Slight Football TV Announcer Rant

[RL04]

I’m sure football play-by-play and color commentary is a difficult thing to do well.  And I generally like ESPN’s Brad Nessler and Todd Blackledge. 
(The fact that Blackledge went to Penn State has nothing to do with it.    )

But during last night’s great Miami-Florida State game  there was one minor gaffe.  And there was a major gaffe  that just made me grit my teeth.

Minor one:  When Florida State’s scored a touchdown at 4:47 in the third quarter, Nessler said that Easterling’s catch gave Florida State the lead.  It did not., it extended it.  The Seminoles were already in the lead 16-14 before the play. 

OK, he lost track of the score a little bit.  It happens I guess.

But …

Near the end of the game, Florida State was behind 38-34 with less than two minutes to play.  And Blackledge kept harping on the fact that Florida State freshman kicker Hopkins had missed an extra point earlier in the game.  And how Todd was so right that the missed kick would “come back to haunt them.”  Meaning, if the Seminoles were only three points behind and not four, they could have gone for a tying field goal instead of having to score a touchdown.

WRONG!

Florida State had already made up for that lost point by successfully converting a two-point conversion on another touchdown.

The reason why Florida State was down four points instead of three had nothing to do with the missed extra point.  It was because of the funky scoring in football.  Miami scored five touchdowns in the game (plus PATs) and one field goal which equals 38 points.  Florida State only scored four touchdowns (and equivalent PATs) and two field goals.  That equals a four-point difference.

Nothing to do with missed extra point.

End of rant.

[DPMOmaha]

I think they'd have gone for two regardless there, if they had made the extra points AND had the two point conversions, they could have lined up for a field goal to tie or go into overtime.  The argument could actually be made fairly successfully that had he made the kicks they would have been in position to win the game with a field goal.   

Really, the two point conversion was fairly meaningless, had they just kicked the PAT, they would have been down 5 and would have still needed to score a TD to win.  The only difference would have been had they scored a touchdown with enough time for Miami to answer and then they would have had to go for 2 again to put them up 3 meaning the Canes would have only needed a FG to tie.

[HerndonNat]

Yeah I caught that also.  I guess he is considering that they went for two and they would have done that whether they made that extra point or not.  Even though we all know that they wouldn't have gone for two if the extra point was made.

[RL04]

Even though we all know that they wouldn't have gone for two if the extra point was made.

Exactly.  Thank you.

Once Fla St was back "on track," the missing-the-PAT "haunting them" (as far as the outcome goes) is incorrect.

In any football game - if one team scores a TD (and PAT) and another scores a FG, they will always be four points behind, not three, and will have to go for the TD near the end of the game.

I think the announcers just got caught up in the excitement and with the usual clichés and just forgot what actually happened in the game.