Sports

NBC didn’t let Jets fans know much

What happened? When did paying attention to the game become a distinct impossibility among the nation’s biggest, best-equipped TV networks? When did “just pay attention to the game” become too much for a national audience to ask?

Had it been a preseason game, NBC’s butchered “coverage” of Saturday’s Jets-Bengals game could have been suffered, but, holy Weeb Ewbank and for Pete Lammons’ sake (Jets TE, 1966-71), it was a playoff game!

Just a few lowlights: NBC didn’t bother with the game’s biggest penalty call. Third quarter, Jay Feely’s field goal to put the Jets up, 17-7, was wiped out by a penalty. A penalty on whom? For what?

Danged if NBC was gonna let us know, not when we could hear ex-ESPN windbag Joe Theismann and Joe Gibbs run on about this and that, hoo and ha. Play-by-player Tom Hammond correctly called it “a huge penalty,” adding that it cost the Jets “five yards.” Then he dropped the subject.

But Feely, who’d just kicked from the 32, was preparing to kick from the 42, a try also wiped by a penalty.

All we knew after Feely’s first try was what was barely heard in the background from the ref’s microphone: The flag, whatever it was, was on “No. 75” (backup OL Robert Turner). A look at the play-by-play sheet yesterday provided the day-after news that it was a 10-yarder for holding. Who knew?

But for knowing that Charles Barkley, for no good reason, would host “Saturday Night Live,” baby, you were tuned to the right network.

It grew worse. At 24-14, 5:33 left and the Bengals in a must-pass mode, Jets CB Dwight Lowery went down and out. Big one. Who replaced him? NBC didn’t bother with such info.

All we knew is that nine plays later, Lowery magically reappeared on the field — not that NBC noticed or noted that, either.

With 4:50 left and Cincy still in desperate pass mode, WR Laveranues Coles went down and out. Who replaced him? None of our business. But we guessed Quan Cosby — he hadn’t been seen all half and suddenly became Carson Palmer’s go-to guy.

And with 4:18 left, Jets CB Drew Coleman left the game, injured. Who replaced him? Maybe it was Lowery, maybe not. How would we know? We were watching the game on TV!

Theismann, late first half, couldn’t even simply say that Cincy had no timeouts left and the Jets had three; he actually used a Telestrator to make that point. And some essential info graphics were pulled from the “So What?” bin. “Shonn Greene third rookie since 2000 to rush for 100 yards in a playoff game.” Let’s say it together: “So what?”

I take it back. Had it been a preseason game telecast it still would have been dreadful.

Francesa too quick to judge

Ready, Fire, Aim! Mike Francesa yesterday ripped Jets punter Steve Weatherford for being soft, for being in the ballpark but not playing — until Francesa, clued in by Joe Benigno, became the last to know that Weatherford had been held out with an irregular heartbeat.

* Fox, during Packers-Cards, made good on a bad graphic, one that first read that Green Bay hadn’t trailed by 14 points all season.

The Pack, as Fox later noted, had been down 21 to the Vikes.

* SNY’s “Jets Game Plan” had Greg Buttle compare the Jets and Cincy defenses, which team would have “the edge,” head-to-head, among DLs, LBs and DBs. But defenses don’t play each other. Why not instead provide offense vs. defense?

*ESPN field reporter Rachel Nichols, Saturday, sustained her streak of reporting on Rachel Nichols. Reporting on the Jets, she seven times, in two minutes, referred to herself (“Rex Ryan told me,” “I’m told”).

She also seemed to think that games, regardless of the score, are scripted: “I’m told the Jets plan to run 65-70 percent of the time” and will change “30 percent of their defensive looks.”

* As heard yesterday, the playoffs cause CBS’s NFL pregame panelists to force even louder, longer belly laughing than during the regular season.

Either there’s something funny going on off-camera, or all five of them think nothing much is hysterical. It’s a turn-off. Literally.

Never mind the game . . . here’s more Jerry Jones

NBC, during the Eagles-Cowboys game, presented 11 shots of Jerry Jones — in just the first half. Al Michaels kissed his ring. There was no mention that Jones doubled ticket and parking prices.

* NBC sideline pro Andrea Kremer, from Texas, finished a strong year with a strong telecast. Her reports on essentials such as field and weather conditions were brief, clear, useful.

* During an NHL on NBC promo within the Jets-Bengals game, Hammond had Red Wings’ star Nicklas Lidstrom playing for Chicago.

* The first 59 seconds of the Jets-Bengals telecast — injury, turnover, replay challenge — included three commercial breaks.

* Even during a dim-out — Friday’s, for example — the Devils’ MSG team, Doc Emrick and Chico Resch, made for a fun listen. “This looks like Muskegon or Toledo lighting,” said Resch. Emrick recalled “Harkness Darkness,” named for the late NHL and NCAA coach Ned Harkness. Emrick said that when a Harkness college team was losing at home, rinks could suddenly lose electricity. Apparently, the TV audience knew Friday’s Lightning-Devils was kaput before the in-house patrons. That ain’t right.