Fox Broadcasting of NFC Championship Game?  FAIL.

Fooch's Note: Given the many questionable issues related to yesterday's game, I thought this was worth moving to the front page.  I've moved part of this to after the jump.

There were plenty of questionable (at best) calls from the refs on Sunday, but the real finger should be pointed in the direction of Fox.  No, not because of the calls or the way the game played out, but because of lack of general presentation.  The first thing I'd like to gripe about: lack of stat overlays.  Sure, Fox showed how many times the QBs were getting pressured and how many hits each had to endure, but overall I felt the stats were lacking.  Very seldom did the viewers have the information of third down conversion rates or key stats during drives.

For example, Minnesota's opening drive of the second half.  The Vikings marched down the field 80 yards to score a game tying touchdown.  While Joe Buck was busy drooling over the immortal Brett Favre after (and during) the drive, a stat was seriously overlooked.  Visanthe Shiancoe has 3 catches for 67 yards on the drive, better than 75% of the team's success on the drive.  As the Vikings punched the ball in for six, I awaited the stat overlay for drive summary.  Nothing.  I was waiting for Joe Buck or Troy Aikman to credit Shiancoe with the big catches during the drive.  Nothing.  No stats regarding the drive, no stats regarding Shiancoe's production.  Why not? 

Another example came during the Vikings final drive before the first half ended.  With 1:13 left, Adrian Peterson ran for six yard gain, and a timeout was called.  At this point, I was yelling at the TV, screaming for the Vikings to get back to the line and run another play down New Orleans' throat, but instead a timeout was taken, but by which team?  Fox's broadcast did not display which team had called for the timeout, nor did either announcer mention which team took the timeout.  Minnesota had no reason in the world to take a timeout inside their opponent's red zone with time dwindling away in the half.  New Orleans had every reason to, saving time and perhaps a chance to match whatever points the Vikings could put on the board.  Who called the time out?  Fox didn't let us know.  I wasn't sure if I should rip Minnesota for such a stupid timeout, or New Orleans for haulting whatever momentum the Vikings were about to get. 

To give Fox some credit, they did display the time of possession numbers for each team, but I honestly don't remember seeing either team's third down conversion percentages at all yesterday.  Again, we were treated to the pressure numbers, and the amount of penalties, but I seriously feel Fox overlooked the more intricate numbers of the game.  The Vikings held the Saints to 3 of 12 on third down conversions, yet it seemed Buck and Aikman both overlooked just how well the Minnesota defense was keeping the team in the game.  Were we ever reminded that Saints had converted just one third down in the second half?  No.  Again, the Vikings defense was dominant on third down, yet the story of the day was either time of possession or Brett Favre gala. 

In closing, I'd just like to say that Fox really needs to revamp their production team next fall.  I want to see important stats throughout the game, not obvious ones.  Yes, it was obvious that the Vikings were dominating Time of Possession.  Why?  Well, because the team had 5 turnovers and still managed to take the game to OT.  They didn't take the game to OT because of TOP, they took it to OT because of excellent third down defense.  Maybe I'm way off here, or maybe I wasn't paying close enough attention to the stat displays, but I felt Fox really dropped the ball in production value and presentation. 

Quick Edit - I forgot also to mention the Saints 4th down conversion in OT.  Fox decided to replay us the same angle over and over on Pierre Thomas' apparent attempt coming short.  We were treated to Chad Greenway's helmet jarring the ball loose, appearing to force the ball back behind the first down marker.  We could only see the sticks on the far sideline, so it did appear short.  Fox showed one other angle, before the game went to commercial, that displayed a proper angle of both first down markers, showing that even with the fumble, Thomas made it past the marker.  When we returned from break, all we saw was the same angle making it look like Thomas had come up short.  Why?