In week four of the NFL season trends have begun to formulate. At this point in the season fans can start sorting between fact and fiction, fad and fortitude. In tonight’s edition of Sunday Night Football, two teams that were in desperate need of explanation took the field - one to continue a season long winning streak, the other to stop a two game skid. The Chicago Bears were 3-0 coming into the New Meadowlands Stadium, home of the already featured on Sunday Night Football New York Giants. You remember Eli Manning getting his ass handed to him by his elder brother, Peyton a couple weeks ago? Well, it’s safe to say that was the exception, not the rule.
This isn’t to say that the New York Giants offense is perfect - far from it. But when your defense combines for around ten sacks, you only need to be so good. The Bears offense had been ravenous in the past few weeks; however, the Giants defense threw up the walls and kept the Bears down to a field goal and nothing more in the Giants sloppy 17-3 victory.
Now that the format of the program has for the most part settled down, NBC can take some chances and tweak with that format in the coming weeks. One of the new features (new to me, at least) is the Sunday Night Football NightVision, which takes out all the color from the screen (with the exception of the players) to create a stronger contrast. This makes seeing the players much easier when trying to pick up a holding call on an instant replay. A nice feature, and one that I hope is included in future broadcasts, as it was only used once tonight.
Touching on what I said earlier, the commentators did a nice job of tying together the stories of these teams over the 2010 season. Journeys by both team’s defenses were discussed over the course of the season, and it definitely helped give some context to the way the team’s played tonight. Analysis is what these guys are paid for, but that’s never a guarantee.
There is not much to say in the way of calls this evening; again, there was plenty of great analysis to be had, but in a game that had a lot of poor playing on both sides, the commentators were forced into a “Did you see that!?” mentality from the get go. Much like last week, no fault placed on the broadcasters for this shortcoming - one can only work with the game one’s given.
Back to the technical side a little bit, NBC tried out a few sideline camera angles which gave a lot of depth to the game. Things like showing players reading over play books, or sideline reactions to big plays help draw the audience into the game a little bit more. Because when there’s no giant dude spilling beer all over you, you need to find other ways to get into the game; unless, of course, your brother in law is a drinker.
If you saw tonight’s game, you know that it was characterized by the art of sacking by the Giants’ defense. The Bears quarterback, Jay Cutler, was smashed around enough to earn a concussion (seriously) and saw no action past the first half of the game. Take a look at some of the players that made a difference in this game, and leave your thoughts on the game and broadcast in general below.
New York Giants:
Eli Manning: Completed 18/30 pass attempts for 195 yards but threw no touchdowns.
Ahmad Bradshaw ran 129 yards for a touch down, and Brandon Jacobs was able to run 62 for a touchdown as well.
Justin Tuck and Osi Umenyiora nailed three sacks apiece in a general slaughtering of the Bears quarterbacks.
Chicago Bears:
Jay Cutler threw for forty-two yards, was picked off once and fumbled the ball three times.
Join me next week for my coverage of the Philadelphia Eagles as they take on my San Francisco 49ers. Oh boy, I’ll need to refill my asthma prescription...
