Two Random Observations From Week 5

1) When the Kansas City Chiefs lost to the Indianapolis Colts Sunday, they left the league without a single undefeated team.  Not one NFL team could even make it to 4-0 in 2010.  Weird huh?  I saw that this was the earliest the NFL’s lacked an undefeated team since 1970.  And you know what that means right?  You don’t?  Well, it means it’s also the earliest the 1972 Miami Dolphins have ever gotten to celebrate the fact that they remain for another season the only perfect team in NFL history.  Congrats fellas.  No angst this year.   


2) When Brett Favre hooked up with Randy Moss for an undeniably exciting TD bomb on Monday night, we saw something very unusual.  ESPN’s broadcast stayed with a shot of Favre running down the field towards the end zone so he could celebrate the TD with Moss.  No, it wasn’t unusual for ESPN cameras to focus on Favre.  I’m aware of that network’s man-love for The Ol’ Dongslinger.  What was unusual was the sheer length of time the cameras stayed on Favre’s post-TD antics.  Normally what we see any time a TD’s scored are a dizzying series of jump cuts, each one lasting maybe two seconds.  The guy who scored.  The QB.  The coach.  Fans in the stands.  The cheerleaders.  The opposing coach. On and on until it’s time for the replays.  Now I’m glad we get such nice state-of-the-art camerawork these days, especially in the nationally broadcast games.  And I’m glad for the inventive camera angles.  But sometimes, it’s not such a bad idea to just stay with the guy who actually scored or the guy who threw it to him.  In their haste to add some human interest the game producers are now actually depriving the viewing public of some good stuff.  Case in point: the Dallas-Tennessee game this past weekend.  After Jason Witten scored a critical TD, one camera caught offensive lineman Marco Colombo rushing over to him and Witten gave him the ball. And then...the camera cut away for more various and sundry reaction shots.  And in the process, they missed the TD celebration that ended when Colombo hit the ground, something that by rule apparently constitutes an unlawful celebration penalty.  When this finally dawned on the announcers they explained what happened.  But they had to do so without visual aids because all those stupid camera shots apparently meant they missed getting a good shot of the unlawful celebration. You reap what you sow NFL boradcasters. Stop overproducing the games!