Al Michaels, Broncos TV station apologetic to viewers over 'Thursday Night Football' trainwreck: 'It burns the retinas'

Edward Sutelan

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Al Michaels, Broncos TV station apologetic to viewers over 'Thursday Night Football' trainwreck: 'It burns the retinas' image

Viewers of Thursday night's game between the Broncos and Colts weren't treated to quality football, and the broadcasters weren't going to try and fluff it up and make it sound like it was anything but a bad game.

When the dust settled in Empower Field at Mile High in Denver, the Colts had eked out a 12-9 win over the Broncos, with four field goals from Chase McLaughlin being enough to give Indianapolis the victory over Brandon McManus' three field goals.

As the broadcast was going on, "Thursday Night Football" play-by-play voice Al Michaels sounded off several times on the quality — or lack thereof — of the game.

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Michaels was especially on his A-game in the third quarter. The Broncos had marched down the field to the Colts' 9-yard line, setting up a first-and-goal with just over six minutes left in the quarter. It was the third time all game a team had reached the red zone and the first time a team was within 10 yards of scoring.

How did that drive end? McManus couldn't get a field goal try high enough over the defensive line to avoid it being blocked.

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"Of all the things, that one gets blocked," Michaels said on the call.

But Michaels wasn't done there. On the next drive, as the Colts were starting at their own 24 when Michaels tried to make the game sound somewhat more entertaining, telling analyst Kirk Herbstreit that "sometimes, a game can be, at least to this point, so bad, it's almost good. You know what I'm saying?"

Herbstreit, like many watching at home, did not know what he was saying.

"No," Herbstreit said. "I'm not feeling that just yet over here."

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Michaels then explained that the game was sorta bad, and that it wasn't good, hoping that perhaps it would soon break out. The next play was a completion for a loss of five yards to bring up a third-and-15. Matt Ryan then threw an interception.

As if that wasn't enough, the Broncos, from the Colts' 27, had three straight incompletions and had to settle for a field goal.

There wasn't really much of anything going on all night. Twelve times during the night, teams faced a third down with more than 10 yards to go to get the first. The Colts and Broncos combined for 37 first downs and 681 yards. The quarterbacks combined to complete 58.8 percent of their passes. The teams were 0-for-6 in the red zone. There were 15 penalties for 113 yards.

The local Denver TV station didn't mince any words either. ABC 7 sports analyst Nick Rothschild apologized to the viewers after the game, saying that he felt bad the game was carried over ABC 7's air, and that he was at the game and didn't want to watch it. Troy Renck further piled on.

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"It burns the retinas. It was that awful," Renck said.

If that matchup was considered one of the best of the week, maybe Tom Brady was right about the state of the league.

Edward Sutelan

Edward Sutelan Photo

Edward Sutelan joined The Sporting News in 2021 after covering high school sports for PennLive. Edward graduated from The Ohio State University in 2019, where he gained experience covering the baseball, football and basketball teams. Edward also spent time working for The Columbus Dispatch and Cape Cod Times.