Tag: Cris Collinsworth

NFL fans questioned Cris Collinsworth’s repeated praise of the struggling Tyson Bagent

Cris Collinsworth’s bizarre praise of Tyson Bagent went overboard.

We knew what we were getting ourselves into with the Chicago Bears and Los Angeles Chargers squaring off on Sunday Night Football. In a matchup between two teams with a combined four wins coming in, there probably wouldn’t be much good football. Factor in an inexperienced former Division II player like Tyson Bagent starting at quarterback for Chicago, and a chance at exciting fireworks was implausible.

Well, unless you’re NBC announcer Cris Collinsworth, apparently.

Throughout the evening, NFL fans started to notice how Collinsworth kept praising Bagent despite him not achieving much of anything of note. On a night when the Bears were down 30-7 at the start of the fourth quarter (and would lose 30-13), Collinsworth repeatedly made it a point to discuss just how impressive Bagent’s “leadership” was.

Never mind that Bagent threw two picks and was mostly ineffective:

What was particularly striking to many was how Collinsworth said that Chicago incumbent starter Justin Fields could “study” from Bagent’s style of play. Again, Bagent was pretty nondescript, even awful sometimes, and Collinsworth said this with the Bears down over three scores:

Finally, while the conversation never really stopped, we ended with Collinsworth giving Bagent his flowers for throwing the ball away randomly in the middle of the field … who would then throw an interception on the very next play:

None of this is to detract from Bagent’s great story. In two starts for Chicago, it’s obvious he has the composed skill set of a guy who could be a quality long-term backup. Coming out of Division II and achieving this (gestures broadly) should be considered a massive win for Bagent.

But it’s also obvious Bagent doesn’t possess the ability to be a viable full-time starter. And Collinsworth going out of his way to specifically pump Bagent up while he struggled all evening was pretty ridiculous. That isn’t to say Justin Fields is the Bears’ long-term answer either — he probably isn’t — but he’s definitely better than Bagent. It’s not even a question, and it’s not a stretch to say Collinsworth went overboard.

Twitter reacts to Chargers’ 30-13 win over the Bears

Here is a look at some of the best social media posts to emerge from the Los Angeles Chargers’ 30-13 win over the Chicago Bears in Week 8.

NFL fans were treated to a game of the week featuring the 2-5 Chicago Bears and the 2-4 Los Angeles Chargers. Imagine waiting all day for Sunday night to feature two sub-.500 squads.

The Bears were riding the feel good story of undrafted rookie Tyler Bagent, who is filling in for presumptive face of the franchise Justin Fields. Coming off a win in his first career start, Bagent went 25-of-37 for 232 yards and two interceptions.

Justin Fields pulled the Chargers out of the dark place with three touchdowns as part of his 31-of-40 for 298 yards.

Twitter was replete with remarks throughout the contest. Here are among some of the best.

NFL fans roasted Cris Collinsworth for trying to argue that Patrick Mahomes is underrated

Oh, c’mon, Cris Collinsworth.

The 2023 NFL season is here, and Cris Collinsworth is back with another head-scratching piece of commentary from the NBC broadcast booth.

While discussing the Kansas City Chiefs missing guys like Travis Kelce and Chris Jones in the lineup, Collinsworth tried to make a point about how Mahomes would still be able to carry his team in their absences.

Well, Collinsworth went so far as to indicate that the game would be what really makes America wake up to the fact that Mahomes is really good at football.

“I think America is about to find out how good he really is,” Collinsworth said on the broadcast ahead of Thursday night’s Chiefs home game against the Detroit Lions.

Uh… sure?

Patrick Mahomes: two-time Super Bowl winner, former league MVP, underrated NFL player ready to make himself known to the United States.

Okay, everyone who is even vaguely aware of what football is knows that Patrick Mahomes is really good at football.

He’s already one of the best quarterbacks of all time, and him winning a game while missing players would be just another reminder of that instead of some sort of grand awakening for the public consciousness.

As you could imagine, NFL fans poked some fun at Collinsworth for very awkwardly stating the obvious.

Cris Collinsworth: Giants’ Daniel Jones plays the game like Patrick Mahomes

Cris Collinsworth says he sees a little Aaron Rodgers, Joe Burrow and Patrick Mahomes in New York Giants QB Daniel Jones.

New York Giants quarterback Daniel Jones is always under a microscope. Some fans love him, others want to get rid of him, and they all have an opinion on the best way to use him. But fans aren’t experts.

Retired player and current NFL analyst, Cris Collinsworth, appeared on The Herd earlier this week and he had some interesting things to say about the Giants QB.

“I’m gonna figure out exactly what it is that makes Daniel Jones tick,” Collinsworth said. “After the first five games [of last season] that I’ve seen, or something like that, I would say that he is — and boy, people are gonna scream when they hear this — but he plays the game a little like Patrick Mahomes.”

Collinsworth goes on to compare Jones’ game to that of Mahomes, and further brings in Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers, and Joe Burrow for comparison as well.

Jones’ journey is vastly different from that of Mahomes. Imagine if Jones had the same kind of consistency with his coaching staff and teammates that Mahomes has had. Instead, Jones has seen three different coaches and an entirely new front office staff during his five years in New York.

That all seems to be changing under Brian Daboll, though. There has been consistency, there has been improvement and the team is rallying together to make this season even better than last season.

Ideally, with some of that consistency, Jones will be able to establish himself and show the NFL world that he really is an elite quarterback and deserves to be in the elite conversation.

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Cris Collinsworth finally picks the Bengals to win the Super Bowl

It finally happened.

Former Cincinnati Bengals great Cris Collinsworth doesn’t usually pick the team to win the big one.

