NFL 2008

[Evil Chase K]

Good game on Monday night. Ravens should have won, but we made one too many stupid mistakes and gave the Steelers one too many chances to finally get their shit together. Kudos to Roethlisberger for finally figuring out he has feet to help him avoid getting hit.

I'd be more impressed by the Ravens if the Steelers offense didn't practically try to give them the game in the first half. Both teams made mistakes, the difference was the Steelers made more plays when it counted. Quarterback play was the big difference.

If it wasn't for Ben calling his own plays the Steelers likely would have lost. We have the worst offensive coordinator in the NFL in Bruce Arians. Ben once again bailed the Steelers out.

Rashard Mendenhall has a fractured shoulder by the way.

[gunnar hendershow]

Good game on Monday night. Ravens should have won, but we made one too many stupid mistakes and gave the Steelers one too many chances to finally get their shit together. Kudos to Roethlisberger for finally figuring out he has feet to help him avoid getting hit.

I'd be more impressed by the Ravens if the Steelers offense didn't practically try to give them the game in the first half. Both teams made mistakes, the difference was the Steelers made more plays when it counted. Quarterback play was the big difference.

If it wasn't for Ben calling his own plays the Steelers likely would have lost. We have the worst offensive coordinator in the NFL in Bruce Arians. Ben once again bailed the Steelers out.

Rashard Mendenhall has a fractured shoulder by the way.

I knew when Ben went to the no huddle that the Steelers were going to score on that drive. He found how to get his guys open, even though Arians never figured it out, and going no huddle against the Ravens (or any defense for that matter) forces them to show a bit more of what they plan on doing. The big difference in QB play was Flacco not being able to evade the blitz. There were so many times (the fumble, obviously, being a major instance) where he panicked instead of being smart when under pressure. Go down with the ball or throw it away. But, as Tony said 5,000,000 times tonight, "It's only his 3rd game! This time a year ago he was facing MONMOUTH!"

Still though, I'll stand by that Johnson penalty changing the entire game. Without that, Ravens get the ball back, Ben has to wait even longer to take over the offense, and of equal importance the fumble doesn't happen.

Oh, and I'm also curious what the full injury tally was tonight. Guys were limping off almost every play. It seemed more prevalent than any other Steelers-Ravens games I can remember.

Edited September 30, 2008 by damshow

[Evil Chase K]

Kendall Simmons is out for the year (YAY!).

Other injured Steelers include: Carey "I Get The Ball Way Too Much" Davis, Andre Frazier (taken to the hospital), and Patrick Bailey.

I'm not sure about Ravens injuries but they looked pretty beat up too.

On the plus side, I managed to completely avoid the absolutely awful MNF announce team and listened to the Steelers Radio Network guys. Monday Night Football is so much better without Tony Kornheiser annoying the shit out of me.

[gunnar hendershow]

I was forced to sit through that entire announce team. And that pregame show, ugh. 8 people? Seriously, 8 people?! There's a reason nobody gives a shit about MNF anymore.

[Vendetta]

I cant' stand Kornshitter...and I have written a letter of complaint to ESPN about him. He adds nothing to the broadcast and is annoying as hell.

[MyKILLv2.0]

I don't really mind TK. I listened to his radio show a lot while I was doing homework in the mornings, and still watch PTI on a daily basis, but I would perfer someone more established such as Aikman in the booth. On the other hand, Jaws is great on ESPN, but I've never warmed up to him inside the booth. However since I despise John Madden... ANYONE is better then Madden. And Theisman... fuck that dude, too.

However ESPN has totally clusterfucked the pregame show. NBC comes in a close second. The NFL network does it pretty well. FoX, too. But IMO ESPN should have never messed with their combo of Michael Irvin and Steve Young. That was GOLD and I enjoyed that combo the best.

[Plankton]

Mr. Tony's radio show is fantastic, and it is unarguably what he excels in, a fact he openly admits while being self-deprecating about his lack of announcing ability. I don't mind him on MNF, but then again, I'm usually talking to people more than listening. The only reason I wish he was off is so he could do his radio show all year round. Or at least go on a Death Star Radio rant on MNF. I'd even be happy with a small mention of someone being a naked mole rat.

Damn, I miss his radio show.

