The Crew
Pre-game host: Bruce Cunningham
Game Commentators: Dick Stockton & Daryl Johnston
The pre-game show got off to a good start with the opening having nice video footage and a great audio quote by Terrell Suggs talking about “unfinished businessâ€.
I expected an interview with coach Billick and that was granted in the first segment. This was solid, but the camera shot switching between a one-shot and two-shot is just annoying. Trust me, sports fans don’t need to feel like we are watching MTV’s “Real World†during a sideline interview.
During the second segment there was a nice graphic of recent roster moves. I would expect to see this kind of information displayed for the rest of the preseason games as well so the MW will keep a close eye out for this.
I was also hoping to see something about new rules for the 2007 season and Rave-TV delivered in fine fashion with a well-done explanation of the new “no-spike†rule. Everything about this little piece was good…the video, audio and timing.
At this point the broadcast is going well…but wait, Rave-TV hasn’t crossed the goal-line yet. Host Bruce Cunningham mistakenly said Adam Terry played guard…when he actually plays tackle. This is no big deal, but for the sake of a media review it has to be mentioned.
There were two large gaffs in the pre-game. There was never a graphic listing all the new draft picks and the Player Profile segment was so bad it was laughable. Somebody at Rave-TV thought five minutes of Mike Flynn speaking baby talk with his new toddler would be entertaining…guess again. It was nothing more than Flynn telling his kid to smile at the camera and changing diapers. This had to be a last minute decision on a Friday before the producers bolted for happy hour.
As for the actual game broadcast, let’s start with the highlights.
Just before kickoff Daryl Johnston did a nice job of setting up the Ravens Red zone scoring troubles storyline. There is little doubt this will be an ongoing topic during the season and discussing it early in the broadcast was a good call.
When returning from break after the Ravens opening possession scoring drive the highlight montage and scoring summary graphic was right on…I felt like I was watching ESPN for a minute.
The QB stats were updated throughout the game, but it would have been nice to see a graphic comparing all the Ravens quarterbacks.
Now, onto the lowlights.
The first thing I noticed was the scoreboard that had a logo for AirTran. It was practically unreadable since the logo was dark blue on a black background….not good.
On the starting lineup graphics it would have been nice if a rookie was designated by an asterisk or highlighted. Often during a college football broadcast you see true freshman that start highlighted; the same principle applies here.
Although the QB stats were updated regularly, the shells did not include the rating. Personally I like to see the QB rating and most telecasts include this stat.
Team stats were mainly updated after each quarter; in game updates were few. Every game tells a story with numbers. Believe me when I say fans can’t get enough stat updates.
At halftime the scoreboard was incorrect as it read 10-3 when the score was 13-3. Dick Stockton compounded the gaff by voicing the wrong score too. Here is a case where the producer should have caught the error and notified Stockton in time so he could at least voice the correct score before going to break.
When Eagles RB Ryan Moats was hurt and the game was stopped for almost 10 minutes he was never identified. There was ample time to display his bio, 2006 stats and career stats. In this case where there was some dead time, the producers needed to do something to keep the pace going…this time they completely dropped the ball.
GRADE: C
Training camp coverage standings after week 2:
1) Profootball24X7.com
2) WNST 1570 AM radio
3) Comcast-TV
4) ESPN 1300 AM radio
5) WBAL 1090 AM radio
6) Baltimoresun.com
