CBS Sports aired the game of the week in its primo late afternoon slot. During a season in which the NFL’s TV ratings have dropped 7 percent, the nationally televised Week 15 game between AFC rivals and Super Bowl quarterbacks Tom Brady and Ben Roethlisberger delivered.
CBS drew a 17.0 household rating, up 8 percent from a 15.8 for last season’s comparable Pats-Broncos telecast. It was the highest rating for any NFL game on any TV network this season, according to CBS. It also was the network’s best NFL TV rating since 2015, when Pats-Giants and Chiefs-Broncos both drew 18.3 ratings.
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Sunday’s game came down to the final plays. After Steelers tight end Jesse James apparently caught a touchdown pass with 28 seconds to play, the call was reversed upon review and ruled an incompletion.
Even CBS’ Tony Romo and Jim Nantz were confused by the league’s catch rule. Both announcers thought it was a TD and wondered why the officials were taking so long to set up for the extra point attempt.
Writes Mark W. Sanchez in the New York Post:
MARVEZ: NFL catch rule confusion highlights persistent disconnect
Fox Sports rules analyst Mike Pereira said the replay officials at the league office were right to overturn the TD call on the field.
Super Bowl-winning coach Tony Dungy, however, was having none of it on NBC’s “Football Night in America.”
“In flag football, high school football, college football, any place you play football other than the NFL, that’s a touchdown,” Dungy said. “But because of Calvin Johnson in 2010 and trying to justify that, we have all these plays now that everybody knows are touchdowns, but now they’re incomplete passes.
“You have to tell your receivers, you can’t do that, you can’t reach out. You’ve got to just secure the ball.”