Edited October 2, 2008 by Plankton

[Evil Chase K]

I don't really mind TK. I listened to his radio show a lot while I was doing homework in the mornings, and still watch PTI on a daily basis, but I would perfer someone more established such as Aikman in the booth. On the other hand, Jaws is great on ESPN, but I've never warmed up to him inside the booth. However since I despise John Madden... ANYONE is better then Madden. And Theisman... fuck that dude, too.

However ESPN has totally clusterfucked the pregame show. NBC comes in a close second. The NFL network does it pretty well. FoX, too. But IMO ESPN should have never messed with their combo of Michael Irvin and Steve Young. That was GOLD and I enjoyed that combo the best.

This is what I find funny about the sports media business. Until I started going to school for it, I, like a lot of people, absolutely HATED Madden. However, since then I've grown to like him. He's a great analyst, even though he sometimes uses faulty causation to explain why things happen, but he knows his stuff.

It struck me last Friday when Brent Musberger was giving a speech to students of the John Curley Center for Sports Journalism (of which I am a part of, which is why I was there) and mentioned that unlike most former player/coaches in the broadcast booth, Madden has learned how to look at his monitor when announcing. And I went home and watched football all weekend, and you know what? He's right.

Madden is great at that.

But I agree Jaws is awesome and Tony Kornheiser is shit. I think he's shit on PTI too, I hate that show. I'd rather watch 2 hours of the Jay Mariotti Show than a half hour of PTI. And I hate Mariotti.

[livid]

I don't mind Kornheiser if only for the fact that he's not Joe Theismann. I admit he gets tiresome but he's not nearly as annoying as Thiesmann was. And I do like PTI so that helps.

However, I have a fiery hate for one Brian Baldinger. That guy is just awful.

Oh and I totally wish some at least ONE of the upper tier college play by play guys (Musberger or Nessler) would do NFL games.

And they should really have Tony Siragusa paired with some better people.

[Plankton]

Agreed about Madden, Chase. He sometimes doesn't speak too well and he says the obvious, but he is very intelligent when it comes to football. He's one of the best announcers around, I think.

And TK is a love him/hate him sort of guy. He translates really well on talk radio, decently on PTI, and poorly on MNF, imo. We do agree about Mariotti though. He's terrible in every kind of medium.

[Cactus Drags]

Did anyone see the NFL Network games a couple of years ago, with Dick Vermeil on play by play? Magic. Or it was until his soft-spoken style was easily ousted by the big-mouth platoon of Marshall Faulk and Deion Sanders. Fucking horrible.

[livid]

Deion I'll let slide because well...he's Deion.

But Marshall Faulk and Emmitt Smith both need to get the fuck off of television.

When they have jobs, but Michael Irvin (who really turned into a great pre-game guy) doesn't, something's wrong.

[Cactus Drags]

But viewers must be told they need to masturbate the ball down the feel!

[Evil Chase K]

However, I have a fiery hate for one Brian Baldinger. That guy is just awful.

Oh and I totally wish some at least ONE of the upper tier college play by play guys (Musberger or Nessler) would do NFL games.

And they should really have Tony Siragusa paired with some better people.

Baldinger is awesome in an analyzation role, but he's awful during the games I agree.

I think Siragusa is awful. Maybe I'm biased because he went to Pitt and then turned into a fat prick on the football field who the Steelers could never stop, but he does nothing for me as a sideline reporter. If I wanted to hear from an obnoxious obese asshole I'd watch the game with my neighbor.

Agreed about Madden, Chase. He sometimes doesn't speak too well and he says the obvious, but he is very intelligent when it comes to football. He's one of the best announcers around, I think.

And TK is a love him/hate him sort of guy. He translates really well on talk radio, decently on PTI, and poorly on MNF, imo. We do agree about Mariotti though. He's terrible in every kind of medium.

Yeah Madden's not the most eloquent speaker but he does know his stuff. He may be biased against the Steelers but he's very intelligent and still adds a lot to the broadcast.

[gunnar hendershow]

To talk about John Madden. We all give the guy a hard time, but he does 2 things that make him incredibly good. 1) He, better than any other announcer, is able to explain football in layman's terms. Now, we don't notice this as a good thing and definitely get annoyed. But for little kids watching football on Sunday nights, wives who married a hardcore NFL fan, or any other demographic who hasn't been immersed in football every Sunday in the fall since they were 2, he helps make sense out of what can look like a very confusing sport with a ridiculous rulebook. 2) He actually sees what's going on down on the field. He doesn't ever guess at the play and then go "Oh, wait a minute, actually it was a fumble." He is very aware.

