Jon Gruden exited the broadcast booth Saturday, calling his final game alongside partner Sean McDonough. During his nine years at ESPN, Gruden established himself as one of the NFL's leading cheerleaders, showering praise upon players when they didn't deserve it. Though Gruden's enthusiasm was infectious, his seeming unwillingness to criticize prohibited him from reaching his full potential as an announcer.
It seems as if Tony Romo might be following a similar path.
The ex-Cowboys quarterback has impressed in his rookie broadcast season with CBS, forecasting plays and expertly explaining the action on the field. Romo's lucid insight offers a stark difference from his predecessor, Phil Simms, who struggled to speak coherently towards the end of his run.
Romo will once again be in the national spotlight this postseason, serving as CBS' lead analyst throughout January. As a player, Romo struggled in the playoffs, only winning two of his six career starts with the Cowboys. His debut postseason effort as a broadcaster was similarly lackluster.
In Romo's defense, the Jaguars and Bills didn't give him much to work with. The Jaguars' 10-3 victory was the worst game of the weekend, bereft of competent quarterback play or any sustained offensive success. Blake Bortles, the winning QB, threw for just 87 yards. In the second half, Bortles only threw the ball seven times.
While it's true NFL announcers are responsible for hyping the product, they must also provide a frank assessment of what's transpiring on the field. Romo, who spent the bulk of the afternoon lauding Jacksonville and Buffalo for setting football back 50 years, failed to do that.
"Unbelievable game," he exclaimed after the final whistle.
In order to find honest analyst, viewers had to rely on Boomer Esiason, who torched Bortles at halftime. "Guys, I've got to tell you, it's hard to watch," he said. "Blake Bortles has just been awful. ...He is missing guys, missing screen passes, it is brutal."
Throughout the bulk of the season, Romo was often well ahead of the action. But that wasn't the case Sunday, especially in the game's final minutes. On the Bills' last drive, quarterback Tyrod Taylor took a vicious hit from Jacksonville defensive end Dante Fowler on third down. Taylor was knocked out and removed from the field. Buffalo's season suddenly rested in the hands of backup Nathan Peterman, who threw five picks in his only start of the year.
Instead of focusing on that, and how the Bills would approach their most pivotal fourth down in years, Romo was strangely fixated on the 10-second runoff. At one point, Romo incorrectly asserted there would be no runoff, because the Bills would get a "freebie timeout." But that was not the case. When Taylor left due to injury, the clock went from 1:27 to 1:17. Romo kept harping on that right until the ball was snapped, even though it was standard NFL procedure.
Three plays later, when officials were reviewing Jaguars cornerback Jalen Ramsey's game-clinching interception, Romo didn't offer much in the way of analysis. "Ohh … ohhh … ahhh … all I know is, I don't want to be (NFL VP of officiating) Al Riveron right now," he said. "This is difficult."
It appeared as if the football was coming loose when Ramsey hit the ground, which means he might not have "survived the ground," negating the interception. But Romo never offered an opinion on the play or convoluted state of officiating. He left that up to play-by-play man Jim Nantz, who succinctly voiced fans' frustrations with the confusion surrounding the rulebook.
"I think the tip of the ball might touch the ground there. But here's the problem: if it's inconclusive, can you overturn it?," Romo asked.
"They've been doing it all year," Nantz added.
Much like when Simms was in the booth, Nantz served as both the play-by-play man and color analyst during the game's final moments. Romo will have two more opportunities to replicate his regular season astuteness. But on Sunday, it seems like he left his critical thinking at home, and picked up Gruden's discarded pom-poms instead.
