FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Sunday, October 28th, 2018
“FOOTBALL NIGHT IN AMERICA” – WEEK 8 NOTES & QUOTES
“They saved their season today.” – Tony Dungy on the Eagles
“You can save all that stuff for the offseason. You can’t be in the club popping bottles when you’ve played as poorly as they’ve played.” – Rodney Harrison on four Jaguars being detained in London on Saturday
“The names have changed, but the system still works.” – Mike Tirico on the Seahawks
STAMFORD, Conn. – Oct. 28, 2018 – Mike Tirico hosted the Week 8 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 New Orleans Saints and Minnesota Vikings. Tirico was joined on the set by analysts Tony Dungy, Rodney Harrison and Chris Simms, and NFL Insider Mike Florio.
Liam McHugh co-hosted Football Night on site from U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Minn. He was joined by the SNF team of Al Michaels, Cris Collinsworth and Michele Tafoya.
Tafoya revisited last year’s New Orleans-Minnesota NFC Divisional Playoff game, which became known as the “Minneapolis Miracle” after Vikings WR Stefon Diggs scored a 61-yard touchdown as time expired to advance the Vikings to the NFC Championship Game. The feature included interviews with Diggs, Vikings TE Kyle Rudolph, and former Vikings QB Case Keenum, as well as commentary from Vikings fans and the team’s radio announcers, Paul Allen and Pete Bercich. In a separate feature, former Vikings head coach and Hall of Famer Bud Grant – who coached Minnesota for 18 seasons and is now 91 years old – provided insight into one of the most storied games in Vikings history.
NBC Sports’ Week 8 edition of FNIA also included highlights, analysis, and news from around the league. Florio discussed Tuesday’s trade deadline.
Following are Notes & Quotes from the Week 8 edition of Football Night in America:
ON JAGUARS
Harrison on four players being detained in London on Saturday: “Lack of leadership. You can save all that stuff for the offseason. You can’t be in the club popping bottles when you’ve played as poorly as they’ve played.”
Dungy: “You go over there to win a game. As a coach, I don’t agree with giving them no curfew. You’ve got to be man enough to do your job first and not be out at four in the morning.”
Tirico: “It’s one thing if this was a team going (to London) for the first time. The Jaguars do this every year, so they should know what the situation is. Big bar tab, big hole they have dug themselves now. A couple games back in the AFC South.”
ON SEAHAWKS
Harrison: “They come to play every single week. I’m really impressed with them. It’s a sleeper team.”
Florio, who spoke to Russell Wilson post-game: “He’s very enthused. He said that this team reminds him of the team back in 2012; back when nobody expected anything of the Seahawks. That was the vibe then, he sees that now. This is a team that’s gaining some momentum and Wilson is right in the middle of it.”
Harrison: “Pete Carroll has done a really great job this year. I think those young guys have kind of reenergized their commitment to running. They’re finally running the football and they have a lot of talented, young guys on the defensive side of the ball.”
Dungy: “Getting back to that winning formula.”
Tirico: “The names have changed, but the system still works.”
ON EAGLES
Dungy: “They saved their season today.”
ON STEELERS
Florio on RB Le’Veon Bell: “Look for him to show up, if at all, this week after Tuesday (trade deadline). And keep in mind, we’re only 16 days away from the final deadline for him showing up in 2018.”
ON REDSKINS
Dungy on RB Adrian Peterson: “He’s given this Washington team a mentality: you keep giving me the ball, 20 carries, it may look ugly, but keep pounding it, and we’ll get stronger as the game goes on.”
ON RAMS
Simms: “It’s only a matter of time before kid genius, which is what I call Sean McVay, cracks the code, and that’s what he did. Todd Gurley got involved in the pass game.”
ON BUCCANEERS
Harrison on Ryan Fitzpatrick: “I think you’ve got to stick with him for the rest of the season.”
ON SAINTS
Colinsworth on head coaches Mike Zimmer and Sean Payton knowing each other so well: “You know that they know what the other one knows, and do you know what to do when the other one knows what you know?”
Harrison: “What I love about Sean Payton is his patience in the run game because in previous years he would have just given up and said, ‘You know what, we are not going to run the ball. I’m just going to put in Drew Brees hands and he’ll sling it all over the field.’ But the patience in the run game makes their offense very dangerous.”
Dungy on Sean Payton: “As a coach, you’re hesitant to do new stuff a lot of times because you don’t know if your players can handle it. Sean Payton, as we saw, he has the confidence. ‘I can bring 20 new plays this week on Wednesday, and Drew Brees will have it down pat on Sunday.’”
Harrison on Minneapolis Miracle: “When I saw Marcus Williams not make that play I felt terrible because it reminded me of the David Tyree catch (Note: Harrison was the defender), and all I could think about is I feel so bad for this kid because he’s going to have to live with this for the rest of his life. But the one thing is, if I’m Kirk Cousins, I’m going to attack him at the deep end of the field. I’m going to run some double shots, maybe some double moves, some trick plays, whatever I can to try and expose him to see if he’s mentally over that hurdle.”
ON VIKINGS
McHugh on WR Adam Thielen: “He’s the rare guy; he can be a big-play guy and a security blanket at the same time.”
TAFOYA’S INTERVIEW WITH DIGGS, RUDOLPH & KEENUM
Diggs on what Keenum told him prior to the snap: “It actually was the same play we ran prior. So, it was a repeat. I definitely didn’t think I was getting the ball.”
Rudolph added: “It was a plan we had run numerous times in that situation. And that guy never gets the ball. Never gets the ball.”
Diggs on tossing his helmet after scoring the game-winning touchdown: “I got a flag for that, too. A nice little fine.”
Keenum following Diggs’ touchdown: “I remember running around trying to find somebody in purple and just, like, scream at them. There were no intelligent words coming out of my mouth.”
Diggs on what the moment meant to Vikings fans: “They say in the past things have been pretty rough coming down to the wire. To have something good happen, to put them in a good place, hopefully we’ll share that for a very long time.”
BUD GRANT
Grant on life and his football career: “I’m 91-and-a-half, and when you get to be this age you count them in half years. I’ve been involved in football all my life. And having coached many, many games, you experience a lot of strange things in football games, strange things that you’re not prepared for.”
Grant on the “Minneapolis Miracle”: “Those are memories you don’t get rid of. That was a miracle and should be called that. That’s what it was.”
—FOOTBALL NIGHT IN AMERICA—
