{"id":740427,"date":"2026-02-09T14:23:29","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T14:23:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/740427\/"},"modified":"2026-02-09T14:23:29","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T14:23:29","slug":"nbc-super-bowl-60-broadcast-solid-but-quality-of-game-couldnt-measure-up-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/740427\/","title":{"rendered":"NBC Super Bowl 60 broadcast solid, but quality of game couldn’t measure up"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s too early to tell how many viewers NBC lost during the course of Super Bowl 60<\/a>, but I can tell you in my house the exodus started after the Bad Bunny halftime show<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Brother-in-law and sister-in-law left at that point and it was only a nine-point margin. Father-in-law and mother-in-law were out the door by the end of the third quarter. The wife? She bailed for \u201cEverybody Loves Raymond\u201d reruns not long afterward.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, I stayed in my office, watching from beginning to end.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what the NBC broadcast team was up against in a drama-free 29-13 win by the Seattle Seahawks over the New England Patriots<\/a> at Levi\u2019s Stadium.<\/p>\n

It was similar to the last Super Bowl game at Levi\u2019s a decade ago when the Denver Broncos beat Carolina 24-10<\/a> with their defense and Von Miller taking control early and never letting up.<\/p>\n

Five field goals by Jason Myers, a 16-yard touchdown pass from Sam Darnold to A.J. Barner and a 45-yard interception return by Uchenna Nwosu for Seattle. A 35-yard touchdown pass from a previously bewildered Drake Maye to Mack Hollins early in the fourth quarter made it 19-7.<\/p>\n

Seattle sacked Maye six times and forced three turnovers. The Seahawks weren\u2019t going to lose unless they turned the ball over, and while it wasn\u2019t the greatest day for Darnold, he came through in that respect.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the best performances in Super Bowl history put up by the Seattle Seahawks tonight,\u201d said play-by-play announcer Mike Tirico, doing his first Super Bowl. That statement came with 4:27 left after Nwosu\u2019s touchdown off a Maye fumble on a sack by defensive back Devon Witherspoon.<\/p>\n

There were 15 punts and five field goals, but fortunately, a minimum of penalties (two by Seattle, three by New England, and none on any egregious calls).<\/p>\n

It was hard to label it hyperbole, and there was little else Tirico and analyst Cris Collinsworth could do other than describe the kind of defense put forth by Seattle.<\/p>\n

The NBC production was solid and professional, from the announcers to the camera work to the graphics and everyone in between. There weren\u2019t a lot of shots of the Golden Gate Bridge and Bay Bridge, but Commissioner Roger Goodell managed to leave out the host city in terms of the playing venue when he said on the trophy podium, \u201cThank you, San Francisco. You\u2019ve been great hosts this week.\u201d<\/p>\n

Drama can\u2019t be forced, and to their credit, Tirico and Collinsworth didn\u2019t resort to that, while at the same time not disparaging either the Patriots or the quality of the game.<\/p>\n

Collinsworth picked up on Seattle suffocating the New England offense on it before the score even got out of hand.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been strategic, it\u2019s been physical, it\u2019s been overwhelming at times,\u201d Collinsworth said.<\/p>\n

When it was 19-7, Collinsworth beseeched the Patriots to open things up even if there was little hope of success.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe it\u2019s time to see what we can do if we spread it out on the offensive side, take some shots downfield and see what happens,\u201d Collinsworth said.<\/p>\n

When the Patriots did score their first touchdown after two big pass plays, 12:27 remained but there was still an air of doubt in Collinsworth\u2019s voice as he said, \u201cTwo plays we\u2019ve seen from the Patriots all year and they finally show up.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was also Collinsworth who noted that if not for the presence of New England cornerback Christian Gonzalez, it would have been much worse. Gonzalez broke up potential touchdown passes to Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Rasheed Shaheed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIronic isn\u2019t it that Christian Gonzalez has been their best player in this game,\u201d Collinsworth said. \u201cIf not, or the plays he mad,e it would be an absolute blowout.\u201d<\/p>\n

Collinsworth also recognized early that Maye was overmatched while playing the two-deep safety defense 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan warned in the pregame show would be a problem.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re really just playing zone defense,\u201d Collinsworth said. \u201cThat\u2019s all they\u2019re doing, and the clock in the head of Drake Maye has been so sped up.\u201d<\/p>\n

The postgame interviews before NBC turned to the Winter Olympics were much like how the Seahawks carried themselves throughout the week \u2014 confident but not overly boastful. Coach Mike Macdonald called it \u201cloose and focused\u201d and the Seahawks were every bit that.<\/p>\n

As for New England, the Patriots were simply overmatched and it was more than just Maye. He wound up 27 of 43 for 295 yards with two touchdowns and two interception returns.<\/p>\n

The NBC crew correctly didn\u2019t lay all the blame on just Maye. Sam Darnold (19 of 38, 202 yards, one touchdown (no turnovers throughout the postseason) put another nail in the coffin of the theory that game managers never prosper in big games. Darnold managed it beautifully, and as he noted afterward, \u201cWe could have been better on offense, but I don\u2019t care right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Patriots found out the same thing the 49ers did in Week 18 and the divisional round of the playoffs. The Seahawks are simply that good, and they ended up doing their best to chronicle another year of Super Bowl history, even if excitement and drama weren\u2019t forthcoming.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s too early to tell how many viewers NBC lost during the course of Super Bowl 60, but…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":740428,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2080],"tags":[220,33365,7,15510,1280,249,6,1161,252,2624,2623,261,23840],"class_list":["post-740427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco-49ers","tag-49ers","tag-cris-collinsworth","tag-football","tag-mike-tirico","tag-nbc","tag-new-england-patriots","tag-nfl","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-49ers","tag-sanfrancisco","tag-sanfrancisco49ers","tag-seattle-seahawks","tag-super-bowl-60"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116041128655842933","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/740427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=740427"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/740427\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/740428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=740427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=740427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=740427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}