There are American football analysts who take the simple option of re-evaluating the entire game afresh after each play. ESPN's Jon Gruden is particularly guilty of this. Following Brian Urlacher and Lance Briggs stripping the ball from James Jones late in the Monday night game, Gruden fell into a reverie of admiration: 'this is simply what they do!', later adding: 'and it's just non-stop passion to the football when you talk about Brian Urlacher and Lance Briggs. Who says those two guys are slowing down?'
In doing so Gruden completely overlooked the fact that Urlacher had, until that point, had a very average game; missing an interception opportunity by turning his shoulders square to the play on the Packers opening score, and missing key tackles on the Packers previous possession.
Both Gruden and Ron Jaworski were equally guilty of talking up Jay Cutler to an overstated level. Cutler is, in his current guise, a middling quarterback. He makes just enough big down the field gains with pretty passes to Johnny Knox to distract from his generally poor decision-making under pressure.
His fondness of throwing the ball into heavy coverage has not disappeared, nor has his willingness to fling the ball wildly in any direction when the pocket collapses around him and defenders close in. Two times the Packers dropped easy interceptions, whilst two more were overturned for defensive penalties.
There is a significant quality difference between his opposite number on Monday night, Aaron Rodgers, a player who looks to be entering the elite class of quarterbacks in the league, and Cutler. Rodgers makes more accurate passes, and crucially, far better decisions. His ability in reading Urlacher's shoulder turn for example, allowed him to zip the ball past the stranded linebacker to the speedy receiver Greg Jennings beyond.
Rodgers also has a very fast release when under pressure, but still makes the correct read to find an open receiver. He is also more agile and speedy than Cutler when flushed from the pocket. Several times plays looked to be dead before Rodgers made backwards, lateral and acceleration moves upfield to escape the attentions of Bears defenders. Cutler looked decidedly slow in his scrambling attempts by comparison.
It helps of course that Rodgers has arguably the league's best receiving corps, the still criminally-underrated trio of Jennings, James and Jermichael Finlay. Beyond this, they even have fine fourth and fifth level receivers in the form of returner Jordy Nelson and Brett Swain, and newly-promoted running back Brandon Jackson added to the reception tallies against Chicago.
The Bears won thanks to the Packer mistakes. Long drives resulted in costly penalties and dropped catches, and poor special teams and turnovers gave Chicago easy points.
ESPN coverage
ESPN's coverage of Monday Night football has always been pretty poor, with the sole exception of lead commentator Mike Tirico who has grown into the role well. I have never understood the insistence on utilising a three man booth when one would be enough, and ESPN have certainly picked out some sub-standard analysing teams.
Gruden and Jaworksi may not be as bad as Tony Kornheiser's painful sensationalist sports talk radio material was, but I don't understand those that praise Gruden's 'down-to-earth' style, which as far as I can see, involves him making overly obvious points interspersed with 'what I'd do if I was still coaching' offerings, which invariably turn out to be disastrously wrong. Maybe that's why you're not still a coach, Jon?
And if I never hear the word 'escapability' again, I'll die a happy man.
Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth may not be perfect, but they are the best the league's TV coverage can offer at the current time. This is primarily because Collinsworth makes the viewer see things that they might otherwise have missed, and is able to give you a good sense of which individual battles on which to focus your attention in advance of the action.
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