How did CBS do with its Cleveland Browns-Kansas City Chiefs playoff coverage?

CLEVELAND, Ohio – The Cleveland Browns, fresh off of successive wins against Pittsburgh, met the Kansas City Chiefs in a divisional playoff game Sunday. We break down CBS’ coverage – commentary to camera angles, quotes, sounds of the game and more. Kansas City won, 22-17.

Jim Nantz (play by play) and Tony Romo (analyst) worked the game with Lisa Wolfson (Chiefs sideline) and Evan Washburn (Browns sideline).

The defending Super Bowl champs met a Cleveland team that has “been awakened,” Nantz said in a pregame lead-in. Nantz is a pro who is more animated with his football coverage than the more staid golf matches he calls. Romo has some insight but needs to tone down the loud yuck-yuck comments.

• It was the 60th consecutive game – regular or postseason – the Chiefs have led at some point.

• When Harrison Butker hit a 50-yard field goal with 3:09 to go in the first half, it was the longest postseason field goal at Arrowhead Stadium.

• Going into the third quarter the network showed a telling statistic: The Browns average 148.4 yards rushing. Sunday, they were held to 18 as of halftime.

• To show that football is not immune from the statistical obsession baseball embraces, we learn that Tyreek Hill leads the league with 10 receiving touchdowns on crossing routes since 2018.

• As the third quarter wound down, Nantz noted how the game had only one punt.

Cleveland Browns

Cleveland Browns

The Browns’ playoff run ends with the 22-17 loss at Kansas City.

Romo on the Browns

• “This game is about the Browns offensive line.”

• “This is where the game is gonna come down to … this is not a team that you need to disguise trying to do a whole bunch of stuff with. Just line up and play because they’re going to line up and play against you.”

• “I really think the Browns played a pretty good half. Just a turnover and penalties, right?”

• “They just need Tyreek Hill and (Patrick) Mahomes to play for the Browns.” – Romo, right before the third quarter started with Cleveland down, 19-3.

• “Cleveland you have a chance to take the lead at Kansas City in the fourth quarter, who would have thought? Unbelievable.” – after Karl Joseph intercepted Chad Henne with eight minutes to go in the game. The answer is several thousand Browns fans.

• For Baker Mayfield, this is the drive of your life,” after a fourth-quarter quarterback sneak gave the Browns a first down with the Chiefs ahead, 22-17.

Nantz quotes

• “That pylon’s been taking a beating,” on the many replays from the end-zone ground-level cameras.

“If that’s not a concussion then I don’t know what one is,” after Wolfson reported that Mahomes, shown woozy when he left the game, was being examined in the locker room in the third quarter.

Controversy of the game

When Rashard Higgins fumbled trying to extend the ball over the goal line, cameras caught him suffering a helmet-to-helmet hit. That play hurt the Browns: They didn’t score, they didn’t have a penalty called, and they lost the ball. If you kept the volume up during halftime, you would have heard the studio crew collectively lament the play should not result in a touchback.

Would have like to have heard / seen

• Attendance. It’s getting rare to hear on a national telecast what the attendance is at games. Covid restrictions vary by state, and I’d to know what Missouri’s attendance limit is.

• There has got to be an explainer at times of the sport’s nomenclature for the casual fan. Analysts routinely dropped in terminology like Romo did with “hot route” (when a QB changes up a running back’s route based on reading a defensive scheme) and “go route” (same as a fly route, where a receiver heads straight up field, no fakes or zig-zags).

Tweet of the game

(It should be noted Kansas City was called for seven penalties vs. Cleveland’s three.)

This and that

• Nantz noted Kansas City tight end Travis Kelce was a Cleveland Heights High School graduate and grew up a Browns fan.

• Ads featuring both Mayfield (Progressive Insurance) and Mahomes (State Farm) aired.

• “Walk Away” from Cleveland’s James Gang segued out of the Browns’ touchdown in the third quarter.

• Cameras caught commissioner Roger Goodell at the game.

• Cameras showed Hill shoving a coach on the sidelines. Good to see it was addressed after the commercial break.

• On the Chiefs’ fourth-down play with a minute to go you could hear what appears to be Kansas City quarterback Henne calling to his teammates “Hey hold up, hold up, hold up! We gotta wait for the clock.” A residual effect of fewer fans in stadiums has meant more vocal calls on the field being picked up all season.

• Is there not a mute button on microphones for coughing? Veteran announcer James Brown had a fit in postgame.

Did you catch…

…former Pittsburgh Steelers coach Bill Cowher lauding Browns coach Kevin Stefanski, saying in postgame, “For them to be there in the fourth quarter with a chance to win the football game, he has reestablished the culture in Cleveland.” More respect: Tyrann Mathieu also lauded the Browns’ offense in his postgame interview with Wolfson.

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