1. We all know fans don’t watch games for broadcasters, but broadcasters can absolutely enhance or take away from your enjoyment of a game.

CBS’s Spero Dedes and Adam Archuleta definitely conveyed the insanity of Sunday’s Bears-Bengals game that saw three touchdowns in the final 1:43 of the fourth quarter.

I got a chuckle out of how CBS’s Spero Dedes called the end of the wild shoot-out on Sunday.

With Cincinnati down 41–27, Dedes didn’t have a ton of emotion in his call when Noah Fant caught a touchdown pass with 1:43 left to cut the lead to 41-35. Dedes was giving off, “this is a meaningless touchdown and the game is over” vibes.

And who could blame him? The Bengals had no timeouts left, so all the Bears had to do was recover the onside kick and take three knees to end the game.

However, after the Bengals recovered the onside kick, Dedes then lost his mind when Joe Flacco hit Andrei Iosivas with a touchdown pass to give Cincy the lead with 54 seconds remaining.

Dedes, along with partner Adam Archuleta, then did an outstanding job summing up the absurdity of the game-winning touchdown pass Caleb Williams tossed to tight end Colston Loveland with a GREAT call.

2. There might not be anything sports fans love more than a Game 7.

Saturday’s deciding World Series game between the Dodgers and Blue Jays drew 25.98 viewers for Fox. The audience peaked at 31.5 million viewers between 11:30 and 11:45 p.m. ET. And those numbers only include the U.S. audience for the game.

3. For years, many people said the addition of a rules expert was one of the best innovations in sports television.

I have gone the other way and have said that most of the times, the rules analysts add nothing. In addition, the rules analyst also get stuff wrong. A LOT.

We had two cases this weekend of rules analysts just adding more confusion to a game.

Fox’s MLB rules analyst, Mark Carlson, went on TV during Game 7 and basically said Shohei Ohtani is allowed to do whatever he wants.

On Sunday, CBS’s Gene Steratore said an intentional grounding call against Patrick Mahomes would be reviewed and overturned. The call not was not reviewed, nor overturned.

4. I was bummed to hear about the passing of former NBC NFL analyst Bob Trumpy on Sunday.

Trumpy’s voice instantly takes me back to when I started to become a football fan as a kid. I’m old, so my first memories of watching the NFL on TV are defined by Pat Summerall, John Madden, Dick Enberg, Merlen Olsen and Trumpy. 

5. I love a good gambling story, so this one, from Barstool’s Jersey Jerry, warmed my heart on Sunday.

A four-leg parlay featuring J.J. McCarthy, Daniel Jones, Caleb Williams and Trevor Lawrence to score touchdowns hit late in the day on Sunday when Lawrence scrambled for an 8-yard score. The $200 wager paid out more than $95,000.

The reaction was so pure. This is why we bet.

6. The latest SI Media With Jimmy Traina features a conversation with The Ringer’s Bryan Curtis.

The host of The Press Box podcast weighs in on all the latest sports media news. Topics discussed include: ESPN’s coverage of the Terry Rozier and Chauncey Billups gambling scandals; Inside the NBA’s debut on ESPN; NBC’s use of Michael Jordan as a “special contributor”; Joe Davis’s performance calling the World Series, Stephen A. Smith continuing to go after LeBron James; ESPN’s massive win with SEC football; USC football’s lack of national appeal; Scott Van Pelt possibly moving from midnight to 5 p.m. and much more.

Following Curtis, Sal Licata from WFAN radio and SNY TV in New York joins me for our weekly “Traina Thoughts” segment. This week, we discuss Netflix’s new documentary on the Montreal Expos, my victory over Sal in our college football betting pool, this week’s monster Chiefs-Bills game, a birthday party scam, Halloween and more. You can listen to theSI Media With Jimmy Trainapodcast below or onAppleandSpotify.

You can listen to the SI Media With Jimmy Traina podcast below or on Apple and Spotify.

You can also watch SI Media With Jimmy Traina on YouTube.

7. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: Happy 72nd birthday to Dennis Miller. His run on Monday Night Football is definitely one of those things that I wished happened in the Twitter Era.

Be sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and check out the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast hosted by Jimmy Traina on Apple, Spotify or Google. You can also follow Jimmy on X and Instagram.


This article was originally published on www.si.com as CBS’s Spero Dedes Perfectly Summed Up Bears-Bengals Roller Coaster With His TD Calls.

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