Foxs' Announcer's

**HoustonRaven** · 10-15-2007, 08:54 AM

Im sitting here and Im watching the game replay on TiVo and I can only think of one thing ....

CBS should take Solomon Wilcots and Ian Eagle from whatever Motel 6 they are staying in, drag them away in hand cuffs, tie them down on a bed of nails and allow Ravens fans club them like baby harp seals.

Fox's duo was stellar compared to what we're given from CBS. I've accidentally deleted the game (it wasnt a keeper anyway) so if someone knows their names, please let me know.

**UKRavenStockers** · 10-15-2007, 09:33 AM

I'd like to know what your beef is with the team of Ian Eagle and Solomon Willcotts? I think they're the best announce team CBS have and one of the very best announce teams that cover NFL games. I think Willcotts is one of the best analysts in the business. If they were names they'd be CBS' top team, that's the only justification I can see for keeping the prized prat Phil Simms as the colour commentator in their top team.

**highwater** · 10-15-2007, 09:36 AM

The color guy was Tim Ryan -- I don't know the name of they play-by-play guy, but I agree, they were much better than the crummy teams that CBS has been assigning to us so far. There are some pretty bad announcing teams out there these days. Unfortunately, we've been hearing a lot of them so far this season.

**UKRavenStockers** · 10-15-2007, 09:43 AM

Tim Ryan's announce partner is something Rosen. I think it's Sam Rosen.

**highwater** · 10-15-2007, 09:46 AM

Yes, I think that's right -- it was Sam something, Rosen sounds right. I thought they were pretty good.

UK, why do you dislike Phil Simms so much? I haven't heard him much this year, but my recollection is that he was okay.

**Rochardrik** · 10-15-2007, 09:52 AM

Originally Posted by highwater

Yes, I think that's right -- it was Sam something, Rosen sounds right. I thought they were pretty good.

UK, why do you dislike Phil Simms so much? I haven't heard him much this year, but my recollection is that he was okay.

I disagree. Phil Simms is inept AND boring!

**HoustonRaven** · 10-15-2007, 09:59 AM

Originally Posted by UKRavenStockers

If they were names they'd be CBS' top team, that's the only justification I can see for keeping the prized prat Phil Simms as the colour commentator in their top team.

Lay off the absinthe over there! ;-)

Simms is decent but Jim Nantz is damn good and alone kicks Willcotts and Eagles collective butts. Not too often do you see an announcer be effective in numerous sports but Nantz pulls it off. He does Football, basketball and golf. He is a year-round announcer and isnt some pretty-boy.

**UKRavenStockers** · 10-15-2007, 10:08 AM

Simms is just plain awful in my opinion. He never picks up anything the first time around, he does way too much name dropping and just generally doesn't analyse the game. He just says oh I was talking to (starting QB) on Friday and he said they wanted to look for such and such (usually the #1 WR) a lot today and expected the oppo not to be expecting it. Where as many of the guys who get the lower games down actually analyse the plays and explain how players got open on the play, where the coverage was broken down, key blocks etc.

But by far Simms' worst trait is that he'll usually say at least once a game: "I told you they'd do that" when he hasn't said anything of the sort. He's just an awful game analyst and I'd love to see him and Joe Buck put in a broadcast team together so I could just avoid their games like the plague, it's the only decent thing for them to do. That'd then allow their superior colleagues in their respective announce teams (Nantz and Aikman) to form what would be an excellent announce team.

One commentator who I want back in the booth is Joe Thiessman. He was annyoing at times but I don't think there's a single colour guy around who gives a better account of what a QB should be doing in every single game situation than Joe T. He works very well in a 3 man booth just chipping in with what a QB should be doing when a young kid is making fundamental errors, what needs to be done in a 2 minute drill between plays etc. I think there was a Sunday Night game two or three years ago where Mike Patrick and Paul Maguire just almost left him to talk through a Manning two minute drill and it was really impressive.