That’s changed this year.

Appearing on “Good Morning Football,” Collinsworth reinforced his recent comments about the Bengals being his Super Bowl pick this year.

“I’m picking the Cincinnati Bengals for the first time in my entire life,” Collinsworth said. “I think that Joe Burrow is too good to not have a ring on his finger. Look at the skill positions around this guy…which team’s skill position players would you rather have?”

Collinsworth also throws out an interesting note on the topic of the AFC North, saying that the brutally tough division actually helps the team in a battle-tested sense by the time the playoffs arrive.

Bengals fans would likely be inclined to cautiously agree, especially now that it appears — thanks to the latest Joe Burrow injury updates — that things will be just fine under center for Week 1.

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Florida football alumnus inducted into Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame

This Gators legend got some much-deserved recognition last week.

Florida football legend [autotag]Cris Collinsworth[/autotag], who played wide receiver from 1977 to 1980 for the Gators before going on to have a solid NFL career, added some more hardware to his mantle last Thursday. The Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame announced the UF alumnus as a member of the 2023 class in recognition of his spectacular career on the airwaves after his playing days.

In Gainesville, Collinsworth was a three-time All-SEC and two-time All-American, which led to his induction into the UF Athletic Hall of Fame in 1991. That effort also netted him a second-round selection (37th pick overall) for the Cincinnati Bengals, with whom he earned the Rookie of the Year award in 1981 and made three Pro Bowls. Stats-wise, he caught 417 receptions for 6,698 yards and 36 touchdowns over eight seasons.

After hanging up his cleats, the Gator great switched to broadcasting — a realm he flourished in much like on the gridiron. Collinsworth’s second career began in 1990 when he joined NBC Sports as a game analyst for NFL as well as selected college football broadcasts. Aside from the legendary John Madden, he is the only NFL analyst to earn a Sports Emmy for Outstanding Sports Event Analyst, bringing home nine of them in his career.

Collinsworth currently works alongside Mike Tirico in the NBC Sunday Night Football announcer’s booth.

This year’s inductees also include Val Ackerman, Big East Conference commissioner and first president of the WNBA; Lance Barrow, former CBS Sports producer; Tom Fletcher, inventor of the super-slo-mo camera and other innovations; Steve Hellmuth, former NBA EVP, media operations and technology; Ernie Johnson, long-time NBA on TNT studio-show host; Andrea Joyce, leading sports reporter; Tony Petitti, Big Ten Conference Commissioner and former TV-network executive; Jeff Zachary, legendary camera operator.

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Even Justin Simmons thinks Cris Collinsworth praises Patrick Mahomes too much

Fortunately, Patrick Mahomes won’t play in another game called by Cris Collinsworth this postseason.

Patrick Mahomes is one of the best — or perhaps the best — quarterback in the NFL. Everyone knows that.

Not everyone likes to be reminded about it.

Some fans have grown tired of how much Sunday Night Football commentator Cris Collinsworth gushes with praise for Mahomes every time the Kansas City Chiefs have a game on NBC.

During the divisional round of the playoffs, Collinsworth suggested one of Trevor Lawrence’s incomplete passes was overthrown (Twitter disagreed). In the same game, Collinsworth said Mahomes’ near-fumble on an incomplete pass was “a heck of a play.”

Fans on Twitter called out Collinsworth for his apparent favoritism, and even Denver Broncos safety Justin Simmons chimed in:

Collinsworth seems to believe Mahomes can do no wrong. At least that’s what some fans on Twitter have suggested.

Cris Collinsworth called a perfect Trevor Lawrence pass an ‘overthrow’ and NFL fans roasted his WR bias

Not really sure what Collinsworth saw here!

With Patrick Mahomes clearly not at 100 percent, the Jacksonville Jaguars had a ripe opportunity for a divisional-round upset on Saturday afternoon. But they still had to play the game. They still had to take advantage of openings the Kansas City Chiefs would leave them when they came. That seemed to be a bit of a struggle!

Take this offensive play from the late second quarter.

Trevor Lawrence launched an absolutely beautiful deep toss to Christian Kirk, who got behind two Chiefs’ defensive backs on a play that should’ve put the Jaguars in the red zone. Except Kirk dropped it. Woof.

In his live analysis of the play, NBC color commentator Cris Collinsworth called Lawrence’s perfect pass an “overthrow.” I’m curious as to what he was watching because the Jaguars’ star QB dropped it in the bucket for Kirk:

To be clear, Kirk was still enjoying a solid game. Even though he was underperforming his pregame over and under of 62.5 receiving yards through three quarters, Kirk still had Jacksonville’s lone touchdown at the time. He still acted as Lawrence’s security blanket and primary option, and that is not to be taken lightly in a postseason game.

Still, in a tight playoff battle, if you were the Jaguars, you would’ve hoped to see the playmaker come through for his quarterback on a pass that traveled over 60 yards in the air. Because Collinsworth was wrong: Lawrence did not overthrow his receiver. At all.

Cris Collinsworth breaking down the Eagles’ unstoppable ‘double cheek push’ play had Mike Tirico dying

A perfect call of a perfect play.

Cris Collinsworth simply told it like it was on Sunday Night Football as he watched and commented on the Philadelphia Eagles beating the Green Bay Packers.

The NBC analyst broke down a play in which the Eagles help push Jalen Hurts in a quarterback sneak to get a first down. The name it’s called?

“The Double Cheek Push.”

Yes, those two cheeks.

And you have to watch the video, because his SNF broadcast partner can’t stop laughing at it, like the rest of us.

“Did you have to give it to all of America?” Tirico asked.

“Yes,” Collinsworth replied.

Fantastic television.

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