“Jackson needed this game…He may need a few more nights like this one to convince Ravens brass beyond a doubt that he deserves to be among the top three or four highest-paid players in NFL history.” – King on Ravens QB Lamar Jackson after beating the Chiefs
“You don’t want to make too much of this if you’re a Miami fan, but reality bites for your team at quarterback right now…Sunday’s developments make it seem like Miami’s quarterback answer is still very cloudy.” – King on Dolphins QB Tua Tagovailoa
“The West is where the power is, in both conferences. Who’d have thought it’d be the Raiders and Broncos at 2-0, with KC and the Chargers 1-1. This could be a fascinating year out west.” – King
STAMFORD, Conn. – September 20, 2021 – Peter King recaps Week 2 in the NFL and speaks with Ravens rookie linebacker Odafe Oweh, who forced and recovered a critical fourth-quarter fumble in the Ravens’ victory over the Chiefs on Sunday Night Football, in this week’s edition of Football Morning in America, available now exclusively on NBCSports.com. King also hands out his Week 2 awards, speaks with Rams wide receiver Cooper Kupp and 49ers linebacker Fred Warner, and more.
Across NBC Sports this week, Pro Football Talk streams live on Peacock at 7 a.m. ET every weekday and re-airs at 9 a.m. ET on NBCSN. In addition to Pro Football Talk, Peacock offers daily sports programming on the NBC Sports channel for free, including shows Safety Blitz, Chris Simms Unbuttoned, The Peter King Podcast, The Rich Eisen Show, Brother from Another, and The Dan Patrick Show. To learn more about the NBC Sports on Peacock channel and how to sign up, click here.
The following are highlights from this week’s edition of Football Morning in America:
RAVENS-CHIEFS
Peter King on the Ravens defeating the Chiefs, 36-35, on Sunday Night Football: “After enduring a horrible loss last Monday in Las Vegas, and landing in Baltimore at 7 a.m. Tuesday, and adjusting to more devastating injuries, and having a short week of prep for the toughest team on the schedule, and taking a 36-35 lead late in the Sunday night game against mighty Kansas City, the Ravens began spitting out pieces of their broken luck with two minutes left in Baltimore. They could conquer a lot of things as one of football’s mentally toughest teams.”
King: “With 1:32 left Sunday night, Odafe Oweh lined up the inside right of a five-man front for Baltimore, across from KC’s Pro Bowl guard, Joe Thuney…Oweh leaked into a crease to Thuney’s right, and as Thuney lunged to try to get Oweh off-track, Oweh reached his black-gloved right hand out and violently pawed at the ball in (Chiefs running back Clyde) Edwards-Helaire’s grasp.”
Oweh to King on the forced fumble in the fourth quarter: “When I saw it on the ground, I wasn’t so much surprised as, I don’t know, I just knew I had to get it. So exhilarating! … This moment will be burned into my brain for the rest of my life.”
King on the Ravens drafting Oweh: “Last spring, when Baltimore was scouting for the draft, GM Eric DeCosta liked a promising but unproductive player from Penn State, Jayson Oweh, more than many of his peers…DeCosta felt Oweh could be the next great player in the long line of great Ravens defensive players…When Baltimore traded tackle Orlando Brown to Kansas City, the package that came back included KC’s first-round pick, 31st overall. So DeCosta used that pick, Kansas City’s, to choose Oweh.”
King on Ravens QB Lamar Jackson: “Jackson needed this game, particularly after putting the Ravens in an early hole with a Tyrann Mathieu pick-six…He’s had some big wins against other teams, obviously, but he may need a few more nights like this one to convince Ravens brass beyond a doubt that he deserves to be among the top three or four highest-paid players in NFL history.”
King on the Ravens’ decision to go for it on 4th-and-1: “I didn’t think Baltimore coach John Harbaugh really had one…Even if the Ravens punted to pin Kansas City at its 15-yard line with 56 seconds left and no timeouts, how good do you feel about stopping Patrick Mahomes from getting into field-goal range? I wouldn’t feel very good.”
WEEK 2
King on the Raiders: “When I saw GM Mike Mayock in training camp seven weeks ago, he told me: ‘We need to be a playoff team – and beyond. It’s time to win.’ The last seven days tells me they can be.”
King on the Raiders’ offense: “Let’s give (Derek) Carr his due, and let’s give Jon Gruden his due too – for being in perfect sync with Carr now, for calling the kind of plays in the kind of order that’s becoming hard to stop…This is a big-league quarterback, with a big-league receiving corps.”
King on the AFC West & NFC West: “The West is where the power is, in both conferences. Who’d have thought it’d be the Raiders and Broncos at 2-0, with KC and the Chargers 1-1. This could be a fascinating year out west.”
King on the Bills beating the Dolphins, 35-0: “The Bills continued to be the Globetrotters, the Dolphins continued to be their Washington Generals.”
King on the Dolphins and QB Tua Tagovailoa: “You don’t want to make too much of this if you’re a Miami fan, but reality bites for your team at quarterback right now. You turn on the TV and watch Justin Herbert, drafted one spot after Tagovailoa in 2020, develop into a top-10 NFL quarterback. You might have hope for Tagovailoa, but truly you can’t know if your long-term quarterback is even on the roster right now.”
King: “There’s also the matter of an impatient owner, Stephen Ross, who desperately wants his Marino. Sunday’s developments make it seem like Miami’s quarterback answer is still very cloudy.”
King on the Panthers’ defense: “The unit led by (Phil) Snow, the 65-year-old defensive coordinator, is the biggest reason Carolina shares the NFC South lead with Tampa Bay this morning…No one could imagine a 3-0 start for Carolina, but it’s on the horizon.”
