Three weeks into the season, Sunday Night Football has a winner. By that, I mean this week’s matchup between the Jets and the Dolphins finally played up to the expectations laureled upon it. While the Cowboys/Redskins and Colts/Giants matchups turned out to be rather lopsided, the Jets and the Dolphins game had quite a bit of leap frogging with exciting drives to boot.
When games are this good, commentating takes a backseat. Which makes my job a little bit harder; but in my opinion, makes for a better ball game. Commentators are often forced to shoot the breeze in blowout games, which can be interesting, but is no substitution for exciting plays and adrenaline filled calls. That being said, there were definitely some calls worth nothing in this game, and a few patterns that I picked up on are worth mentioning.
For those of you who don’t follow football outside of the games themselves, you may not know why this game was as big a deal as it was. The Jets and the Dolphins have exchanged a(n) (un)healthy amount of smack talk - which can be quite a lot of fun for fans. It can also go to show just how seriously some fans take this game. The game, played in Miami, featured one of the liveliest crowds I’ve heard all season. When the game was going on they were on their feet, and they were loud. Very loud. Whether or not the crowd microphones were boosted for effects cannot be known by those of us who watched the show on television, but the effect was certainly there.
That said, when the Jets powered downfield for a touchdown in their first possession, emotions were high. The call on this play was fantastic and set the tone for the rest of the game; a game that scored much higher than one would anticipate, given the prowess of both team’s offenses. One of the most important things to do when it comes to announcing, is getting the adrenaline going in exciting plays - and the callers certainly did that today.
The second piece to the Sunday Night Football puzzle is, as I have mentioned in previous installments, being informative. Don’t just tell us that the defense committed a penalty, explain why the play resulted in a penalty - give some background, it’s what you get paid to do. In more than a couple occasions, the commentators did just that. I was really impressed by the calls in the first half, but near the end of the second half, some ground was lost.
In the last half of the game, it felt like there were many challenges by both sides - and it must have felt like a lot for the commentators too; because they seemed to be at a complete loss for intelligent speech during the last few challenges of the game. I don’t know if they threw away their talking points papers when the game heated up, or if they were just tired; but after a couple of minutes of pointless jabber, I wished they had just kept quiet. It’ll never be perfect, and I don’t expect that; but it would be an unfair look at the program to not give the good with the bad.
The head coach of the New York Jets, Rex Ryan, is a big guy - but he used to be a lot bigger. I know this because NBC felt compelled to dish out a few before and after photos during a break in the action. Not only was this hilarious, NBC hooked every fan of The Biggest Loser till at least the commercial break. You can tell that the commentators want to talk about things like this more often, so it’s nice when they are able to let out their girlish, gossipy tendencies in the open for a few minutes.
As always, there were some great HD shots, and the Miami cheerleaders are always a pleasure; but I wouldn’t say that this week was any better or worse than any other week - except for one angle that may have given the Jets the edge in this game.
As far as the game itself is concerned, I can certainly say that it never felt as close to me as the scoreboard would indicate. The Jets really made the game feel like it was theirs to lose - and rest assured, they almost did lose it many times. The Jets offense got very close to blowing this game out but often choked within thirty yards of the end zone. The Dolphins brought their A-Game as well, and were almost able to take the lead at the end; but a game ending interception by the Jets in the end zone ended their hopes of a victory against their AFC east rivals.
With week three in the books, I can now safely say that my 49ers suck - still; and there is still hope for Brett Favre and the Vikings, and Tony Romo and the Cowboys, both of whom picked up a win this week. So, who is your pick to win it all this season? Anyone brave enough to make a prediction this early? Drop your thoughts in the comments and tune in next week for the New York Giants and the Chicago Bears, where Eli Manning will try to right the sinking NYG ship.
