CBS production value maybe hit an all-time low yesterday

[Peevo]

I realize the Bills, and subsequently the requisite CBS broadcast of them, are probably the lowest ring on the broadcasting ladder for the network during the season, but holy crap it's gotten so bad.

 

 

This is not even to necessarily bag on Harlan and Gannon, who are your usual say nothing actually interesting or critical types, it's just the whole damn production.

 

 

How many important yet questionable plays a week do you NEVER get a replay on? It's a close 3rd down conversion, or an important 3rd down penalty, or a really close "was it a catch?" type play, and you don't even get to see it again.

 

 

We get 3 minutes of screen time of a maybe-injured referee on the sideline, yet no shot of what's going with the actual game. 3 and out after 3 and out, do we get a look at if the receivers are getting open? Is the offensive line struggling against the Carolina front seven? Give me something, instead we get a ref chirping to McDermott on the sideline and complaining about going to the locker room.

 

 

We get a terrible, shaky-cam close up of either another camera man or some useless coach on the sideline? What the hell was that shot yesterday?

 

 

In TV a "technical director" is supposed to know whether to cut to "camera 1, camera 2, or camera 3" so as to know that the camera on that feed ISN'T A HORRIBLE CLOSE UP OF SOMETHING THAT'S USELESS TO THE PRODUCTION. Do these people not exist for the CBS Bills coverage?

 

 

Did anyone notice the 3 second satellite CBS rejoin filler before the game came back on TV? Like, instead of CBS and WIVB synching exactly at 1:30 from network to local break and back to the network, they seriously thought "CBS Buffalo/Carolina NFL Game" TV card was suitable for broadcasting to the air. It's so amateurish and embarrassing.

 

 

It's gotten so bad I don't know if I can stomach an entire season of this college broadcasting class level TV. You can bag on Michaels and Collinsworth all you want but at least the NBC cameras look good, and the transitions are smooth, breaks are seamless. Am I alone in this thought?

[BillsFan130]

Part that annoyed me was when they didnt show the replay of the facemask on mccoy in the 4th. Apparentely it was a blatent facemask though

[PolishDave]

You shouldn't be drinking piwo this early on Monday morning. Wait till noon.

[Mike in Horseheads]

But they showed McD clapping on the sidelines and that upset someone.

[DriveFor1Outta5]

Part that annoyed me was when they didnt show the replay of the facemask on mccoy in the 4th. Apparentely it was a blatent facemask though

Why would a network that has a contract with the NFL want to show how pathetic the league's officiating is?

[100DollarBills]

But they showed McD clapping on the sidelines and that upset someone.

Because clapping when we are losing is weak. Maybe if he spent that energy pointing out what is wrong, it wouldn't be a big deal.

[Miyagi-Do Karate]

Glad someone posted this. The lack of replays was alarming. I have to think some of that is on Gannon; is it his job to try to call up replays?

 

Also, the super long commercial delays were annoying, especially the one right before the last play. Talk about ruining any sense of suspense.

[RoyBatty is alive]

But they showed McD clapping on the sidelines and that upset someone.

Why would someone be upset McD was clapping? Did they want him crying or something.

[Mark Vader]

The lack of replays was very noticeable, but this is nothing new. I don't know if it's just a thing with CBS or all of the networks.

 

They spent a lot of time with that injured official, which is alright I guess, but they did a poor job in explaining why the Bills were penalized for it.

 

I also agree that the super close-up from that shaky camera was weird. What was the point of that?

[DriveFor1Outta5]

The lack of replays was very noticeable, but this is nothing new. I don't know if it's just a thing with CBS or all of the networks.

 

They spent a lot of time with that injured official, which is alright I guess, but they did a poor job in explaining why the Bills were penalized for it.

 

I also agree that the super close-up from that shaky camera was weird. What was the point of that?

They don't want us to notice that Pop Warner football is better officiated. Replays of the entire field are like lifting the curtain on the Oz.

[row_33]

I just press that button called rewind and the TV magically goes back and I can watch the prior play.

[Kelly the Dog]

The lower echelon games have a couple less cameras than the higher rated crews and nationally televised games. But still have enough to show replays like the Shady non-call. We may have just got an amateurish crew. I thought it was poor, too.

[Peevo]

The lower echelon games have a couple less cameras than the higher rated crews and nationally televised games. But still have enough to show replays like the Shady non-call. We may have just got an amateurish crew. I thought it was poor, too.

 

 

This may be true across the league, but I'm speaking to the professionalism level of the broadcast itself. Lots of bad cuts, mistakes and bad camera angles. This is CBS, network level TV production. It should be the best of the best. There's no excuse for mistakes at that level.

 

It speaks to the irrelevancy of the Bills. To CBS, who cares if there's mistakes, it's the Bills.

[I'm Spartacus]

Yes. I wanted to see a replay of that ref getting B word-slapped!

[BillsFan130]

Why would a network that has a contract with the NFL want to show how pathetic the league's officiating is?

I get what you are saying, but at the same time, I find it inexcusable for them too cover up the NFL'S mistakes, when fans pay good money to watch the games

[PromoTheRobot]

Because clapping when we are losing is weak. Maybe if he spent that energy pointing out what is wrong, it wouldn't be a big deal.

