FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Sunday, October 9th, 2022

NOTES & QUOTES FROM WEEK 5 EDITION OF FOOTBALL NIGHT IN AMERICA ON NBC AND PEACOCK

“The Giants – I mean that’s the shocker of all football right now…It might be the ugliest 4-1 in football that we’ve seen, but they play the right way.” – Chris Simms on the Giants

“The league office has to get that fixed. If you cannot tackle the quarterback, it’s going to be impossible to play defense.” – Tony Dungy on the roughing the passer call in the Falcons-Bucs game

“The keyword is ‘ataxia.’ That means abnormality in balance or stability, motor coordination, or speech dysfunction. If that is noticed in a player, he is going to be done for the day with no exceptions.” – Mike Florio on the recently-announced changes to the concussion protocol

“(The Jets are) taking on the personality of their head coach and we know that he’s tough as nails.” – Rodney Harrison on the Jets and head coach Robert Saleh

Peacock Sunday Night Football Final Streams EXCLUSIVELY on Peacock Following Every Sunday Night Football Game During 2022 Season

STAMFORD, Conn. – Oct. 9, 2022 – NBC Sports’ presentation of Week 5 of the 2022 NFL season began tonight from M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore, Md., with Football Night in America leading into coverage of Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens facing Joe Burrow and the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday Night Football on NBC and Peacock.

Maria Taylor hosted FNIA from NBC Sports’ Studio 1 in Stamford, Conn. She was joined by Hall of Fame head coach Tony Dungy, former NFL quarterback Chris Simms, fantasy sports industry pioneer Matthew Berry, and NFL Insider Mike Florio. Two-time Super Bowl winner Rodney Harrison joined co-host Kathryn Tappen at the site of the game.

In advance of tonight’s, game Ravens QB Lamar Jackson spoke to Maria Taylor about his role in changing how the game is played, when he realized he could make it in the NFL, being determined to play the quarterback position in college, and more. See below for a link to the entire interview and transcribed highlights.

Mike Tirico (play-by-play), Cris Collinsworth (analyst), Melissa Stark (sideline reporter) and Terry McAulay (rules analyst) are calling tonight’s game. Tirico also reported from the field during FNIA.

***

Following are highlights from tonight’s edition of Football Night in America on NBC and Peacock:

ON RAVENS

Simms on Jackson: “Lamar is arguably the greatest one-man show in the sport right now. (The Ravens are) a run-first football team that really relies on his right arm to make magic happen…He will dice you up in the pocket. He’s making better decisions and better high-level throws than at any point in his career this year.”

Harrison on the Ravens’ defensive early-season struggles: “If I’m the defensive coordinator of the Ravens, the first thing I do is I simplify everything. I want my defenders to play fast. I don’t want them thinking. I just want them to naturally react.”

ON BENGALS

Simms on Burrow: “He makes an unbelievable amount of plays, he’s given the whole organization a facelift and they’re a different organization and team because of him at quarterback.”

Simms on spending time with Burrow: “He has a humble cockiness about him that’s very rare where he doesn’t have to say a whole lot. He doesn’t want to be the rah-rah guy, but you can tell he’s given that whole organization confidence. And he’s very self-aware – being that young to make adjustments to his game, he knows what he needs to get better at.”

Harrison on the Bengals’ defense: “These are a bunch of veteran players. They’re smart and they play extremely hard…One guy I’m extremely impressed with is Logan Wilson. He’s the most underrated player on this team. He makes a lot of plays from sideline to sideline.”

Simms on being worried that the Bengals offense is too reliant on talent: “They’re a little too reliant on the Jimmy’s and Joe’s and I’d like to see a little more X’s and O’s. Few formations shifting, I know they can get away with it, but I’m worried about it against the better teams in the AFC.”

Dungy: “I’m cool with the Jimmy’s and Joe’s because it’s not Jimmy and Joe – it’s Ja’Marr (Chase) and Tee (Higgins). I’m alright with that.”

ON CONCUSSION PROTOCOLS

Florio on the recently-announced changes to the concussion protocol: “The biggest change and the keyword is ‘ataxia.’ That means abnormality in balance or stability, motor coordination, or speech dysfunction. If that is noticed in a player, he is going to be done for the day with no exceptions of any kind. Cannot return. We saw that happen today with Dolphins quarterback Teddy Bridgewater. He was ruled out. After the game, (Dolphins head) coach Mike McDaniel said he passed the concussion test, but because he demonstrated ataxia, he was not permitted to return to the game.

