They saved their season.”
Costas: “A huge win for the Chargers today.”
ON BENGALS
Dungy on AFC North: “They’re in control of this race.”
King on challenge late in the game: “I have never had in my life a coach say to me after a game, ‘I just lost my mind.’ But he did for a moment because he could not find an official to call the timeout on the sidelines. They have a challenge person upstairs, the Bengals do, who said ‘Challenge. 12 men on the field. There’s 12 men on the field.’ Because he couldn’t find the ref to signal a timeout, he just threw the challenge flag.”
Dungy: “They were very lucky today. They weren’t good, made a ton of mistakes, only Tampa made more.”
ON BROWNS
Patrick: “Do you start Johnny Manziel next week?”
Dungy: “I think you probably do.”
ON SAINTS
Dungy: “Huge win for the Saints.”
Harrison: “I think they’re going to win the division.”
Dungy on NFC South: “New Orleans is in the driver’s seat.”
ON RAVENS
Harrison: “Baltimore blew a perfect opportunity.”
ON TEXANS
Harrison on J.J. Watt’s performance: “This is why I think he’s the MVP of the league. I haven’t seen a dominant defensive player like this since Lawrence Taylor.”
ON PANTHERS
Dungy: “They’re not able to run the ball and Cam Newton is not mobile. So it’s all on the passing game and they’re just not a good enough passing team to make up for all those deficiencies.”
ON CHIEFS
Ward: “That’s been the biggest problem on the offensive side of the ball, the play at the wide receiver position, and that starts with Dwayne Bowe. He’s been the biggest disappointment on that offense because they’re paying him a lot of money to be mediocre right now. When you have a running back like Jamaal Charles, who’s going to have eight and nine guys in the box all the time, as a wide receiver you are going to have a lot of one-on-one matchups on the outside, and you have to win those. So in order for Kansas City to get to where they want to go and to the playoffs, Dwayne Bowe has to be more than just an average wide receiver. They need him to be a playmaker.”
ON PERSONAL CONDUCT POLICY
King: “I’m told that a week from Wednesday when the NFL owners next meet in Dallas, the owners are going to be presented with a plan that is going to be very close to the final plan just to get their input.”
Florio: “Before it got to that point, the NFL tried to work with the NFL Players Association to come up with some sort of agreed approach. The sticky point continues to be final say. The NFL wants to retain final say over NFL player discipline. It got so bad that during a recent meeting the NFLPA just got up and walked out.”
http://www.nbcsports.com/
ON RAY RICE DECISION
Collinsworth: “First of all, I think the arbitrator was right. It was double jeopardy, and that was probably a pretty easy call for the arbitrator in that situation. The more interesting question now is what happens to Ray Rice? Will anyone want him? Probably next year he will get invited to some training camp if somebody is willing to live with the distraction. But I do still think that it’s possible that by the end of this year, if there is a desperate team in the fight to make the playoffs that loses a couple running backs, somebody could take that chance, even this year…I don’t think he is to the level that he is somebody you have to have on your team. It’s still a risk even just purely on football terms.”
King: “After the whole Ray Rice thing was adjourned on Friday, people started to speculate where Ray Rice is going to land. I believe nowhere this year. Teams mentioned today were the Indianapolis Colts and the New Orleans Saints. I think there is very little chance that he ends up in New Orleans, and even less of a chance that he ends up in Indianapolis. My gut feeling is that he signs in 2015 with somewhere else.”
Patrick: “Tony, as a coach, what do you do? Do you pick up Ray Rice?”
Dungy: “I would under one condition. Ray Rice made a terrible mistake, but he paid the penalty from the League and from the legal system. I would have to talk to him and say, ‘Have you learned from this?’ (I’d) look in his eye and see if he has learned from his mistake. Then I’d be okay to sign him.”
Harrison: “I had the opportunity to talk to a bunch of players and they said he has suffered enough public embarrassment and humiliation. He’s still a very productive hard-working running back. I think the big question here is, if he comes back, will he be in football shape? How long will it take for him to get in football shape?”
