Courtesy USA Today

(January 24, 2011) The Green Bay Packers' 21-14 win at the Chicago Bears Sunday on Fox and the Pittsburgh Steelers' 24-19 victory against the New York Jets on CBS Sunday showed why the NFL can get monster ratings even for subpar games.

Both games teetered on the brink of blowouts at halftime, with the Packers leading 14-0 and the Steelers leading 24-3, but ultimately turned into pretty good TV. The Bears and Jets rallied, improbably it seemed, and the outcome of both games were in doubt until the final minute.

CBS' later time slot would normally be the better one but its game might have had some audience dropoff after the Steelers got off to a 24-0 lead. At halftime, CBS analysts couldn't say much to keep viewers around as Boomer Esiason noted "this is a Steelers beat-down of mammoth proportions." Postgame, CBS' Bill Cowher had this early take on the Super Bowl: "You'll see identical defenses, blitzes coming from everywhere."

It seemed odd that one of the three most-watched U.S. sports events — along with CBS' AFC title game and the Super Bowl — was played on such a bad stage. Chicago's field was "a mess," said Fox's Jay Glazer, as he stood on it before kickoff. "It looks like a public golf course, 500 divots out there," said Fox's Howie Long. But then, noted ESPN's Chris Berman, Green Bay's field wouldn't have been much better: "This time of year it's not Augusta National."

With only two games Sunday, which have been hashed over all week, there's not much left for pregame shows to chew on. Green Bay defensive tackle B.J. Raji, in a taped sit-down with Long, noted he gets an edge from sleeping in a hyperbaric chamber that simulates a 13,000-foot altitude — "so you're a 320-pound sherpa," Long said. Perhaps that played a role in his interception for a touchdown against the Bears.

Fox's Terry Bradshaw suggested that if a dog came up to Bears quarterback Jay Cutler and the Packers' Aaron Rodgers, it would "lick the hands of Rodgers and try to bite the other one's leg." Bradshaw later explained he had "no clue" what he meant by that.

But Bradshaw was understandable in saying at halftime "someone needs to tell Chicago this is not a preseason game." The Bears still hadn't scored when they put in third-string quarterback Caleb Hanie late in the third quarter, meaning Chicago was down to its last signal-caller. After the game, Cowher said that was a bad decision. But as Hanie led two touchdown drives in the fourth quarter Fox's Troy Aikman said it was a "genius" decision to put him in.

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