The biggest mismatch of the Wild Card Game between the Buffalo Bills and Houston Texans on Saturday was Booger McFarland trying to analyze the game in real-time.
The ESPN announcer, who is frequently criticized for his analysis on “Monday Night Football,” gave critics even more ammunition during the game. In the second quarter, he blamed Josh Allen for a pass when everyone else thought the mistake was on wide receiver John Brown.
Later in the game, when the spotlight was on, Booger could not have been worse. In the final 20 seconds of regulation, McFarland suggested the Bills, who had no timeouts, run a draw on third down and then spike it. It obviously didn’t occur to him that the Bills would be spiking on fourth down in that scenario.
Booger wanted the Bills to run a draw and spike it.
It was 3rd and 10 when he said this. pic.twitter.com/sysDpYv1za
— Barstool Sports (@BarstoolsTweets) January 5, 2020
People noticed that blunder right away.
Did Booger just say run a draw play on third and 10 and then spike it?
Spike it on fourth down?
— John Clark (@JClarkNBCS) January 5, 2020
Booger wants a draw on third down so you can spike it on fourth.
— JJ Zachariason (@LateRoundQB) January 5, 2020
Get a few yards and spike it on fourth down good call booger good idea
— Dan Steinberg (@dcsportsbog) January 5, 2020
McFarland is paid to give high-level analysis and expertise. He could not have been more off-the-mark in both regards.
McFarland also said the Bills would have to bring out the field goal team, even though they already had the unit on the field.
Both McFarland and Joe Tessitore also had their analysis completely incorrect when the referees were reviewing a spot on a Cole Beasley catch. The refs correctly gave Beasley a first down while Tessitore and McFarland were talking about where he was touched in midair, as if that mattered.
ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” crew has been criticized since Jason Witten was a part of it last year. Witten returned to the NFL, McFarland joined Tessitore in the booth, and the analysis is just as bad as it was before. They need to clean things up because this is embarrassing.
