We knew what we were getting ourselves into with the Chicago Bears and Los Angeles Chargers squaring off on Sunday Night Football. In a matchup between two teams with a combined four wins coming in, there probably wouldn’t be much good football. Factor in an inexperienced former Division II player like Tyson Bagent starting at quarterback for Chicago, and a chance at exciting fireworks was implausible.
Well, unless you’re NBC announcer Cris Collinsworth, apparently.
Throughout the evening, NFL fans started to notice how Collinsworth kept praising Bagent despite him not achieving much of anything of note. On a night when the Bears were down 30-7 at the start of the fourth quarter (and would lose 30-13), Collinsworth repeatedly made it a point to discuss just how impressive Bagent’s “leadership” was.
Never mind that Bagent threw two picks and was mostly ineffective:
"We see the way he moves around out here tonight. We see the leadership skills. There is definitely something to this guy." – Cris Collinsworth on Tyson Bagent right before a near interception pic.twitter.com/6JJ8ojn5sz
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) October 30, 2023
What was particularly striking to many was how Collinsworth said that Chicago incumbent starter Justin Fields could “study” from Bagent’s style of play. Again, Bagent was pretty nondescript, even awful sometimes, and Collinsworth said this with the Bears down over three scores:
"We see the way he moves around out here tonight. We see the leadership skills. There is definitely something to this guy." – Cris Collinsworth on Tyson Bagent right before a near interception pic.twitter.com/6JJ8ojn5sz
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) October 30, 2023
Finally, while the conversation never really stopped, we ended with Collinsworth giving Bagent his flowers for throwing the ball away randomly in the middle of the field … who would then throw an interception on the very next play:
Cris Collinsworth praising Tyson Bagent for doing something the Bears wish Justin Fields would "figure out." Then he promptly throws a bad interception. pic.twitter.com/Dl5vbnKy5g
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) October 30, 2023
None of this is to detract from Bagent’s great story. In two starts for Chicago, it’s obvious he has the composed skill set of a guy who could be a quality long-term backup. Coming out of Division II and achieving this (gestures broadly) should be considered a massive win for Bagent.
But it’s also obvious Bagent doesn’t possess the ability to be a viable full-time starter. And Collinsworth going out of his way to specifically pump Bagent up while he struggled all evening was pretty ridiculous. That isn’t to say Justin Fields is the Bears’ long-term answer either — he probably isn’t — but he’s definitely better than Bagent. It’s not even a question, and it’s not a stretch to say Collinsworth went overboard.
