i enjoyed the game but ITVs coverage was dire:
1) gabby yorath - patently had no clue. kept referring to dhani jones as a legend. jones couldn't keep a straight face. he's not even the eagles best linebacker, let alone a legend. the poor guy. by the end of the show, yorath was either drunk or being kept awake by a dripfeed of caffeine which was only just keeping her eyes open. why does television foist people like this upon us?
2) martin johnson - had a vague idea, but OH MAN HE PLAYS RUGBY WHICH HAS AN OVAL BALL SO OBVIOUSLY HE IS THE RIGHT GUY TO TELL US ABOUT THIS 'GRID IRON' THING! saints alive. i am sick of being patronised by tv companies when it comes to this sport. its been on telly here for 20 years now - and still they treat us like morons.
3) the rolling stones / half time show - half an hour! half a bloody hour! can you imagine if there was a half hour break during the FA Cup Final? there'd be a riot!
itv could have solved most of the problems by just utilising Gary Imlach. the guy knows american football inside out, is eloquent, intelligent and is a good presenter. totally wasted by itv's incompetence and desperate attempts to appeal to people who don't care about watching the game but just want an excuse to eat hot dogs and get wasted on a sunday night.
also i would say that stats are a huge component of american football and contribute a lot to the understanding of the game, although frequently they are used out of context to explain something that isn't true - e.g. WOAH, WHEN PITTSBURGH GETS 100+ YARDS RUSHING THEY ARE 40-0! they didn't win because they got 100 yards rushing, the got 100+ yards rushing because they won.