Interesting game last night considering all that was surrounding the Patriots. NBC kind of over did the whole spying angle, and at one point spied on Belichick while he was reading a printout. Some of it was enjoyable and some of it was a bit overkill. There was also a moment during the 4th where Andrea Kramer reported that there might now be illegal audio that New England recorded as well....by that point I think everyone was thinking that we should just move on. The Pats cheated, Roger Goddell crapped the bed on the penalty, and the Pats won. It's amazing how everyone quickly forgets things nowadays (see: Shawne Merriman).

As far as the announcing goes Madden was Madden and Michaels was Michaels. John didn't have anything crazy to say and Al was less than his normal grumpy self. For a game that was such a blowout they did a pretty good job.

Grade: B

Announcing Quotes of the Night:

"He is so calm back there. I think he's calmer than Peyton Manning."- John Madden

"It was not a hold. The defender was just overpowered."- Ed Hochuli

"The Charger players were yelling 'We've got them where we want them!'"- Andrea Kremer

"Brought to you by 'Knocked Up', the funniest movie this summer..." - AM"- Al Michaels

I didn't get the exact wording but I was a little weirded out when Madden called Tom Brady "silky". Very awkward.


Commenting Quotes of the Night:

"Jeezis I hate it when Al Michaels calls Brady "Tom", so informal and cute. So much love for Tom, like vomit overflowing in a urinal on the South side of Pittsburgh."- Hollywood Wags

"The Foxboro crowd boos Shawne Merriman. Good to see them make a stand against cheaters. And there's the mandatory "Boston Song" segue to the commercial."- Anon

"And I was about to applaud NBC for not being ESPN and bringing "Chuck" to the game."- Anon

"With all these shots of Cameramen and Radio Equipment, and of them printing out pics of every play, why don't they just start the Spy vs. Spy theme music?"- Dummy

"How can you have LT and Michael Turner, and Lorenzo Neal blocking for them, and you can't move the ball on the ground for 6 quarters?"- Anon

"What would you get if you combined the offensive genius of Norv with the defensive genius of Marvin Lewis? Temple?"- Dan

"At least we didn't have to deal with the 'Parliament' sized halftime crew. If they just kept it Costas/Collinsworth, actually showed more than 15 seconds of highlights, NBC could be onto something here."- Anon

Amen.
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Pretty good game for NBC and can you guess who wasn't there? Keith Olbermann missed the game because of emergency apentectomy surgery, and while I wish you a speedy recovery Keith....I didn't miss you one bit.

I'm still bitter that the halftime show is against showing any highlights of the game that is being televised, and the highlight package of 3 games they show is a joke, but at least Chris Collinsworth got to talk this week. See how much smoother that goes when there aren't 20 people vying for airtime NBC?