Even the sports media has become increasingly dumbed-down to the point of completed retardation these days, and I’m not referring to its tendency to interject politics into sports, I’m talking about the ability of the announcers to simply do their freaking jobs.
Last week, the announcers at the Steeler-Lions game were rambling on interminably about Brett Favre playing in the dark. Brett Favre, you may note, does not play for either the Pittsburgh Steelers or the Detroit Lions. Yesterday, as the Vikings defense was suddenly getting shredded in the fourth quarter and every Vikings fan was wondering what in the sainted name of Bud Grant special teams player Karl Paymah was doing on the field, the announcers couldn’t bother to mention that both Antoine Winfield and Benny Sapp, the Vikings #1 and #3 cornerbacks, were injured in the first half. Winfield was out for the rest of the game and Sapp was less than 100 percent as he was playing with what looked like a concussion.
On the other hand, give credit to Peter King as he is spot on with this comment:
We were stunned at NBC Sunday to see the Vikings — with 2:30 left in the game, trailing Baltimore 31-30, with a third-and-nine at the Ravens’ 17 — to not go aggressively for the first down. “We were a little surprised too,” Peterson said. Peterson ran for a three-yard gain, with the Vikings happy to settle for the field goal. It was a poor call because the Ravens had scored 21 points in the fourth quarter, the Vikes looked gassed on defense, and even if Ryan Longwell made the field goal, Baltimore would have two minutes to win it. Longwell made it, Baltimore drove into field goal range, and Steve Hauschka lined up for a 44-yarder with two seconds left. Wide left. I don’t care if the kick was wide left; if you’ve got a quarterback as hot as Favre (playing nearly mistake-free in his first six games), you give him a chance to get the touchdown before settling for three.
Especially when you’ve got two downs if you play for the first down instead of the field goal. Childress really reminds me of Denny Green, a decent coach who doesn’t understand when to go for it and when not to. The Vikings once scored to put themselves within a point of the heavily-favored Cowboys at the end of the game, Green ordered the PAT team on, and the Cowboys marched straight down the field to win it in overtime. I’m not sure which play had me shouting at the screen more, that handoff on third-and-nine or the idiotic big blitz that Frasier called when the Ravens were just outside of field goal range.
On an unrelated note, yesterday was clearly a sign from the football gods that the Patriots must return to the Pat Patriot look. 59-0! And 85 percent completion percentage… in the snow!