FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Sunday, October 14th, 2018

“FOOTBALL NIGHT IN AMERICA” – WEEK 6 NOTES & QUOTES

“Each team is like its own elite fantasy team for offense.” – Tirico on Chiefs-Patriots

“I love him. He’s fun, he’s funny, and he sounds like Kermit the Frog.” – Cris Collinsworth on Patrick Mahomes

“He’s playing like a 10-year veteran handling all of this offense that Andy Reid is handing to him.” – Tony Dungy on Mahomes

“Jason Garrett finally took off the training wheels with Dak Prescott.” – Rodney Harrison on the Cowboys’ big win

STAMFORD, Conn. – Oct. 14, 2018 – Mike Tirico hosted the Week 6 edition of Football Night in America tonight from NBC Sports’ International Broadcast Center in Stamford, Conn., in advance of the Sunday Night Football matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs and New England Patriots. Tirico was joined on the set by analysts Tony Dungy and Rodney Harrison, NFL Insider Mike Florio and PFT Live co-host Chris Simms.

Liam McHugh co-hosted Football Night on site from Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass. He was joined by the SNF team of Al Michaels, Cris Collinsworth and Michele Tafoya, who interviewed Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes. FNIA also included highlights, analysis, and news from around the league.

Following are Notes & Quotes from the Week 6 edition of Football Night in America:

ON CHIEFS

Collinsworth on meeting Mahomes: “I love him. He’s fun, he’s funny, and he sounds like Kermit the Frog. (laughter) He’s just one of those guys you are immediately drawn to, and you really got the feeling that the Chiefs as an entity are sort of saying, ‘Yeah, this is the guy who’s going to lead us for the next decade’…He’s been bringing this youthful, energetic way of playing quarterback that is just fun to watch.”

Harrison on Mahomes: “I’m just thoroughly impressed with how he’s conducted himself, how he’s handled all the early success that he’s had. Think about how humble he is. Whenever you hear him talk, he always talks about his teammates; he always talks about his coaches. He never makes it about himself.”

Dungy: “He’s playing like a 10-year veteran handling all of this offense that Andy Reid is handing to him.”

Simms: “It’s been seamless for him.”

Dungy on Mahomes playing aggressively: “He understands the game. He knows he doesn’t have a great defense. The thing that scares me about Patrick tonight is he knows he’s going against Tom Brady, and he may feel like he has to put up 40 points and try to do too much tonight.”

Harrison: “I’m going to tell you who the best tight end in all of football is right now and that’s Travis Kelce.”

ON PATRIOTS

Collinsworth on the Patriots being better as the season goes on: “They are really well coached and their players get better (over the course of the season)…great coaches can move a player forward, and that’s what Belichick does time after time. But the untold part of this weekend for me was how excited Tom Brady was about his offense, back-to-back 38-point games, and he thinks they are sitting on a powder keg right now getting all these guys back.”

Harrison on the return of Patriots WR Julian Edelman: “You see a different energy from Tom Brady when Julian Edelman is there. In the most critical situations, this is who Tom looks for.”

Tirico: “Each team is like its own elite fantasy team for offense. It’s fun.”

ON STEELERS

Dungy: “I told you two weeks ago, all the drama, don’t worry about it. When they start scoring, they’ll be fine. They scored 69 points in the last two weeks. Everything’s good in Pittsburgh.”

Florio on Steelers RB Le’Veon Bell: “I’m told as of this evening, the Steelers haven’t heard anything at all from Le’Veon Bell.”

ON COWBOYS

Harrison: “Jason Garrett finally took off the training wheels with Dak Prescott and had some designed runs, took some risks down the field, allowing him to show his personality.”

ON JAGUARS

Harrison: “They’re putting too much pressure on Blake Bortles to be the guy, to carry them. Last week they asked him to throw the ball 61 times. They forgot about the formula (to run the ball and play good defense).”

Dungy on Jacksonville’s defensive struggles in back-to-back weeks: “The common denominator: they’ve been on the road against mobile quarterbacks. Dak Prescott was on fire.”