“Moving forward, the battleground between the NFL and the NFL Players’ Association will be the role on the unaffiliated neurotrauma consultant. Remember, in the Tua Tagovailoa case, the union actually fired the UNC. The league disagreed with that, and the league wants to take away the ability of the union to unilaterally fire the UNC. The union believes the UNC in that case…was answering to the league not the union and was actually disrespectful to the union in that investigation. So those conversations are going to continue moving forward as to the role of the UNC and the power to fire him if necessary.”

ON GIANTS

Simms: “I don’t know if they’re for real, but what is real is they’re 4-1. It might be the ugliest 4-1 in football that we’ve seen, but they play the right way. Daniel Jones is making good decisions taking care of the football, Saquon Barkley is phenomenal running the ball and when he gets the ball in space, watch out. And then Wink Martindale coaching the defense the right way…I’m proud of the Giants.”

Dungy: “I love what (Giants head coach) Brian Daboll is doing. He’s getting the ball to his play-makers, getting Saquon Barkley in the open field, but calling a creative game.”

Florio on the mentality that Daboll has brought to the Giants: “He says he wants no one in the organization to ever make any excuses, and that sounded familiar to me because he used to work for the Patriots. I said, ‘Is that something you picked up from Bill Belichick?’ He said, ‘No. “No excuses” comes from my grandmother.’”

ON COWBOYS

Dungy: “They have a formula now for how to win. A little bit of Cooper Rush, and a lot of defense.”

Simms on the Cowboys’ defense: “It’s creativity…Dan Quinn does a great job of creating mismatches. They’re winning the game with defense, playmaking, (and) special teams…Demarcus Lawrence and Micah Parsons might be the best pass-rushing duo in football.”

ON THE NFC EAST

Simms: “I mean who would have thought the Cowboys are where they are when Dak Prescott went down Week 1, and then the Giants – I mean that’s the shocker of all football right now. They beat Aaron Rodgers down like that in London? That was pretty unbelievable.”

Taylor: “If I would have told you Eagles, Cowboys, Giants – just two losses between those three teams through Week 5? Yes, they are absolutely balling.”

ON BUCCANEERS-FALCONS

Dungy on the roughing the passer penalty on Falcons DT Grady Jarrett in the fourth quarter: “When I saw the play, I couldn’t believe it. There is an emphasis now on protecting the players, which we have to. I called the league office and said, ‘Define roughing the passer to me.’ They defined it to me, and this did not fit roughing the passer as I see it…The league office has to get that fixed. If you cannot tackle the quarterback, it’s going to be impossible to play defense.”

Simms on the roughing the passer call: “To me, this is just tackling a player that happens to be the quarterback. I feel it’s a little bit of an overreaction, an overcorrection to the Tua (Tagovailoa) Thursday night injury.”

ON PACKERS

Simms on the Packers offense: “This is an issue for them right now. We know Aaron Rodgers is good and they’re trying to be efficient, but this a dink-and-dunk passing gamer right now. There’s not a lot of aggressiveness throwing the ball down the field…I think it’s going to be hard to beat the really good defenses in the NFC this way.”

Dungy: “We saw a lot of targets to Randall Cobb today, we’re just not seeing that chemistry with the other receivers yet. I’m sure Aaron’s going to say, ‘relax,’ but we’re a little concerned.”

ON JETS

Harrison on the Jets’ win over the Dolphins: “Robert Saleh has done a great job of instilling confidence and toughness into this team … (the Jets are) taking on the personality of their head coach and we know that he’s tough as nails…A lot of young guns on that Jets team, they came out with some fire today.”

ON DOLHPINS

Florio on the Dolphins’ injuries: “We already know that the top-two quarterbacks on the Dolphins’ depth chart – Tua Tagovailoa and Teddy Bridgewater – are in the concussion protocol. Their top receiver Tyreek Hill was in a walking boot after the game. He had his foot stepped on. I’m told it’s nothing serious, but the bottom line is he was in a walking boot after the game.”

ON STEELERS

Dungy: “There’s real trouble in Pittsburgh. Without T.J. Watt, the defense is not making plays, and offensively, there’s no identity. They played a Buffalo team that was minus a lot of players and couldn’t make anything happen.”

Dungy on the Steelers’ offense: “For 40 years, Pittsburgh has been a running football team. They’re not running the ball and that’s putting too much pressure on whoever the quarterback is.”

ON BILLS

Simms on QB Josh Allen’s four-touchdown performance: “This just in, he can kind of throw it far down the football field.”

ON SAINTS

Simms on the Saints’ win over the Seahawks: “It’s the best offensive performance we’ve seen from the Saints (this season)…I think they need to lean on this Taysom Hill packaging more…They need him to be a part of the offense when Jameis (Winston) gets back.”

ON SEAHAWKS

Simms on QB Geno Smith: “We have to give him credit, right? He’s been phenomenal. I don’t care that they lost today, he’s one of the best things that they’ve got going with that football team right now. Big plays with his arm, he’s taking care of the football. He’s really been the shock of the league so far.”