**highwater** · 10-15-2007, 10:43 AM

Originally Posted by UKRavenStockers

One commentator who I want back in the booth is Joe Thiessman.

UK, you have GOT to be kidding. Are you sure you don't have Theisman and Simms mixed up, because every complaint you had about Simms could be applied to Thiesman. Thiesman would not only contridict himself from game to game, but quarter to quarter! I remember one Sunday night game when he had been saying that some team just couldn't pass deep against the other team, and then when said team did in fact complete a long pass, instead of admitting he was wrong, he actually acted as though he had predicted this would happen. I really think he can't keep track of what he says during the course of a game.

For some reason, I actually thought he was okay on the ESPN Sunday night crew with Mike Patrick and Paul McGuire, but I thought he was awful on MNF last year.

As far as Simms goes, you may be right, as I haven't seen him call a game yet this year, as far as I can recall. I do agree that Nantz and Aikman would be a good team.

**Mwjergs** · 10-15-2007, 10:49 AM

Please, the team the Ravens always seem to get stuck with is Gus Johnson and Brent Jones. They are without a doubt the Z team in the CBS structure.

Rosen wasn't bad, but Ryan was your typical non-descript former player. He didn't offer any great insight into the game at all.

**Losac** · 10-15-2007, 11:03 AM

Gus Johnson is terrible. He seems to get excited over every play like it's the Super Bowl. The Ravens always draw the Z-teams.

I do agree that Fox's announcing crews are far and away better than CBS's.

**UKRavenStockers** · 10-15-2007, 11:25 AM

Originally Posted by highwater

UK, you have GOT to be kidding. Are you sure you don't have Theisman and Simms mixed up, because every complaint you had about Simms could be applied to Thiesman. Thiesman would not only contridict himself from game to game, but quarter to quarter! I remember one Sunday night game when he had been saying that some team just couldn't pass deep against the other team, and then when said team did in fact complete a long pass, instead of admitting he was wrong, he actually acted as though he had predicted this would happen. I really think he can't keep track of what he says during the course of a game.

For some reason, I actually thought he was okay on the ESPN Sunday night crew with Mike Patrick and Paul McGuire, but I thought he was awful on MNF last year.

As far as Simms goes, you may be right, as I haven't seen him call a game yet this year, as far as I can recall. I do agree that Nantz and Aikman would be a good team.

Nope, not kidding on Thiessman and I'd totally agree with you on Joe T being terrible on MNF last season, but that whole crew was pretty terrible last year, but it's been almost immeasurably better this year thanks to Tirico (who does a great job on play by play) and Jaws who I think has tranisitioned very well to the booth having been a very good studio analyst before now. Now they just need to boot Kornheiser back to PTI and nothing more and we'll be away.

Simms I just don't get along with in commentary, he doesn't analyse the game in any depth which from a former QB is inexcusable in my opinion. What I want from a colour analyst is to break down the game beyond what I can see from the original camera angle (which is usually looking into the secondary because until the ball gets there you really can't see anything on the camera angle they use. That's one thing Simms does wrong, he pretty much just lets Nantz run play by play on the replays which doesn't tell us anything we don't know already.

ESPN's MNF crew has a similar problem in that they let Kornheiser do too many of the play breaks having the camera go to the booth looking at them talking rather than running more replays say from behind the LOS or looking at the secondary to break the game down with Jaworski. This is something that I think Madden and Michaels do very well, barring the start of the game where you have the intros I think they run a lot of good replays to show you the game from different angles and to see who's made the key blocks on a play, who's blown their coverage, which LB has overpursued (can be seen from a conventional camera but is much clearer from a camera looking endzone to endzone. This is getting on to a different tact a little, but ESPN have by far the worst presentation style of the four networks that cover the games. It's far too much about the aesthetics and not actually showing us the game, I think they miss more plays through showing poorly timed replays than the other three networks as well.