CBS had the honor of holding the Week 16 national afternoon game in the NFL this week, and thought they might have an important one with the Steelers going on the road to face the Chiefs, with Kansas City needing a win to lock up the AFC West and Pittsburgh needing a win to stay in a wild card spot.
However, it became quickly apparent that the Steelers were not up to the task, particularly with TJ Watt banged up, as a Travis Kelce-less Chiefs offense lit them up for 30 points in the first three quarters, while Pittsburgh could only muster up an incredibly sad field goal late in the third while already trailing 30-0. In the end, Kansas City won 36-10 after almost a full quarter of garbage time, which led CBS to make the decision to flip to a more competitive game between the Broncos and Raiders.
The decision itself was sound, but the execution of it was hilarious, as they waited until the moment the Chiefs trotted Chad Henne out onto the field in place of Patrick Mahomes (after a Ben Roethlisberger interception took the game to commercial break). As soon as Henne appeared under center, the feed abruptly cut to the studio, where Nate Burleson said they’d be going to Las Vegas coming out of the two-minute warning in a 17-13 game, taking everyone back to commercial rather than showing Henne’s drive.
"Chad Henne? We out" – CBS pic.twitter.com/TVNFIwdutg
— CJ Fogler account may or may not be notable (@cjzero) December 26, 2021
Making it all even funnier is that just before the two minute warning, the Raiders had picked up a crucial first down while the Broncos were out of timeouts, meaning that after all of that, the national audience was treated to three Derek Carr kneeldowns to end the game. It was a rather hilarious instance of a broadcast trying to make the right decision but waiting too long and just taking viewers on an incredible ride of commercials and non-impactful football.