Patrick: “You also have to weigh what he’s going to give you on the football field with what he’s going to bring with him off the field, and what are you saying to your fan base if you bring him in?”
Dungy: “You do have to weigh that, but you also have to weigh is he okay paying a penalty like everyone does and then moving on with his life?”
Harrison: “You talk about the Indianapolis Colts. You can’t tell me that he’s not a better back than Trent Richardson.”
Below are excerpts from Costas’ interview with Sanders, and Elliott’s interview with Smith.
EMMANUEL SANDERS WITH BOB COSTAS
Sanders on referring to the Broncos offense as ‘wide receiver heaven’: “Playing with Peyton Manning, you get an opportunity to sling the football around and catch a lot of balls. I’m having the best season of my career right now, and I’m having fun for the first time. I’m enjoying it, and that’s why I said it’s wide receiver heaven.”
Sanders on cultivating his relationship with Peyton Manning: “When I came to Denver, my first thing to do was earn Peyton’s trust. We stayed in a hotel during training camp, and I would be in his room going over signs and signals, just trying to gain that trust. Obviously it’s starting to pay off.”
Sanders on Giants WR Odell Beckham Jr.’s catch last week on Sunday Night Football: “We had just finished our game, and my brother texted me that Odell Beckham had just made the sickest catch he’s ever seen. He usually sends those text messages a lot, so I said, ‘Ah, whatever, I don’t care what he’s saying.’ But then when I looked at the catch, I said, “Wow.’ For me, it’s the greatest catch I’ve ever seen. For him to be a rookie and make those kind of plays, he’s going to be a special player in this league.”
Sanders on lessons learned following loss in Super Bowl XLV with Pittsburgh Steelers: “I remember when I was a rookie in 2010 (with the Steelers) and we did lose (in the Super Bowl), I was walking around saying, ‘I want to go to the Super Bowl, hey guys, let’s go to the Super Bowl,’ instead of saying, ‘I want to win the Super Bowl.’ Now, my mindset has totally changed. We have the ability to win it all, but we have to go out and get it.”
http://www.nbcsports.com/
ALEX SMITH WITH JOSH ELLIOTT
Smith on Chiefs S Eric Berry’s address to the team: “It was shocking. You can never expect to hear something like that from one of your teammates. He’s a really, really special person. From the day I got here, I’ve been so impressed with his maturity and his leadership for a young guy. The thing that came out of it, at least that day when he talked to us, was that you came away feeling better because of him, and how positive his attitude was. He was very honest. His first instinct was that he wanted to play, but he’s got a bigger fight on his hands…we’re surrounding him and supporting him, pushing him to go get right and take care of this, and we’ll be here when he gets back.”
NOTE: Last week, Berry was ruled out for the season after team doctors discovered a mass on the right side of his chest. Berry is undergoing tests to determine the nature of that mass.
Smith on his relationship with head coach Andy Reid: “It’s been awesome. Every single play on the practice field, he’s right behind me, so it’s instant feedback. ‘Are we on the same page? Are we thinking the same thing?’ That’s what I want so that when the play call comes in, we are on the same page. I know exactly what he’s thinking, why he’s calling the play, and I can go out there and execute.”
Smith on Peyton Manning’s prolific offensive statistics: “As a quarterback, you look at the level he’s playing at, and how long he’s been doing it, and you can’t help but respect that – I don’t know how you don’t. With that said, there are a lot of ways to score points. Certainly the numbers he puts up, you can’t help but respect that. But at the end of the day, I’m just trying to score more points than him, regardless of how many yards he throws for.
Smith on valuing his team’s winning percentage over his personal statistics: “The longer you play, the more you learn that. It’s easy when you’re younger to get caught up in some of that fantasy stuff, or your (quarterback) rating. When you get older, week-to-week, it’s about finding a way to get a win.”
–FOOTBALL NIGHT IN AMERICA–
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