Finally some good news for the NFL's slumping TV ratings: The Patriots' 27-24 comeback win over the Steelers on Sunday drew the highest TV rating for any NFL game telecast this season.
CBS Sports aired the game of the week in its primo late afternoon slot. During a season in which the NFL's TV ratings have dropped 7 percent, the nationally televised Week 15 game between AFC rivals and Super Bowl quarterbacks Tom Brady and Ben Roethlisberger delivered.
CBS drew a 17.0 household rating, up 8 percent from a 15.8 for last season's comparable Pats-Broncos telecast. It was the highest rating for any NFL game on any TV network this season, according to CBS. It also was the network's best NFL TV rating since 2015, when Pats-Giants and Chiefs-Broncos both drew 18.3 ratings.
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Sunday's game came down to the final plays. After Steelers tight end Jesse James apparently caught a touchdown pass with 28 seconds to play, the call was reversed upon review and ruled an incompletion.
Even CBS' Tony Romo and Jim Nantz were confused by the league's catch rule. Both announcers thought it was a TD and wondered why the officials were taking so long to set up for the extra point attempt.
Writes Mark W. Sanchez in the New York Post:
Jim Nantz and Tony Romo, who have seen and played, respectively, a lot of football in their lifetimes, did not even know what the officials in the Patriots-Steelers showdown were reviewing before the no-catch ruling that stunned and enraged everyone outside of New England. After Ben Roethlisberger found tight end Jesse James for a 10-yard touchdown in the final seconds of the most hyped matchup of the year, giving Pittsburgh the lead, officials went to the replay booth to check … something. Nantz and Romo, for the longest time, were confused about the buildup to the overturned, no-catch call that let the Patriots slip into control of the AFC.
“He’s down, but no one touches him,” Romo said, repeatedly watching replays of James corralling the pass, then diving toward the end zone ball-first. “So he’s gonna get in the end zone. This is gonna stand, unless he gets touched.” “No, he’s in,” Nantz said, seeing safety Duron Harmon didn’t make contact with James until the end zone. “He never got touched.”
The two already were talking about the ensuing extra-point try, missing that the ball shifted upon James’ contact with the ground.“They are verifying it upstairs,” Nantz said. “And there’s no doubt it’s going to hold up.”
It slowly began to dawn on him. “I don’t know why this is taking so long to review because clearly Harmon’s nowhere close to him,” Nantz said. “Unless they’re looking at the football, did it wiggle or anything to the ground? Well, it looks like a touchdown to me. … Are they looking for the football possibly losing control here?”
That’s when the former Cowboys star saw it, and his voice kicked up a few octaves. “Oh, that’s what it is Jim. They don’t think he caught it!” Romo said. “Oh boy! Let’s see that again. That’s exactly right. Does he maintain control right here? Does it bobble? Oh, guys. Did he have control? This could go either way. That ball moves in his hand.”
Soon enough, the official was telling the world James’ catch did not “survive" the ground. “Unbelievable,” Nantz said.
MARVEZ: NFL catch rule confusion highlights persistent disconnect
Fox Sports rules analyst Mike Pereira said the replay officials at the league office were right to overturn the TD call on the field.
People are saying a runner breaking the plane causes the ball to become dead…which is true. BUT the receiver does not become a runner until he completes the process of the catch. TOTALLY DIFFERENT
— Mike Pereira (@MikePereira) December 18, 2017
Super Bowl-winning coach Tony Dungy, however, was having none of it on NBC's "Football Night in America."
"In flag football, high school football, college football, any place you play football other than the NFL, that’s a touchdown," Dungy said. "But because of Calvin Johnson in 2010 and trying to justify that, we have all these plays now that everybody knows are touchdowns, but now they’re incomplete passes.
"You have to tell your receivers, you can’t do that, you can’t reach out. You’ve got to just secure the ball."
