Not the best game at all, but overall a match with an intrigue until the end. Maybe the pressure came a lot for most of the players.
I thought it was a great game but the direction, production in general was a fail in terms of projecting atmospherics.
Everyone watched more games from the SoFi stadium this year than anywhere else as it is now home to both the Rams and Chargers. The stadium has an electric atmosphere and it is deafening. Further as LA is full of transplants many visiting teams enjoy large support. Its a boisterous venue for sports.
But from the national anthem onwards it appeared there were some really odd choices made regarding the coverage. The shots of play itself were excellent as always. But - the crowd noise was muted to a really weird degree with the commentary dominating front and center.
This was coupled with the fact that in terms of direction, there were essentially no shots of the crowd/supporters at all throughout the entire game. I recall one shot of a Bengal supporter in a tiger costume, some shots of Staffords family celebrating a touchdown and then some shots of celebrities at half time. All the shots of the crowd featured at every regular NFL game - exuberant fans kitted out in home garb enthusiastically cheering on the team whether in defense or attack-
were completely missing.
It was the Superbowl but the game felt detached and distant and I felt the game played out much flatter than it should have done with atmospherics entirely absent.
I had the Superbowl feed on two channels and both were identical (in terms of sound etc) and both were tagged NFL films so I presume this was their A Team production unit, but, in my opinion this was a cluster ****,
Further, I waited 24 hours to comment on this because I thought perhaps after a re-watch, my opinion might change. Well, I am watching it again as I write and if anything it feels more incompetent than it did yesterday.
The SoFi hosted AFC and NFC games with various TV sports divisions covering them through the regular season and they all did a much better job.