Maybe McDermott should use a cat o'nine tails to flog players as they come off the field?

[bobobonators]

I just saw the highlights again on NFLN and that facemask play came up in the highlights. Clear personal foul.

[Livinginthepast]

Poor amatuerish production has been the norm for most of the networks for the past 20 years. More teams in the NFL means more games and spreading the TV talent in all areas out. One thing is almost for certain, with the Bills as irrelevant as they are now we always get the B team commentators, camera people and producers. The McCoy play where he got facemasked was a HUGE non call. It was a blatant facemask and should have been called. It hugely affected the outcome of the game. YET the clueless commentators did not mention it and somehow the guys in the TV production van didn't spot it either to show us a closeup replay or even mention to the commentators to look at. I find that watching football on a big flatscreen in HD is awesome. The images have never looked better but the way the game is covered even with all the new camera angles, pales in comparison to the production values of the 80s and 90s. The commentators are shills for the NFL and are afraid to make critical comments of the coaches, players and officials even when they do incredibly stupid stuff or make bad calls.

[row_33]

He will developing that 10,000 mile zombie stare of Jauron soon.

[CLTbills]

I just press that button called rewind and the TV magically goes back and I can watch the prior play.

Not all of us fancy high-rollers have one of those buttons!!!!

[row_33]

Not all of us fancy high-rollers have one of those buttons!!!!

 

with teams more often lining up quickly for the next play the last decade they have not wanted to be caught missing a live play, so they've cut down on replays, especially in two-minute drills.

 

i got used to this around 2010.

[VaMilBill]

Glad someone posted this. The lack of replays was alarming. I have to think some of that is on Gannon; is it his job to try to call up replays?

 

Also, the super long commercial delays were annoying, especially the one right before the last play. Talk about ruining any sense of suspense.

I could not believe they cut yo commercial before the last play. They even made it a full commercial break which destroyed the moment. Ridiculous

 

Instead of the commercial, Gannon should have been giving us ideas on what both teams should do and expect

Edited September 19, 2017 by VaMilBill

[row_33]

I could not believe they cut yo commercial before the last play. They even made it a full commercial break which destroyed the moment. Ridiculous

 

Instead of the commercial, Gannon should have been giving us ideas on what both teams should do and expect

 

national broadcasters don't have a clue about the teams they are covering, their research is an interview with each team's GM a few days before the game

[26CornerBlitz]

 

national broadcasters don't have a clue about the teams they are covering, their research is an interview with each team's GM a few days before the game

 

Not true. Broadcast crews often meet with coaches and players from the respective teams.

[Mark Vader]

Poor amatuerish production has been the norm for most of the networks for the past 20 years. More teams in the NFL means more games and spreading the TV talent in all areas out. One thing is almost for certain, with the Bills as irrelevant as they are now we always get the B team commentators, camera people and producers. The McCoy play where he got facemasked was a HUGE non call. It was a blatant facemask and should have been called. It hugely affected the outcome of the game. YET the clueless commentators did not mention it and somehow the guys in the TV production van didn't spot it either to show us a closeup replay or even mention to the commentators to look at. I find that watching football on a big flatscreen in HD is awesome. The images have never looked better but the way the game is covered even with all the new camera angles, pales in comparison to the production values of the 80s and 90s. The commentators are shills for the NFL and are afraid to make critical comments of the coaches, players and officials even when they do incredibly stupid stuff or make bad calls.

Absolutely. The commentators are cowards.

 

I remember when ESPN used to air Sunday Night Football, and the crew was Mike Patrick & Joe Theismann.

 

I know a lot of people didn't like Theismann, but he and MIke Patrick had the guts to call out the officials whenever there was a bad call or non-call.

 

Today we have NFL "Rules Experts" who we go to when there is a controversial call, and they are absolutely worthless. Apparently the networks think that the fans watching on television are so dumb, that they need to have a bad call explained to us. When in reality we know more than the "experts", and we are not gutless like the announcers to call it like it is.

Edited September 19, 2017 by Mark Vader

[Acantha]

I just saw the highlights again on NFLN and that facemask play came up in the highlights. Clear personal foul.

Maybe if the Bills hadn't knocked a ref out of the game, the penalty would have been seen.

 

Announcers were really bad. There was at least half a dozen times they screwed up someone's name while talking about a play. One time he couldn't remember the players name, stumbled around it for a few seconds, then just dropped the whole topic and moved on. Really bad.

 

 

national broadcasters don't have a clue about the teams they are covering, their research is an interview with each team's GM a few days before the game

It does seem that way, and there's no excuse for it. This is their actual job; they should have a solid baseline knowledge on every team.

[What a Tuel]

 

Not true. Broadcast crews often meet with coaches and players from the respective teams.

 

Yeah, you often hear them talk about their talks with said players and coaches.

 

 

 

with teams more often lining up quickly for the next play the last decade they have not wanted to be caught missing a live play, so they've cut down on replays, especially in two-minute drills.

 

i got used to this around 2010.

 

Why are you acting arrogant? There is a clear difference in broadcasters ability between games. Simply put, it isn't a industry standard to make crappy and inane cuts to unimportant things. Sometimes they do. Sometimes they don't. Which is why it is frustrating when they do.

Edited September 19, 2017 by What a Tuel