It’s always fun when announcers discuss a streak that immediately ends, and that happened on NBC’s Sunday Night Football coverage of the New Orleans Saints-Tampa Bay Buccaneers game this week. With Tampa Bay trailing 31-0 in the third quarter (a deficit Tom Brady hadn’t seen in a few years), the Bucs’ Mike Edwards recovered a Drew Brees fumble and took it back 31 yards, setting up first and 10 at the 21.
That then turned into 1st and 10 at the 12 after a pass to Mike Evans, and 1st and goal at the one after a (controversial) pass interference call against Janoris Jenkins. And that led to Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth discussing how the Bucs had scored on every goal-to-go situation so far this year (in 22 attempts) and how the Saints had allowed a touchdown on every goal-to-go situation so far this year (in 13 attempts):
The Bucs were perfect on goal-to-go situations this year, and the Saints hadn't stopped a goal-to-go situation. But right after NBC discussed that, that changed. pic.twitter.com/z9OkgfP8T0
— Andrew Bucholtz (@AndrewBucholtz) November 9, 2020
And, yep, both of those streaks promptly came to an end. Brady threw an incomplete pass for Evans, then Ronald Jones II was stopped on a plunge, then Rob Gronkowski dropped a pass, and then Brady threw incomplete for Evans again, leading to a turnover on downs. If you had the right side on BetOnline for this game, hopefully the result turned out better for you!
That was certainly a notable stat, especially with the Bucs being perfect in that situation and the Saints being completely imperfect in that situation. And there isn’t actually an announcer jinx; it wasn’t what Michaels and Collinsworth said that caused this. But it was certainly funny to see that stat immediately change right after it was shown and discussed.
[Clippit]