FOOTBALL IN HIGH HEELS: FOOTBALL NIGHT IN AMERICA 11/20
STAMFORD, Conn. – Nov., 20, 2016 – Following are highlights from Football Night in America, which aired prior to tonight’s Sunday Night Football matchup between the Green Bay Packers and Washington Redskins. Bob Costas opened the show live from inside FedExField in Landover, Md. He was joined on site by Sunday Night Football analyst Cris Collinsworth and SNF sideline reporter Michele Tafoya.
Dan Patrick hosted Football Night, the most-watched studio show in sports, from NBC Sports Group’s Studio 1 in Stamford, Conn. He was joined by Super Bowl-winning and Pro Football Hall of Fame head coach Tony Dungy; two-time Super Bowl winner Rodney Harrison; and NFL Insider Mike Florio of NBC Sports’ ProFootballTalk. Paul Burmeister reported from CenturyLink Field in Seattle, Wash., on the Eagles-Seahawks game.
Football Night coverage also included Costas’ interview with Redskins QB Kirk Cousins.
Following are highlights from Football Night in America on NBC:
ON COWBOYS
Dungy on Dak Prescott (with highlight of a short, but productive pass to Ezekiel Elliott): “He did this all day, just took the check-downs, took what was available. Prescott played a great game…I’m just more and more impressed with this guy the more we see him. Nothing fazes him…That’s what impresses me. He reads the defense and he goes to the weakness of the defense.”
ON RAVENS
Patrick on Joe Flacco’s post-game comments in which he said the Ravens should have won: “I think we all had the same reaction seeing Joe Flacco there, it was un-Flacco-like. I wonder if this is in reaction to what Ray Lewis said a couple of days ago, saying that he thought Flacco lacked passion for the game.”
Harrison: “It’s definitely him coming to his own defense because we watch him do hundreds of interviews and he felt like this particular day that he had to defend himself.”
Dungy: “They may have felt like they should have won the game, but they were not the best team on the field today.”
ON SEAHAWKS
Dungy: “Look out, NFC, the Seahawks are back.”
ON GIANTS
Patrick: “The Giants are 7-3. I don’t know how they’re doing it, but they’re 7-3.”
Harrison: “The one guy that I’m really excited about is Landon Collins. He has been absolutely terrific. He is a guy that no one is really paying attention to, but with his stats, I think he should be Defensive Player of the Year right now.”
Dungy: “He is making the plays in the clutch that they need in the fourth quarter.”
ON RAMS
Dungy: “Jared Goff played well. They kept it simple for him, very conservative, but he executed, didn’t make the big mistakes.”
Harrison: “We talk about it each and every week with Jeff Fisher and the Rams – undisciplined play. Why would Aaron Donald take a cheap shot like that? We’re not making this stuff up. This is something that’s documented. It happens all the time with Jeff Fisher and that’s why they end up losing the game.”
ON CARDINALS
Harrison: “If I’m Arizona I’m very disappointed because if you look at Carson Palmer, he seems like this entire year they’ve been off a little bit, the communication with him and his receivers. They are not getting the big plays that they got last year.”
Dungy: “A ton of mistakes.”
Harrison on the most significant result of the day: “I think Arizona losing. They said in the offseason they were a few players away from going to the Super Bowl. I thought that they would be a team that could seriously be in the Super Bowl and now they are not going to even make the playoffs.”
ON CHIEFS
Harrison: “They started slow offensively and sometimes I just think they take for granted that their defense will create turnovers, they will have pick-sixes and strip sacks, and things like that. They have to do a better job starting fast and taking the pressure off the defense.”
Dungy: “Kansas City has some big games coming up, Oakland, Denver, they kind of overlooked Tampa and that’s going to come back to haunt them.”
ON BUCCANEERS
Dungy: “I think this might be the signature win that they were looking for. It kind of reminds me of my first team. We were up and down and up and down. We finally went to San Diego, won a game on the road. I think this can jump-start the Bucs. This was a huge win for them today.”
Harrison: “I don’t believe in that. They do not have a second receiver showside of Mike Evans.”
ON TITANS
Harrison: “I was very disappointed in the Tennessee Titans because they’re not ready to take that next step. They beat the Green Bay Packers last week. They played a complete game. But in this league, you have to be able to repeat that performance and they can’t do it.”
ON PACKERS
Harrison: “I believe in Aaron Rodgers. I mean he has shown some frustration the last couple of weeks, but he is still a great quarterback. I think he’s going to come out, show some leadership and get all those guys involved.”
ON REDSKINS
Harrison on Kirk Cousins: “He understands his role on the team. He calls himself a game manager and they would be crazy to let him go. He’s a good player.”
ON NFL CAREER DEVELOPMENT ADVISORY PANEL PRELIMINARY LIST OF RECOMMENDED COACHES
Patrick: “Matt Patricia, the defensive coordinator for the Patriots, is on there. Josh McDaniels, the offensive coordinator, is not. What do you make of that?”
Florio: “I’m told the thinking continues to be that Josh McDaniels will stay in New England until coach Bill Belichick retires. That’s why he’s not on the list.”
KIRK COUSINS WITH BOB COSTAS
http://www.nbcsports.com/
Bob Costas: “I think your dad who first said this, and others have then picked up on it – ‘Underappreciated and overlooked is the story of your athletic life.’ Is that true?”
Kirk Cousins: “I think it has been, to some degree. I wasn’t a big recruit coming out of high school. I think I even surprised a lot of my high school coaches and teammates with the career I had at Michigan State. I wasn’t a first-round pick, or thought to be a first-round pick coming out of the draft, and really wasn’t ever expected to be a main starter in the NFL. Every step in the process I’ve had to kind of overachieve and prove people wrong. If anything, it’s kept me hungry, and I haven’t been entitled. I wake up every morning feeling a need to prove myself.”
Cousins on working with former Bucs and Raiders head coach Jon Gruden, who called him ‘The Vigilante’: “At the time, I was coming off a season where I had been benched and I had thrown just about as many interceptions as touchdowns. I had made a lot of good plays, but it was somewhat reckless. And he called me the vigilante because he said I took the law into my own hands. His point was, ‘You have to rein it in, you have to tighten it down to where you can consistently produce at a high level without the negative plays that come along with it.’ I’ve tried to get away from being a vigilante and just be a great manager of the game, making good decisions play in and play out.”
Cousins on his work ethic, even when he served as Washington’s backup QB: “I need reps. I need mentally to recognize things from film study and really know these plays inside and out, so I can make quick decisions and progress quickly and get the ball out of my hand. If I do that, that’s the best chance for me to be successful.”
Cousins on his future prospects as a broadcaster: “I’ve called the spring game for Big Ten Network for Michigan State. It’s a great opportunity to still stay around the game, to be able to feel like you’re close to the action. I’m very analytical so I think it fits the way I think. I’d love to have Cris (Collinsworth’s) job someday, but I think there’s a lot of people who would. Hopefully I can play well enough on the field first.”
