Notes & Quotes: FOX NFL Studio Analysts
LOS ANGELES – Week 4 of the 2020 FOX NFL season kicked off today with a singleheader slate beginning at 1:00 PM ET highlighted by the Browns at Cowboys, Vikings at Texas, Saints at Lions, Seahawks at Dolphins, Cardinals at Panthers and the lone 4:05 PM ET matchup featuring the Giants at Rams.
Earlier today, FOX NFL KICKOFF and FOX NFL SUNDAY analysts and NFL insiders weighed in on the day’s biggest games, moments and storylines, including the most up-to-date reports on Covid-19.
Jay Glazer on the latest Covid-19 tests affecting league play: “Here’s what needs to happen tomorrow morning. Both the Patriots and the Chiefs will undergo tests once again. As long as they are all negative, they can get on the plane and go to Kansas City, same day, and they will in fact play tomorrow night. Cam Newton is in a different boat. He is still positive. What I’m told is he’s asymptomatic. It’s different to return if you have symptoms as opposed to no symptoms. What they need from him is two consecutive negative tests in order for him to return. We just don’t know when those negative tests are going to happen. If it happens later this week, he could possibly be made available next weekend. The NFL and NFL Players Association flew down to Tennessee this week to investigate. They are taking a really deep dive, even looking at security footage to see if there are any lapses down there in protocol and if there were, expect heavy penalities for the Titans. The Saints landed in Detroit late last night and find out that their starting fullback tested positive for Covid-19. Well, they had players who were around this player and they tested them up until midnight, 1:00 AM. Then all of those tests ended up coming back negative so they’re all in the clear. Sean Payton said, ‘Look if we’re without our starting fullback, that affects our offense because we don’t have a backup fullback on this team.’ The NFL will have an impromptu meeting with owners, head coaches, general managers and just remind teams we expected something was going to happen this year but we’ve got to make sure that we stay diligent and follow our protocols. They want to make sure everybody remains safe.”
Peter Schrager on the latest Covid-19 tests affecting the league: “Let’s start off with the Tennessee Titans. Today they had two more positive tests. That makes it 20 different positive tests in the Titans organization. We know their game with Pittsburgh has been postponed to October 25. I can tell you no one has been in their facility the entire week. They need to have multiple days of no positive tests before anyone is even allowed in the facility, so the earliest the Tennessee Titans could even get back into their building is Wednesday. There’s even some doubt out there right now they’ll even have their game next week against the Buffalo Bills. The NFL and the NFL Players Association have been in Tennessee since Friday doing a thorough review on that building seeing what exactly has gone wrong, why the protocols maybe weren’t followed, and what they can learn from it. It’s a review, not an investigation. As I said, their Week 5 game now is very much in jeopardy unless the Tennessee Titans have no positive tests. Cam Newton tested positive for Covid-19 on Friday. He will not be playing this week regardless of when the game is being played. The truth is, though, right now we are waiting to hear about a set of tests for both the Chiefs and the Patriots. All Patriots retested again this morning. If there are no more positives, that game is expected to be played tomorrow night with the Patriots flying out tomorrow morning on their own team jet. Kickoff is expected to be around 7:05 (PM) Eastern. If there’s a test that comes out positive from either the Chiefs or the Patriots, that game could be postponed even further and maybe even postpone to a later week. We’re all crossing our fingers.”
Howie Long on Covid-19 and the start of the NFL season: “I think we got lulled into a false sense of security. I know I did. I think it was inevitable this was going to happen. The biggest surprise is it didn’t happen earlier. Pittsburgh and Tennessee are rescheduled for Week 7. If testing continues to be good for both Kansas City and New England, they’ll play tomorrow night. This is going to happen again, and I think at some point you can only shuffle the schedule so much. The league needs to look at possibly abbreviating the schedule down to 14 games, focusing in on divisional games and conference games and having that cushion on the backend for make-up games. They’re talking about maybe bubbling right now. I don’t think the sheer volume of players, coaches, families, the whole thing — that’s tough to do. I do believe bubbling in the playoffs is a reality.”
Terry Bradshaw on positive Covid-19 tests being a major wake-upcall: “While this is a major wake-up call, it’s even more important that that wake-up call we’ll share as they look forward to the season moving on, that this doesn’t happen in Week 13 or Week 14. Then you have a problem. Now you’re at the end of the season, games have to be made up, playoffs, Super Bowl perhaps. If you’re going to have it happen, now’s the perfect time.”
Long on how football has been played so far this season: “It’s a unique September with one part conditioning and reps. What I mean by conditioning is I think offensively we’re playing faster than we’ve ever played. We’re challenging people vertically and horizontally with jet sweeps, smokescreens, uptempo offense, and the fatigue shows up in the fourth quarter, particularly in the run defense and the pass rush and you see a lot of blown assignments. Look at Dallas last week. Dallas probably had three or four blown coverages, so it’s just a lack of reps and a lack of conditioning and when you go uptempo. Early in the year, your biggest nightmare as a defender is they’re going to go no huddle.”
Dave Wannstedt on the lack of crowd noise being an advantage for the offense: “I talked to an offensive coordinator this week and you know what he told me? The biggest advantage they have is no crowd noise. And no one is talking about this. The play is coming in from the sideline. The quarterbacks aren’t saying they can’t hear you. When they go into the huddle, everyone is getting the call. Howie knows this better than everybody. How do you slow down a great defense? Run the ball or hard count or quarterbacks changing the play. Last week I saw Aaron Rodgers, I think he did four to six hard counts. They drew the Saints offsides. This is really a big advantage I think for the offense. Fourth quarter, you got a lead, the defense plays off the crowd’s energy. You’re seeing these defenses giving up scores. When they have a lead in the fourth quarter, I don’t see the defense making plays like they used to.”
Colin Cowherd on wide receivers he’d start his team with: “Mike Evans and Davante Adams. I’d give the slight edge to Davante Adams. A little injury concern. Aaron Rodgers is demanding. He’s smart. He’s a veteran and he totally trusts Davente Adams and the offense. It’ll be interesting down the road when the schedule stiffens because I think the Bears are for real. Can they win without him if he gets hurt again? His route running route, for how young he is, is really impressive.”
Wannstedt on the hardest receiver in the league to plan for: “I like a guy like Mike Evans– 6’5 and can use his body. When you get in the red zone like Mike Evans, last week, two catches for two yards and guess what? Two touchdowns. That’s the guy you like.”
Michael Vick on the wideout he wishes he had to throw to in his career: “No. 13 Odell Beckham Jr. Speed, versatily, he has the ability to take the ball deep in any situation. He’s the type of guy, if you give him a five-yard slant, he can take it to the house. For a guy like Odell Beckham, we like him as quarterback because, compare the stat sheets, one easy throw, one easy completion and off to the races.”
Tony Gonzalez on a good route runner in the NFL: “For me, a good route runner is somebody who has to run a good route to get open and that’s somebody like Tyler Lockett and Calvin Ridley. Out of those two guys, probably Tyler Lockett. He has to sell it and be a great actor because he’s not that big. Nobody does it better than those guys, especially Tyler Lockett. He has to, otherwise, he won’t he won’t catch the ball.”
Jimmy Johnson on coaches and their routines during the season: “Coaches and players are so accustomed to a routine. Well, this is anything but a routine. Like Howie said, we just scratched the surface. There are going to be more to test positive as we go along. Networks, coaches, players, they’re going to have to continually adapt as this season goes on.”
