A Tough Day for a No. 1 Broadcast Team

Maybe Jim Nantz and Phil Simms were impacted by the effects of Hurricane Sandy in a manner unknown to viewers that left them a little preoccupied. Maybe they were not feeling well. Maybe they just had a bad day.

Whatever the reason, Nantz and Simms, the No. 1 NFL team for CBS Sports, struggled while working the Pittsburgh Steelers-New York Giants game Sunday afternoon.

It's always a challenging assignment to broadcast an NFL game, but a network's top on-air tandem gets the benefit of a superior resources and support. That typically means a few more cameras from a variety of different angles, one of the network's top producer-director tandems and a strong research/reporting team.

Unfortunately for viewers, it never felt like a top-team effort for what was probably the most-watched game Sunday afternoon.

With teams that have won four of the past seven Super Bowls and the backdrop storyline of a major sporting event in the New York City area after the historic storm, the game certainly had abundant interest.

Neither Nantz nor Simms did much to raise their level of effort to match that of the game, though. From the mundane to the most important, they either missed or whiffed.

Something viewers could hear and see for themselves that Simms said did not exist was the first sign the broadcast team was in trouble.

Simms said Steelers fans were not a big part of the crowd at Met Life Stadium, but viewers could hear loud cheers for good plays by the visiting team repeatedly. That included one instance when tight end David Paulson caught a pass and Steelers fans, thinking it was tight end Heath Miller, chanted "Heeath!" Those cheers continued throughout the game, for Miller and every time Pittsburgh did something well.

It was just unsettling -- at least for viewers looking for an accurate feel of the game -- that Simms did not get that sense or felt otherwise.

Along with that, Nantz and Simms seemed like company men for the NFL or were simply wrong early in the game with regard to several poorly officiated plays. While Fox Sports NFL expert Mike Pereira offered tweets citing a personal foul against Pittsburgh and a what was ruled a fumble by Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger as incorrect calls, Simms was indecisive about the fumble and then later agreed with the call on the field.

The personal foul, whistled in the end zone after Giants receiver Victor Cruz was hit on a pass play, was perhaps the most glaring problem of the afternoon for CBS Sports. Hampered by a commercial break, Nantz and Simms were slow to point out it was a bad call and replays of the play, which led to a New York touchdown, were slow in being shared.

Plus, Simms often seemed uncharacteristically ill-prepared, indecisive or out of sorts. Insights were rare, even though he talked a lot.

In one instance, after Pittsburgh running back/return man Chris Rainey produced several long kickoff returns, Simms said, "that kinda shows you why they want to get the ball in his hands." Kinda? You think? Viewers deserve, and certainly expect, better information and insights.

In another instance, the Steelers attempted a long pass for the end zone on second down from the Giants' 36-yard line. Receiver Antonio Brown was hurt on the play, and CBS and Simms focused on that a bit. Perhaps preoccupied by that, Simms then said, as the Steelers prepared for their third down play from the same spot: "This is the spot on the field where teams usually take a shot (at the end zone." But, they had just done that. The observation was a play late and perplexing as a result.

Likewise, when the Steelers went ahead for good on touchdown pass to Mike Wallace, who crossed the field from right to left, caught the ball and sprinted down the left sideline, Nantz offered over-the-top and somewhat out-of-context praise about Wallace's speed. Sure, he's fast, one of the fastest guys in the league, but Nantz crowed about how Wallace beat "defensive backs who had an angle on him."

In truth, and as the replay showed, only one DB had a shot at Wallace -- whose speed was the difference. It prevented the defender from even attempting a tackle, but it's not as if Wallace outran every defensive back on the Giants' roster to score.

There were just too many examples of that kind of generalization and sloppiness that made the game a sub-par effort for CBS Sports overall.

Even worse, viewers never got an update on Brown's injury, or that of Rainey, who left the game later after carrying the ball, getting tackled and then collapsing near the sideline while trying to leave the field. NFL games are always more TV shows than sporting events, but it's somewhat unusual that the status of impact players would not be updated at some point before the broadcast ended.