Millions of fans watching Sunday’s matchup between the Baltimore Ravens and the Buffalo Bills were on the edge of their seatd late in the fourth quarter as the game was hanging in the balance. But those who were instead tuning into ESPN to get a sneak peek into Monday’s National Championship game also got a taste of what was happening on CBS in the Ravens-Bills game.
It looked like the Ravens were going to tie things up when Lamar Jackson drove the team 88 yards down the field in under two minutes of game time to put the Ravens within two points pending a two-point conversion try.
However, that all went out the window when Mark Andrews, a three-time Pro Bowler, could not haul in a perfect pass from Jackson on the two-point conversion try.
Jim Nantz & Tony Romo on the CBS call for the Mark Andrews drop.
“THE BALL IS DROPPED! HE HAD THE 2-POINT CONVERSION IN HIS HANDS! ANDREWS DID NOT HOLD ON!” – Nantz
“Oh my goodness.” – Romo
“It’s shocking.” – Nantz
“It’s shocking… That’s caught 999 out of 1,000.” – Romo https://t.co/Hcs8sQaey9 pic.twitter.com/CuWAPZ609w
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) January 20, 2025
Over on ESPN’s broadcast of Championship Drive previewing the looming Ohio State-Notre Dame National Championship Game, Kevin Negandhi began to speak about how SportsCenter with SVP would be running immediately after to break down the Ravens-Bills game.
“For our audience waiting for SVP, he will be on standby,” said Negandhi. “He’s going to join us in a few minutes after the finale of the Ravens-Bills game.”
Then, the entire cast, who was clearly watching the two-point conversion try on a television behind the scenes, reacted on-air to Andrews’ drop in a video shared by NFL RedZone host Scott Hanson on X.
“Oh!” yelled Booger McFarland.
“Might be sooner than we thought,” joked Greg McElroy.
“Sooner than later Kev,” said Joey Galloway. “My god. We can’t show that?”
ESPN was live previewing the natty when the 2-pt drop happened.
Here’s the live reaction from @KevinNegandhi @ESPNBooger @StanfordSteve82 Joey Galloway & @GregMcElroy … pic.twitter.com/gyNJWQQNof— Scott Hanson (@ScottHanson) January 20, 2025
You’ll rarely see a moment like this where the cast of any show is quite clearly sidetracked by a game on another network — which just goes to show how highly anticipated the Bills-Ravens matchup truly was.
Unfortunately for Mark Andrews, this is not the only set of media personalities who have already been quite critical of him following this crucial mistake. Another ESPN personality, Stephen A. Smith, placed the majority of the blame for the Ravens losing this game on him in a series of posts on X shortly after the game as well.
