Iowa kicker Drew Stevens made a dramatic 53-yard field goal as time expired in Friday’s game against Nebraska, giving the Hawkeyes a 13-10 win.
The camera angle that NBC viewers saw of the kick left something to be desired.
As Stevens lined up to kick the ball, the broadcast went to the camera behind the goalposts he was kicking to. The left upright (from the viewer’s perspective) was the only part of the goalpost visible to the television audience. When Stevens kicked the ball, the camera panned up to track the ball, moving the goalposts completely off the screen.
As the camera continued to track the ball, it picked the upright back up but another problem emerged. The ball was completely blocked by the scorebug. To be fair, before that happened, viewers could see that the ball was just inside of the upright to their left and moving toward the middle with a slight draw — even if only slightly. So, the kick was going to be on target.
But would it have the distance?
That was tougher to figure out, as the camera never picked the crossbar up while the ball was in the air.
Iowa’s Drew Stevens kicks a game winning 53 yard field goal against Nebraska… but viewers on NBC miss the ball actually going through the uprights. pic.twitter.com/ooC3ENmeCs
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) November 30, 2024
Viewers finally saw the crossbar at the same time announcer Paul Burmeister screamed “Got it.” At this point, viewers also saw the officials signaling that the kick was good.
We can trust that the kick was indeed good — we just would have liked to have seen it ourselves.
[Photo Credit: NBC]