Trust me, as a Ravens fan I had to sit through years of Ian Eagle and Solomon Wilcots. And, yes, it's as bad as it sounds. Now in Philadelphia I usually get some terrible Fox crew and occasionally the glimmer of hope that is Siragusa (All Fox teams are awful). CBS probably, as a whole, has the best announcers though (Mainly because they employ Dick Enberg and Jim Nantz). Joe Buck is terrible at calling football games (He is so emotionless, and in the bad way), fortunately Aikman is, likely, Madden's heir.

[JStarr]

CBS probably, as a whole, has the best announcers though (Mainly because they employ Dick Enberg and Jim Nantz).

Ugh, I have as little use for Dick Enberg (on football at least) as anyone else ever has for Tony Kornheiser. Screwing up names, making wrong calls, and we talked about guessing on plays, Enberg's the king of that shit. He needs to be left on tennis, since that's the only place I've ever enjoyed his work.

[Evil Chase K]

2) He actually sees what's going on down on the field. He doesn't ever guess at the play and then go "Oh, wait a minute, actually it was a fumble." He is very aware.

That's because he watches the monitor. He's not afraid of saying nothing until he's absolutely sure what the monitor is showing him.

Trust me, as a Ravens fan I had to sit through years of Ian Eagle and Solomon Wilcots. And, yes, it's as bad as it sounds. Now in Philadelphia I usually get some terrible Fox crew and occasionally the glimmer of hope that is Siragusa (All Fox teams are awful). CBS probably, as a whole, has the best announcers though (Mainly because they employ Dick Enberg and Jim Nantz). Joe Buck is terrible at calling football games (He is so emotionless, and in the bad way), fortunately Aikman is, likely, Madden's heir.

I always listen to the Steelers' radio guys.

Anyway, CBS has some good announcers (I HATE Nantz) like Gus Johnson and Dick Enberg. Fox's crews aren't all that great though IMO. But I don't really watch many games on Fox anyway.

[Cactus Drags]

To talk about John Madden. We all give the guy a hard time, but he does 2 things that make him incredibly good. 1) He, better than any other announcer, is able to explain football in layman's terms. Now, we don't notice this as a good thing and definitely get annoyed. But for little kids watching football on Sunday nights, wives who married a hardcore NFL fan, or any other demographic who hasn't been immersed in football every Sunday in the fall since they were 2, he helps make sense out of what can look like a very confusing sport with a ridiculous rulebook. 2) He actually sees what's going on down on the field. He doesn't ever guess at the play and then go "Oh, wait a minute, actually it was a fumble." He is very aware.

Trust me, as a Ravens fan I had to sit through years of Ian Eagle and Solomon Wilcots. And, yes, it's as bad as it sounds. Now in Philadelphia I usually get some terrible Fox crew and occasionally the glimmer of hope that is Siragusa (All Fox teams are awful). CBS probably, as a whole, has the best announcers though (Mainly because they employ Dick Enberg and Jim Nantz). Joe Buck is terrible at calling football games (He is so emotionless, and in the bad way), fortunately Aikman is, likely, Madden's heir.

1. I love Madden for his enthusiasm, and as you mentioned the ability to explain the game, he's brilliant.

2. "fortunately" Aikman is Madden's heir? Are you kidding me? That guy needs to be kept away from the mic at all costs. He and Buck are terrible, and he should never be allowed to call a game involving the Cowboys or quarterbacks. Jesus, if the quarterback's getting the majority of the credit for the win (fair or not), he should get his fair share of the blame too This my just be my irrational hatred for quarterbacks shining through, but it just seems every play it's "that wasn't the quarterback's fault, clearly the receiver that was quadruple-covered should have caught the ball that was thrown ten feet over his head". Ugh.

[IAceI]

I liked Aikman, but then again any ex-Cowboys player who has it in their heart to say that the Redskins are a good team and admit we deserved to win is pretty much the greatest human being in the world.

I generally don't look too much into whose commentating, I usually just take in what they say with a pinch of salt but I seem to have a running analysis going on in my head anyways.

[alldaws1]

Aikman & Buck are awesome, it wouldn't be a proper Cowboys game without them >_>