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Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth play Mario Manningham's fourth-quarter catch perfectly in Super Bowl XLVI - Ingles


The voices are the human element. The other stuff is the technology. When they combine to tell a story, it provides evidence why NFL football is so watchable and popular.

And when they mesh on the biggest play of the Super Bowl, they can serve to avoid controversy as well. That’s what happened with 3:46 left in the fourth quarter Sunday night and the Giants trailing the Patriots, 17-15.

This set the stage for Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth to provide their own highlight of the evening. For most of the Giants’ 21-17 victory, the NBC mouths handled the flow of the game well. That was expected.

But with the Giants facing a first-and-10 from their own 12-yard line, the equation changed. Eli Manning connected on a 38-yard pass to Mario Manningham, who had two defenders whacking away at him near the left sideline before he went out of bounds near the 50.

Michaels’ call was straightforward. It was a tough catch worthy of Al Exigente cranking up the volume. Then he turned things over to Collinsworth, who had been critical of Manningham’s route running (“he fades his routes” toward the sidelines) earlier in the game.

Now Collinsworth, properly, played it cautiously. He has done enough games to know even if a catch looks like a catch it’s not always a catch in the NFL.

“It’s not quite David Tyree but it’s close,” Collinsworth said. Yeah, he could’ve said it was Tyree minus the glue but we’ll cut him some slack.

Then the first replay aired. “This is absolutely brilliant if he makes this play. Watch his feet,” Collinsworth said.


By the second replay it was clear Manningham had gotten both feet down and had control of the ball as he fell out of bounds. NBC then delivered its super-magnified stop-action shot. Bill Belichick’s challenge was shot down.

Fortunately, nobody got jobbed here.

Collinsworth advanced the story, saying the catch should change the Giants’ strategy.

“Now the Giants, you must pay attention to the clock,” Collinsworth said.

Michaels picked up on this, suggesting the Patriots might let the Giants score quickly so there would be some time left on the clock for Tom Brady to do his thing.

With 1:04 left and the Giants with a first-and-goal from the 7, Ahmad Bradshaw took the ball up the middle. As Michaels would say, “the sea parted.” Bradshaw looked as if he was trying to take a knee at the goal line to kill some more clock but, his momentum carrying him, rolled over into the end zone.

“I guarantee Bradshaw was told to get down,” Collinsworth said. “It’s a big mistake, Al.”

For the Giants, fortunately, it turned out to be a harmless one, but a play that will be debated throughout the Valley of the Stupid for at least 24 hours.

Just one play of a memorable telecast.

This article was written by Bob Raissman and appeared in the New York Daily News.

Posted by Necesitamos Mas Football on 12:54 p. m.. Filed under , , . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0

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