Group Admins
An interesting wrinkle to the Jaguars-Chargers wild card game Saturday night was the return of Al Michaels to NBC.The legendary broadcaster, who absconded to Amazon this year, to call the game from Jacksonville. In the first half, it appeared that the ghost of “Thursday Night Football” had arrived, with all signs pointing to a Chargers blowout. But when the Jaguars , NFL viewers felt Michaels hadn’t caught up to the gravity of the situation.MORE:Indeed, when Riley Patterson hit the 36-yard game-winning field goal as time expired, Michaels was clearly more concerned with sorting out a po Wes Iwundu Jersey sible penalty on the play before making any grand proclamations of an epic come-from-behind victory.THE WIN. SIMPLY UNBELIEVABLE. NFL (@NFL) Unfortunately for Michaels, the penalty was on the Chargers for offside (and immediately declined), so a play that will be enshrined in at least Jaguars and Chargers history will be backed by Michaels saying, “Got it, but there’s a flag down.”MORE:Hardly the most jubilant call, unlike Frank Frangie’s call on Jaguars radio (Frangie ignored the flag):As called by on Jacksonville Jaguars radio: Timothy Burke (@bubbaprog) NFL Twitter took i sue with Michaels’ deadpan delivery:im really struck at just how dry al michaels Evan Fournier Jersey and tony dungy are now after witne sing a team come back from a 27-0 deficit to win a playoff game. viewers cheated, man. mike taddow (@MikeTaddow) Congratulations to Al Michaels and Tony Dungy for sucking the entire drama out of that field goal kick John Barchard (@JohnBarchard) Al Michaels during every game this season Je sica Smetana (@je sica_smetana) As disgusting and shameful as that Chargers lo s what was worse was the Darrell Armstrong Jersey decision to have Al Michaels and Tony Dungy destroy one of the greatest comebacks in playoff history. They were abysmal. Completely disinterested and lame as any announcing duo in history. David Canter (@davidcanter) Can someone let Al Michaels know this drive is to cap the third biggest comeback in NFL history? Get the man a coffee! Danny Parkins (@DannyParkins) Al Michaels was paid $15 **million** a year to make a call like that on a game winning FG on a monster comeback. You are stealing. Retire. Steve Czaban (@czabe) It hurts to say this, but Al Michaels was awful on the call tonight. Dude is, in my eyes, the best to ever do it. However, he nearly made an exciting game a boring one, tonight. Noah Hiles (@_NoahHiles) Al Michaels calling this one with the excitement of a preseason NBA game Kevin Kinkead (@Kevin_Kinkead) The Jaguars just had one of the most insane comebacks in NFL playoffs history, and Al Michaels and Tony Dungy sounded like they were at a funeral. Carter Karels (@CarterKarels) Al Michaels said “that was unbelievable” like he just saw a kid skip a rock on the lake. Um, that was one of the wildest things ever. Alec Lewis (@alec_lewis) This amazing football game had Chuma Okeke Jersey the worst energy of all time thanks to the broadcasters. I love Al Michaels but he and Tony Dungy were really bad Kevin Turner (@ktfuntweets) That was one of the biggest NFL comebacks ever and Al Michaels was falling asleep calling the game-winning field goal. Steve Perrault (@Steve_Perrault) Michaels’ booth partner, Tony Dungy, was collateral damage here, but he hardly escaped criticism as viewers reacted negatively to his analysis.In the NFL especially the postseason the Dominique Wilkins Jersey broadcast becomes very important to a lot of people, due mainly to the sheer number of eyes on the game. So the nearly universal disappointment in Michaels is telling.We’ll see if Jim Nantz and Tony Romo, Kevin Burkhardt and Greg Olsen, and Mike Tirico and Cris Collinsworth fare better on Sunday.