Hopefully Brian Griese was more aware of game situations when he was an NFL quarterback. Otherwise, he probably cost his teams a lot of victories. The Super Bowl champion was completely lost at the end of Bears-Steelers, suggesting outlandish plays and strategies removed from what was happening on the field.
His ignorance was inexplicable.
Griese’s first late-game blunder came after the Bears tied up the game at 26 when Justin Fields found Darnell Mooney in the left corner of the end zone. Kicking the extra-point was the obvious call, especially since there was 1:46 left on the clock. But when a Steelers player was flagged for encroachment, Griese asked whether Matt Nagy would go for two.
He instantly retracted his statement, probably due to baffled producers screaming in his headset.
“If this is offsides on the defense, now you have options,” Griese said. “Do you want to go for two here and potentially… well you’re going to kick this field goal either way. It’s a higher percentage to win the game.”
It would’v been fun to hear Griese complete his thought. Do you want to go for two here and potentially … what? Take the lead? The game was tied, so that would’ve happened regardless. Did Griese think the Bears were trailing by one? That’s the most generous explanation for his error.
Otherwise, it’s really hard to figure out what he was trying to say. Maybe Griese forgot the Steelers would get the ball back? But then why would you want to go for two? His brain fart made less sense than Tony Corrente’s brutal taunting call on Cassius Marsh.
The analytical insanity didn’t end there, however. When Chris Boswell was lining up for the game-winning field goal with 30 seconds left, Griese said the Steelers should wind the clock down to 1.
“Let it run down so you don’t leave any time for the Bears,” Griese suggested.
Unfortunately, the Bears had a timeout left, and called it immediately afterwards. Nobody mentioned Griese’s inane pontificating.
Analysts are going to make mistakes, but failing to grasp simple football strategy is an inexcusable sin. Griese detracted from the broadcast during the game’s biggest moments.
Fortunately, he wasn’t nonsensical for the entire game. The MNF booth took Corrente’s brutal officiating crew to task over the phantom illegal block call on James Daniels and taunting penalty levied against Marsh for walking towards the Steelers’ bench. At one point, Louis Riddick, who was characteristically sharp, got into a spirited back-and-forth with officiating analyst John Barry.
“I’m sure what Tony felt was, he was directing that towards the Pittsburgh bench,” Barry said.
“He wasn’t saying anything. He was just looking at the bench, JB,” Riddick responded. “You should not potentially lose football games because of that.”
Griese added: “if you don’t say anything, can it be taunting?”
That’s a good existential question to ask. But by the end of the game, the viewers were the ones left scratching their heads and searching for answers.