I knew it couldn't last forever.
After two weeks of mostly praising CBS for its Ravens telecasts, Sunday's coverage of Baltimore's 20-12 victory over Jacksonville was dismal. And the problems went well beyond the booth team of Tom McCarthy and Adam Archuleta.
The most basic job of any live sports telecast is to show viewers the whole event, but CBS couldn't even deliver that to its audience.
Baltimore viewers missed the opening snap of the second quarter Sunday. The telecast came out of a double-pump-quadruple-pimp promo for two of the "CSI" series to show Joe Flacco standing five yards behind the line of scrimmage looking downfield for a receiver.
Sometimes, locally owned or affiliated stations are responsible for "clipping" the network this way. But the promos were not for CBS-owned WJZ, they were for the network series.
Maybe one missed snap doesn't seem like that big a deal to you by itself. But it is representative of how deep a backseat the viewing pleasure of the fan takes to squeezing every last dollar in ads and promotion out of these telecasts. It was also indicative to me of the out-of-sync, sloppy overall production.
Take the sequence that started with 11:33 left in the first half. After a Terrell Suggs sack on third down, the Jaguars came back with a 53-yard field goal to take the lead 9-7.
Instead of showing a replay of the hold, the kick, the kicker or the ball sailing through the uprights, CBS replayed Suggs hotdogging it after his earlier sack.
McCarthy, the play-by-play announcer, tried to paper over the disconnect between image and action, which had just resulted in a lead change, by saying, "Yes, T Sizzle had a sack and dance, but the Jags get the points."
If it had ended there, maybe I wouldn't be so upset about it.
But the director was clearly stuck on Suggs. So, when the telecast came back from commercial, the camera was showing Suggs on the sideline all smiley-faced and happy again even though his team lost the lead.
And McCarthy started talking over the pictures, saying, "We were fortunate the other day to have breakfast over at the Ravens facilities, and we're sitting there enjoying our breakfast when all of sudden the sun is blocked out because Terrell Suggs came over to say hello to his old college teammate, Adam Archuleta."
"Yeah, I miss that guy," Archuleta began as the camera showed Jacksonville launching into an onside kick.
And the kick traveled 10 yards and was recovered by the Jaguars before the guys in the booth finally ended their fond reminiscencing of a free breakfast from the Ravens.
"How about this, an onside kick?" McCarthy finally said after the play had effectively ended. "And it looks like the Jaguars may have recovered."
McCarthy and Archuleta were so lost in this empty anecdote that they didn't comment on one of the most exciting plays of the game until it was over. Way over.
That was the mode of production all afternoon. It seemed like the people at the control board would get an idea in their heads, like, "Let's focus on Suggs," and it didn't matter if a jet crashed on the 50-yard line of M&T Bank Stadium, viewers were going to see and hear about Suggs.
I can imagine what Jacksonville fans were feeling during this sequence of a long field goal, key lead change and successful onside kick.
The production always seemed out of sync with the rhythm of the game on the field – often two or three steps behind where it should have been in its focus. The camera shots often seemed random – once showing the stands just as the ball was about to be snapped.
Archuleta and McCarthy bounced all over the place in their analysis until I couldn't tell what they thought.
Through the first half, they insisted the Ravens had to get Justin Forsett going if they wanted to win. Then they said the Ravens needed to get Steve Smith going to be successful. Then they said it was all about the tight ends.
With 2:06 left in the first half, McCarthy followed a second catch by Crockett Gillmore with: "I have to say, we watched practice on Friday, and there were a lot of passes going to (Owen) Daniels and Crockett Gillmore. We thought they would be a factor here today."
Really? Why didn't you tell viewers that before Daniels and Crockett actually became factors and no one could miss it? Why weren't they your Home Depot "Tools for Success?"
On the plus side, I liked sideline reporter Allie LaForce describing how Ravens defensive back Terrence Brooks had to be helped down the steps from the field to the locker room. That kind of description gave me some sense of the injury.
On the other hand, later in the game, she was about 20 minutes behind confirmed Baltimore reports of Asa Jackson being out for the day.
That was CBS Sunday: a little late and a lot lost.