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Jim Nantz, Tony Romo Nail the Most Important Moment of Epic Bills-Chiefs Playoff Thriller: TRAINA THOUGHTS

Jim Nantz, Tony Romo were all over terrible strategy that cost Buffalo dearly

Jimmy Traina

1. Thirteen seconds.

Thirteen seconds will now be just as much a part of NFL lore as 28–3.

That was all the time the almighty Patrick Mahomes needed to lead the Chiefs to a surreal comeback at the end of regulation with his team down 36–33 in its divisional-round playoff game against the Bills on Sunday.

The reason Mahomes had 13 seconds, though, was because of a bad Buffalo blunder, which Jim Nantz and Tony Romo, calling the game on CBS, were all over.

Right after Gabriel Davis caught his fourth touchdown pass of the game to give Buffalo that 36–33 lead with 13 seconds left, Buffalo got ready to kick off.

Here was the exchange between Nantz and Romo:

Nantz: “There are still 13 seconds to go. Put this kick on the ground? Burn up some time?”

Romo: “Yeah. Honestly, you just don’t want it to be a normal kickoff. You wanna be just a little short and make it so your guys can make sure to tackle. I just wouldn’t want to give Mahomes …”

At that point, the Bills' kicker sent the ball into the end zone.

Romo: “I don’t necessarily agree with that.”

Nantz: “He launches it deep.”

Romo: “Take four or five seconds off. Mahomes now has two plays.”

And that was all Mahomes needed.

This first play was a 19-yard pass to Tyreek Hill.

The second play was a 25-yard pass to Travis Kelce down the middle, which Romo correctly predicted.

This, of course, led to the game-tying 49-yard field goal by Harrison Butker. The call by Nantz was excellent, and Romo chimed in with a prediction that ended up coming to fruition: “Whatever quarterback has the ball last will win.”

The Chiefs' comeback most likely doesn’t come close to happening if the Bills squibbed the kick and Nantz and Romo were all over it from the beginning. Not a second guess.

Well done.

2. While CBS did a great job with the game, their postgame left a lot to be desired, as I said on Twitter last night.

I get that the network has broadcast obligations and they wanted to get NCIS: Hawai'i on the air for a variety of reasons, but after what many said was the greatest playoff game in NFL history, you have to give us more than a minute of James Brown, Bill Cowher, Boomer Esiason, Nate Burleson and Phil Simms talking a million miles an hour because they each have only seconds to talk. 

In addition, CBS has a sports cable channel. Why not put a postgame on CBS Sports Network?

The one benefit of CBS's screwing up there is that I got some tremendous replies to my tweet. If you were a WWE fan during the Attitude era, this tweet will hit you hard.

Here were a few other amusing replies.

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3. When you get an all-time classic game like Bills-Chiefs, Twitter actually isn't a bad place for a short period of time. Here are some memorable tweets off that game.

• This was a spectacular visual with Mahomes running to Josh Allen for an embrace while fireworks lit up the Kansas City sky.

• Former MLB pitcher Dan Haren gave us the state of baseball as the NFL completed what might have been its greatest weekend ever.

• The Cowboys didn't play this weekend, but they still took strays.

• Another casualty of the Bills' not hosting the AFC title game next week.

4. I really don't want to bring up COVID-19 today, but this has been bothering me all weekend. Former Jazz great John Stockton made some wacky claims about the vaccine in a recent interview. 

This is the quote that made the rounds: 

“I think it’s highly recorded now, there’s 150 I believe now, it’s over 100 professional athletes dead—professional athletes—the prime of their life, dropping dead that are vaccinated, right on the pitch, right on the field, right on the court."

I have one simple question about this. How on Earth does the interviewer not ask Stockton to name ONE player who has died on the pitch, field or court from the vaccine? How is there no follow-up question there? Stockton can be anti-vax, but if he says players have dropped dead on the field, you are negligent if you don't ask one simple question: Who?

5. Saturday Night Live spoofed First Take this weekend, and it was pretty solid.

6. The latest SI Media Podcast features an interview with Jim Nantz.

You can listen to the podcast below or download it on Apple, Spotify and Stitcher.

You can also watch the SI Media Podcast on YouTube.

7. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: Today is National Peanut Butter Day. So if you do one thing today to celebrate, it should be watching Bill Belichick make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

Be sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and check out the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast hosted by Jimmy Traina on Apple, Spotify or Stitcher. You can also follow Jimmy on Twitter and Instagram.

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Jimmy Traina
JIMMY TRAINA

Jimmy Traina is a staff writer and podcast host for Sports Illustrated. A 20-year veteran in the industry, he’s been covering the sports media landscape for seven years and writes a daily column, Traina Thoughts. Traina has hosted the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast since 2018, a show known for interviews with some of the most important and powerful people in sports media. He also was the creator and writer of SI’s Hot Clicks feature from 2007 to '13.

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