I watched the last 8 minutes, or so, of the game. I had for gotten how much Tirico, Kornheiser and Jaworski wanted Baltimore to win. Their commentary was a joke.
I tuned in a little later, with maybe 6 minutes to go in the game. Completely agree with you about the announcing crew. They were just saying goodbye to Don Shula when I started watching, which should have been a sign of things to come.
A couple of the highlights from the announcers:
"Can't they just take it back?" - Kornheiser after the Ravens stuffed Brady on 4th and 1, but the play was blown dead because Rex Ryan called a timeout. He may have been trying to be funny, but it didn't come off that way.
"Oh, they call pass interference for every little thing downfield now" (approximate) - An angry Jaworksi after defensive holding was called against Baltimore on another 4th down play. On this play, a Ravens defender made contact with Ben Watson and then didn't let go of him until they were both in the end zone, a route of about 15 yards.
Some other things that stuck out to me:
- Harrison and Bruschi combining to stop Willis McGahee short on a key 3rd down.
- Seeing a graphic that Maroney had 2 receptions for 75+ yards. Just found it hard to believe now.
- The general refusal of the Raven's defense to believe that they ever committed a penalty. For example, Moss runs his pattern toward a Ravens DB. There is contact and the DB grabs Moss near the collar and pulls him to the ground. Then, after the penalty flag is thrown, throws his arms up in a "What? I didn't do anything!" reaction.
- On the Ravens final drive, Harrison leaves with a leg injury and is replace by rookie Brandon Meriweather. The first pass Boller throws after that overshoots his receiver and hits Meriweather right in the numbers. He drops it, which I think happened several times that season.
- Final play of the game, where Boller's pass was completed to the 2 yard line. Fortunately, there were enough defenders there to stop Mark Clayton.
- The meltdown by the Ravens Defense:
- Rex basically losing the game by calling a timeout when his team didn't need one. And I'm not even sure he had the authority to do that.
- After the go ahead score, Bart Scott picking up two 15 yard penalties, the 2nd one for throwing the penalty flag into the crowd. Then Ed Reed goes offside on the extra point. I think Gostkowski ended up kicking off on the Ravens side of the field.
