Monday Night Football Crew Didn’t Suck
It’s been noted in these parts and elsewhere that ESPN sucks. And that ESPN football coverage sucks. And that, especially, Monday Night Football on ESPN sucks. Yet, as Barry Horn correctly points out, Kornheiser, Tirico, and Jaws did a very nice job on the wild Cowboys-Bills game last night.
Viewers will remember how Tony Romo’s five interceptions and lost fumble were ultimately overshadowed by Nick Folk’s 53-yard field goal with time running out. Final score: Cowboys 25, Bills 24.
Give ESPN’s Tirico credit. As soon as Terrell Owens dropped the 2-point conversion pass that would have tied the game with 20 seconds remaining, he reminded that an onside kick was still a possibility.
Give Tirico and company more credit. The Cowboys and Bills gave them a bizarre game and they let it breathe. For the most part, they let the game do the talking. If they seemed to push the Bills throughout, that wasn’t anti-Cowboys sentiment. They were rooting for the underdog.
It was Kornheiser who offered the line of the night. After yet another Romo interception, he dropped his game winner: “This is what we like to call in the trade a Rex Grossman game.”
There was a toss-up for the most bizarre graphic of the night. Candidate No. 1 was the one that read “Time of possession in the first half: Buffalo 19:37, Cowboys 13:23.” That’s 33 minutes in a half with two 15 minute quarters. Candidate No. 2 read something like this: Trent Edwards completed 17 of 21 passes, including 17 of his last 20.
But let’s not forget Jaworski’s pre-game prophecy: “It’s the National Football League. It’s Monday night. Anything can happen.” On this night, he nailed it in the booth, just like the Cowboys’ new Folk hero did on the field.
The thing most of us typically hate about ESPN’s game coverage is that they focus on everything but the game. They didn’t do that last night. Maybe, just maybe, it’s the beginning of a trend.
- Kornheiser’s First Season on MNF Could Be His Last
- MNF Trades Theismann for Jaworski
- Tony Kornheiser on Monday Night Football
- Monday Night Football on ESPN Sucks
- ESPN Football Coverage Sucks
- ESPN Scores Highest Rating Ever with Monday Night Football
- Cowboys Win Wild Game Despite Six Romo Turnovers
- ESPN Bets on Arena Football
- NFL Announces Opener, Monday Night Games, Extra Thanksgiving Game
- Cowboys Get Six Prime-time Games in 2007
- Eight is Enough- Edmonton beats Chicago 8-4
- Lydia Ko wins New South Wales Open
- The Comeback I- Pittsburgh Penguins beat NY Islanders 5-0
- Seattle Mariners Outfielder Greg Halman stabbed to death at age 24
- Hee Young Park wins CME Titleholders Championship
- Oklahoma State Women’s Basketball Coach Kurt Budke dead at 50
- Costly mistake- Blackhawks waive Rostislav Olesz
- Manager Tony La Russa announces retirement
- Puck Drop- Florida Panthers start the 2011-12 NHL season
- 13-time PGA Tour winner Dave Hill dead at 74
Did you watch the same game I did?
They were awful…
Just dreadful…
The ridiculous stick early and constantly switching to the scripted stuff regardless of the in game drama.
They are just determined to try and make a star out of (not Funny)Kornheiser who dosn’t translate to TV. These guys make me miss Theismann which is saying something because I wasn’t a big fan of his.
Uhg!
Well, I don’t know about that “strangest graphic” note… the strangest graphic I saw was a chyron of Tony Romo with the 2nd line reading “aaaaaagg”.
They may have talked about the game, but they didn’t talk about it well. I nearly spat my drink across the room when Kornheiser (I think) lauded the Bills playcallers for letting their rookie QB making his second start pass the ball “even though it didn’t work out this time” (IOW, as they prepared to punt after a three-and-out) with a one possession lead as huge underdogs in the fourth quarter. It didn’t even seem to occur to him that maybe, just maybe, running the clock was more valuable than passing stats. Then the Bills did the same thing two more times, one leading Newman’s INT when they were in all-but-guaranteed field goal range. Three points seals the win, and not one of those so-called experts in the booth questioned the fact that he was throwing the ball — only the wisdom of his decision to throw the specific pass he did when he did.
And, verily did the football gods punish the Bills for not burning clock when the Cowgirls, who did not hold a lead at any time during the game, won by 1 point after time expired.
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