- Week 3 of the NFL season featured several exciting broadcasting moments, including game-winning calls and booth antics.
- Joe Davis and Greg Olsen called another thrilling game, culminating in a blocked field goal returned for a touchdown.
- Tom Brady provided insightful analysis on a flea-flicker play during the Bears game.
For a minute there, Week 3 was shaping up to be a snoozer. Then somebody finally got a hold of the ‘Buffalo Wild Wings’ button.
Blocked kicks. Walk-off winners. Booth hijinks. Flea-flickers.
These are the best broadcasting moments from Sunday’s Week 3 NFL games. There are some repeat honorees – the best Sunday crews will find themselves here more often than not, methinks – and even some love for a predictable media nemesis. As always, please let me know what we missed.
Joe Davis, Greg Olsen behind mic for another thriller
The best 1 p.m. ET game once again fell to Joe Davis and Greg Olsen, after the duo had the call for the Dallas Cowboys-New York Giants overtime thriller in Week 2.
This time it was the Philadelphia Eagles’ comeback victory over the Los Angeles Rams, which was punctuated by Jordan Davis’ highlight-reel touchdown return after he blocked a potential game-winning field goal.
‘Joshua Karty, has it blocked again! This time Jordan Davis! The big man looks for the icing on one big cake! Eagles hang on!’
What a call. He will be missed once Major League Baseball postseason duties pull him away from NFL coverage.
Guess who the ‘Mike’ is (clean version)
An easy way to respond to some unintentional profanity, without being able to cuss yourself, Kenny Albert and Jonathan Vilma taught us, is with some humor.
Calling the wild Tampa Bay Buccaneers-New York Jets game, Vilma and Albert had to think on the fly when the FOX microphones picked up Buccaneers center Ben Bredeson saying that No. 44 on the Jets (Jamien Sherwood) ‘is the (expletive) mike (middle linebacker).’ Sadly, we cannot incorporate the video but please utilize your imagination.
‘Guess who’s the mic?’ Vilma quipped.
‘Forty-four?’ Albert answered.
They also nailed the finish.
Tom Brady breaks down Caleb Williams’ flea-flicker
Do we think Bears head coach Ben Johnson talked about this trickery in the production meeting?
Rather than jumping into the excitement, Brady let his partner Kevin Burkhardt carry the scene and laid out. He let the moment breathe. His first words gave us some reporting on Johnson’s demeanor.
Later, Brady took the viewers through the sequence of the play – from Bears quarterback Caleb Williams receiving the lateral to his footwork to throw itself. We are hard on Brady here but this was good stuff.
Ian Eagle honors CBS’ 50-year anniversary celebration with throwback look
The chemistry the elder Eagle and JJ Watt have constructed within three weeks is marvelous. Of course, Eagle’s personality helps.
Check this guy out.
Watt started laughing the moment Eagle began the open from the booth.
“Welcome to the broadcast booth, everybody,” Eagle began. “Ian Eagle, along with JJ Watt.”
“The over/under was two seconds for J.J. to lose it,” Eagle continued. “I should’ve taken the under.”
“It’s the lip sweater,” Watt replied. “I mean, it’s phenomenal.”
The kick is BLOCKED. The kick is GOOD.
FOX’s Kevin Kugler met the moment for the end of the Cleveland Browns’ upset over the Green Bay Packers.
When Brandon McManus’ go-ahead 43-yarder with less than 30 seconds left was blocked, he nailed it.
Seconds later, he perfectly described Andre Szmyt’s game-winning 55-yarder as time expired, and the vibrato on ‘GOOD!’ definitely hit.