Harrison: “When you talk trash, you have to back it up. And also, when you have success, you have to be able to come back and follow that year up with more intensity. It just seems like they’re very complacent.”

ON REDSKINS

Tirico: “Let’s give Washington and Jay Gruden some credit. They were cleaned out, awful against New Orleans, and come back six days later and get a win.”

Dungy: “I can tell you how tough that is, Monday night road game, coming back from a short week after traveling. Jay Gruden did a great job getting his guys ready to play today.”

ON BEARS

Harrison on Chicago head coach Matt Nagy’s play-calling that led to a 53-yard field goal attempt in overtime: “I didn’t understand (Matt) Nagy, his play-calling. I thought it was very conservative … And one thing about this year, you can’t trust any kicker, except for Justin Tucker.”

Dungy: “They are exciting. They’ve got a lot of young talent, I love them. But, they still are learning how to win these types of games. They blew a big lead in Green Bay; they lost this game where they had it in hand. This is the maturing that they are going to have to do.”

ON BILLS

Florio on Josh Allen’s injury: “(Sean) McDermott didn’t rule out the possibility of Derek Anderson, a veteran journeyman who joined the team only recently, being the starter next week against Indianapolis if Allen can’t play.”

TAFOYA’S INTERVIEW WITH MAHOMES

Mahomes on leadership: “In order to have a vocal leadership role on a team, they have to know that you’re doing whatever you can for the best interest of the team. And it can’t be fake; it has to be real, and for me I knew that I had to come in and work. I can’t just start talking as a young guy on a team. You have to make sure everybody knows you’re doing what you can in order to have success.”

Mahomes on playing shortstop as a five-year-old: “They hit me a ball at shortstop, and I grabbed it and I just fired over there to the guy at the first base. He tried to catch it, but he wasn’t ready for it, and it hit him in the glasses and broke his glasses. So, they told me I either had to play first base or roll the ball to the first baseman the rest of the year (laughs). So, my dad forced me to play first base.”

Mahomes on how far he can throw a football: “The furthest I’ve ever thrown it is 83 yards. But I think I can get it to 85.”

Mahomes on whether he’s afraid of burning out his arm: “Oh, no. I mean, I played baseball, and you throw a lot more pitches in baseball than you throw footballs in the game. So, I’m never scared to throw the ball deep — especially when you have guys like Samuel Watkins and Tyreek and Chris Conley, and guys that can just go get it.”

Tafoya: “Yeah, you talk about weapons. You know, a lot of quarterbacks would say, ‘I’ll take one or two of those.’ So, when you’re standing and you drop back, what does that field look like for you?”

Mahomes: “I’m set up in a great situation. I know that I can just get the ball out of my hands and it could be a touchdown on every single play.”

Tafoya: “Yeah, I was going ask you how you keep them all happy — they’re not coming over, lobbying for the football?

Mahomes: “No, no one is. And that’s the best thing for me. Everybody’s going to have a chance to make their play, so everybody just tries to do their job on every single play.”

Tafoya: “You haven’t only used your right arm this year. We saw that nice little leftie throw against Denver. What are you thinking when you make that play?”

Mahomes: “I mean, all I was thinking there was it was third down, so I just figured out a way to just put it out there.”

Mahomes on how he figures out how to make plays: “The coaches that I’ve had. Whenever the play breaks down, they’ve allowed me to do what I’ve done that’s gotten me here, which is just to go out there and try to make plays. And the receivers have responded well and found ways to get open for me. And the offensive lines, blocking their tail off and giving me time.”

Mahomes on his earliest memory of Tom Brady: “I think the earliest memory I have of the Patriots and Tom Brady was the snow game. And, I’ve watched him more and more as I’ve grown up, and I mean, he just keeps getting better every single year.”

Mahomes on his first game against Tom Brady: “He’s had a ton of success for a long time in this league. I’m still starting off, so for me it’s just about another challenge, another thing that I have to go out there and just compete. Every quarterback’s different. I’ve seen things that Tom’s done, he gets the ball to those guys and those guys make plays for him, and I’m trying to do the same thing.”

—FOOTBALL NIGHT IN AMERICA—