King on Buccaneers QB Tom Brady: “Let’s go back to the greatest full season of Brady’s career, 2007. That’s the year Brady and the great Randy Moss lifted New England to a 16-0 record in the regular season. In the first two games that year, Brady, 30, threw for 576 yards and six TDs. Fourteen years later, Brady, 44, has thrown for 655 yards and nine TDs in the first two games of this year.”
King on the 49ers’ travel: “This is the third straight season of a schedule quirk that’s paid off for the Niners. San Francisco had four Eastern Time Zone games scheduled this year. But what if instead of taking four of the draining trips, the Niners took three – and were able to play two of them back-to-back, and then stay east to practice in the intervening week? … It’s smart to try to work the schedule that way.”
49ers LB Fred Warner to King: “It’s been good, honestly, to go on these trips. When we’re out there, our entire focus is on football. There’s no distractions. You wake up, you go to meetings, you go to practice, you get extra work in. Honestly, I see it as an advantage to be able to stay out on the East Coast.”
Rams WR Cooper Kupp to King on their comeback win after the Colts recovered a punt for a touchdown: “Just like anything in football, there’s ebbs and flows. Ebbs and flows to a week of preparation. Ebbs and flows to a season. Something very unfortunate happened. Ebbs and flows. Everyone looks at each other and says we just go out there and execute our job. Nothing has to be said.”
Kupp to King: “There’s something pretty cool about being able to go into a hostile environment, going to a place where the crowd’s rockin’, the opposing team feels like they got all the momentum going for them and able to from the sidelines to look at the guys next to you know it’s just you out there…Us against everyone. Actually, we love that opportunity to hear the crowd go silent.”
KING’S WEEK 2 AWARDS
Offensive Players of the Week: Derek Carr, Las Vegas, Derek Henry, Tennessee, Cooper Kupp, Los Angeles Rams, & Wayne Teller, guard, Cleveland.
King on Carr: “In the span of seven days, Monday to Sunday, Carr has driven the Raiders to victories over traditional powers Baltimore and Pittsburgh, putting up 59 points and 817 passing yards…Carr has been superb.”
King on Kupp: “It wasn’t just the immense production in the win at Indianapolis – nine catches for 163 yards and two touchdowns – but when the biggest plays came…Kupp has become the go-to guy for (Matthew) Stafford in L.A.’s 2-0 start.”
Defensive Players of the Week: Mike Edwards, Tampa Bay, & Roquan Smith, Chicago.
King on Edwards’ two interception-return touchdowns: “Mike Edwards could play this game till 100 and never have a four-minute portion of any game like the one he had Sunday against the Falcons in Tampa.”
Special Teams Players of the Week: Jamal Agnew, Jacksonville, Javon Kinlaw, San Francisco, & Graham Gano, New York Giants.
King on Gano: “Move over, Justin Tucker. Soon, there may be competition for the best current kicker in the game. Gano hit five of five field goals Thursday night at Washington, giving him 35 straight makes – 10 shy of breaking Adam Vinatieri’s record of 44 straight field goals converted in 2015 and ’16.”
Coach of the Week: Leslie Frazier, defensive coordinator, Buffalo.
King: “Credit Frazier and his D for Miami’s miserable day on offense. Zero points, 216 yards, Miami quarterbacks sacked six times. The Bills might really have the pass-rush GM Brandon Beane has been angling for now.”
NEWS & NOTES
King on Cardinals QB Kyler Murray: “I think the player who showed me the most Sunday, other than Derek Carr, was Kyler Murray. The way he hung in against the Minnesota rush…The Cards will be a tough out for anyone this year.”
King on the Jets: “I think Jets GM Joe Douglas let down Jets franchise quarterback Zach Wilson on Sunday. I’ve harped on this through the offseason, the need in New York for a veteran backup to be a guide for Wilson. And Sunday, the need showed up. 26-year-old backup Mike White the only man in reserve…Wilson should have been yanked, given the rest of the day off while a hold-the-fort vet finished. There is no hold-the-fort vet, so Wilson stayed in and took his lumps. It’s just not sensible to treat the long-term answer at quarterback like this.”
King on his MVP ballot: “I think my two-week MVP ballot would be: 1 Derek Carr, 2 Kyler Murray, 3 Tom Brady.”
Read the full FMIA column here and catch the weekly Peter King Podcast here.
The following are additional highlights of NBC Sports’ NFL coverage:
- PFT Live with NBC Sports’ Mike Florio and Mike Golic (Mondays) and Florio and Chris Simms (Tuesday-Thursday) streams live on Peacock from 7 a.m. – 9 a.m. ET on weekdays, followed by The Dan Patrick Show at 9 a.m. ET, The Rich Eisen Show at Noon ET, Brother From Another at 3 p.m. ET, PFT PM at 5 p.m. ET. At 6 p.m. ET, Chris Simms Unbuttoned streams Tuesday-Friday.
- ProFootballTalk.com continues to provide the latest news and updates.
- NBC Sports EDGE’s A Good Football Show continues the NFL discussion and Bet The Edge Podcast provides daily betting insights.
A new “Football Morning in America” posts every Monday morning exclusively on NBCSports.com through the NFL season. It was announced in May 2019 that King signed an exclusive agreement with NBC Sports Group that included writing a weekly Monday morning NFL column for NBCSports.com; making regular appearances on PFT Live with Mike Florio; and continuing to contribute to Football Night in America, the most-watched studio show in sports.
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