When the Baltimore Ravens gained one last first down, it put a bow on top of a heavily-viewed NFL “Sunday Night Football” clash.
Eyeballs were watching quarterback Lamar Jackson lead the Ravens over Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs. In fact, Nielsen reported on Monday that about 20.2 million viewers were watching, according to Variety.
It also popped a 10.8 national TV household rating. That is up 8 percent from last year. The Ravens-Chiefs matchup was the largest Week 2 “Sunday Night Football” audience since 2018. In that year, the New York Giants played the Dallas Cowboys.
By the way, Baltimore posted a 36-35 victory at home. Jackson put up his fifth career game with 200 passing yards and 100 rushing yards. There is no other player in NFL history with three games paring up those numbers. Jackson also is the lone NFL quarterback in the Super Bowl era who has 200 yards rushing and two rushing touchdowns in multiple games.
That’s according to ESPN’s NFL statistics.
What a game as the “Sunday Night Football” matchup went against the Emmy Awards and other programs.
Both Jackson and Mahomes delivered as their quarterback play proved invaluable for their teams. The Ravens, though, were able to simply edge out Kansas City. Maybe they were inspired as former teammate Ray Lewis came out and got the home crowd fired up.
Lewis came onto the field and did his familiar game-opening dance and moves before kickoff.
‘Sunday Night Football,’ Other NFL Games Have Fans Frothing Over Taunting Calls
In case you just got finished watching a replay of “Sunday Night Football” on your TV, then you may not be aware of the hubbub over taunting calls.
See, the National Football League has tightened the screws when it comes to players expressing themselves on the field.
NFL fans are not happy, even bringing back the old-favorite “No Fun League” moniker.
Fans took to social media and pitched a fit. What they know all too well is that these taunting penalties can play into a team’s win or loss.
But don’t try and talk NFL fans down. They are going to vent and vent hard about taunting calls. They are not going to give in that easily.
Former MLB player Will Middlebrooks took to Twitter to reveal his frustration. A former professional athlete understands the frustrations better than anyone else.
“Fire the taunting penalties into the sun. It’s so tired.” he wrote.
Let’s hope that the NFL is able to address the issues. Get the referees on the same page and make sure that there is a way for players to express themselves in the heat of the moment and not face a penalty for being human and having emotion.