Dungy: “He’s playing with confidence, keeping them in every game…You’re never out of it with Geno.”

ON CHARGERS

Dungy on the Chargers’ defensive issues: “They’re going to have to fix this run defense if they want to contend in the (AFC) West…Nick Chubb sliced them up. They’ve got to get that fixed.”

ON COMMANDERS

Dungy on the Commanders’ final sequence from the one-yard line which resulted in an interception: “I didn’t like these play calls. I didn’t think they gave (Carson) Wentz a chance. A lot of balls into the middle of the field.”

ON PATRIOTS

Simms on the Patriots’ win against the Lions: “The Patriots’ running game was the star of the show, and when people were open, Bailey Zappe hit them. Good job by the Patriots.”

ON 49ERS

Simms on the 49ers’ win over the Panthers: “If Jimmy (Garoppolo) can play like he did today, the 49ers can be one of the best teams in the NFC…the 49ers defense is arguably the best in football. They’re rolling right now.”

***

LAMAR JACKSON SPEAKING TO MARIA TAYLOR

Click here to watch the full interview, portions of which aired in tonight’s FNIA. Following are highlights of the interview:

On how he feels hearing kids are pretending to be Lamar Jackson playing football in the backyard

“That’s crazy. I ain’t ever look at it like that either, though. That’s dope. That’s touching really, because I was one of them kids, like, ‘Oh, I’m Michael Vick today. I’m (going to) be Tom Brady, I want to throw like ten touchdowns.’ … Hopefully, you know, I got like 20 more years in me.”

On when he realized he could play in the NFL

“Youth football. I already told my teachers I was going to the NFL. When I first started playing with pads on in 2004, like when I started playing and scoring touchdowns and stuff. I still didn’t understand the game really because I didn’t watch it. I wouldn’t watch football, I just knew how to play it and, my teacher wrote down stuff like, ‘What’s your goal?’ I’m like, ‘Be an NFL player.’ I always said that whenever my teachers would make us write something like what’s your goals in life, what do you want to be when you grow up? I’d say NFL football player. So I pretty much already had that. That was plan A and B.”

On his goals and being named the NFL MVP in 2019

“I always want to win the highest award, a championship. I want to win a Super Bowl. I always wanted to win a Super Bowl. I won one in youth football. I didn’t win States in high school. I wanted that, I end up getting MVP. I wanted to win a National Championship in college, I got Heisman. I wanted to win a Super Bowl, I got MVP. And still, I want to win that Super Bowl. I still want to win that National Championship though, at the end of the day.”

On his MVP award

“I was happy about it, but it was like, man, I wanted this ring this year. Like my teammates and I worked so hard, we had a great team that season. Shout out to those guys because they helped me get that award too, you know it’s an MVP individualized award, but it’s a team award at the end of the day because they helped me.”

On being given No. 8 when he was drafted by Baltimore and the nickname New Era 8

“In the locker was eight. So, I hit my mom up, I’m like, ‘Man, I got number eight. Like who wears number 8?’ Like Kobe (Bryant) had number eight, but that was like early in his career. But I’m like, ‘Man who wears number eight?’ Like, I don’t like that number. And she was like, ‘Number eight stands for new beginnings.’ … It was like New Era, then I’m listening to New Era promotions as a kid. I’m like New Era, New Era 8. Oh yeah, I’ll have to change my name to New Era 8.”

On why some people wanted him to play a different position going into college

“Probably because they’re not used to seeing a quarterback, like, so shifty and fast at the same time. It just takes away from me throwing the ball. Like, ‘Oh yeah, he’s a good runner, he’s a great runner.’ But you don’t give me credit for throwing. I probably threw like seven touchdowns (in a) game, but they’re like, ‘Did you see that highlight of his run?’ So, it is what it is…We weren’t going for no other position (in college). Because I know I could’ve played another position but it was like, I’m a quarterback, I never played that. I’m not fitting to let you force me to play a position I’m not wanting to do, I’m not used to playing.”

***

Peacock Sunday Night Football Final, an NFL post-game show produced by NBC Sports, streams exclusively on Peacock following every Sunday Night Football game during the 2022 season. The show is hosted by NBC Sports commentators Kathryn Tappen and Chris Simms, who provide instant reactions to each Sunday game along with highlights and interviews. Football Night in America co-host Jac Collinsworth and analyst Rodney Harrison also provide recaps and insights into the day’s biggest moments from the site of each week’s SNF game. NFL Insider Mike Florio provides injury and news updates. Matthew Berry provides fantasy football analysis and an early look at the fantasy waiver wire.

Football Night in America