CBS Is Getting Screwed Over By the AFC
January 3, 2017
Wild Card weekend is finally here. Time for some cutthroat, nail-biting games from teams that just grinded out a playoff berth. Playoff-caliber teams fighting to stay alive. Electric offenses versus lockdown defenses! …Brock Osweiler versus Connor Cook? Ryan Tannehill and the Miami Dolphins? After a full regular season, this is all the AFC can muster for the first week of playoff action?
CBS is getting royally screwed over by the current imbalance of the NFL’s star power. CBS covers the AFC, while Fox Sports is blessed with coverage of the NFC. While Fox Sports gets to put on a show of elite quarterbacks (Russell Wilson, Aaron Rodgers, Eli Manning, Matt Ryan, Matt Stafford), CBS can only hang their hat on Brady and Big Ben. Fox Sports gets to nurture the story of Dak and Zeke, the dynamic rookies from the Cowboys. At CBS, that Raiders-Texans game lacks any sort of appeal outside the two fanbases. Houston is the least deserving team to make the playoffs for as long as I can remember. Oakland at least had a ton of potential, but Matt McGloin’s injury last week just added insult to injury. Expect a dull offense that heavily relies on Latavius Murray to protect rookie QB Connor Cook from self-inflicted wounds.
That’s not all for the AFC woes. The Miami Dolphins versus the Pittsburgh Steelers game has “blowout” written all over it. Antonio Brown and Le’Veon Bell are going up against a leaky Dolphins defense and a team that hasn’t tasted the playoffs since 2009. To put it simply, the AFC is top heavy with the Patriots. Most analysts can agree that the Pats are the team most likely to reach the Super Bowl from the AFC. In the NFC, however, you won’t find that agreement. Detroit vs. Seattle and New York vs. Green Bay will both be excellent games to watch. There is no single dominant team in the NFC and a case could be made for each playoff team making it to the Super Bowl. I am sure that the ratings will reflect this disparity between the AFC and NFC. The suits working at CBS TV must be panicking as they try to think of some way to hype up Connor Cook’s showdown with Brock Osweiler this weekend.
Written by Matt Loehle