Here's hoping ESPN's "Monday Night Football" crew paid close attention to the Bears-Vikings on NBC's "Sunday Night Football" _ and not just because it was an entertaining game.
The much-derided rookie "MNF" team of Joe Tessitore, Jason Witten and Booger McFarland would benefit from studying Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth, who do prime-time games as well as anyone.
ESPN too often seems like it's trying too hard.
It's not the trying that's the problem.
It's letting viewers sense just how hard it is trying that detracts.
NBC lets the game come to it.
If "SNF" is guilty of some silly things, such as its green graphic superimposed on the field to show how far it is to a first down, that's easily ignored.
Michaels and Collinsworth are authoritative, amiable and experienced enough to keep things in perspective.
Michaels knows it's not necessary to shout to convey excitement and urgency.
Collinsworth, as he has from the beginning of his TV career, speaks when it improves the silence and doesn't seem to be working all that hard to come up with something to say.
Mainly Collinsworth and Michaels keep things conversational.
It never seems as though Michaels is interviewing Collinsworth, or cueing him to comment.
What's more, they appear to get along naturally.
The closest ESPN's gang comes to seeming cohesive is in their camp-out commercial for PlayStation Vue TV, and even that's not very convincing.
Compare that to Collinsworth throwing Michaels a curve after Michaels read a promo for NBC's coverage of the National Dog Show on Thanksgiving.
"You and I ought to host that one time," Collinsworth said.
"Yeah, right," Michaels said dismissively.
"I was thinking this would be perfect," Collinsworth continued, his chuckle making it clear that it would not be perfect but leaving viewers a lovely image of the two of them amid the purebreeds.
Collinsworth and Michaels let things unfold naturally, not forcing or harping on a subject just because they prepared for it.
They're prepared. (At one point Collinsworth noted Bears quarterback Trubisky played running back _ from 2nd grade thru 6th.) But that preparation gives them the room to go wherever the action takes them.
Take the Cody Parkey storyline.
The Bears kicker, who a week earlier managed to nail four goalposts, had his story told up top by sideline reporter Michele Tafoya.
Tafoya noted both that Jimmy Fallon joked about him and dueling Chicago TV station news choppers got video of him practicing at Soldier Field, but the Bears didn't want people to see it.
All of this was touched on by Michaels and Collinsworth when Parkey came into the game.
But they didn't pound it home unnecessarily. When the Bears made strategic decisions to go for two-point conversions after touchdowns rather than try to kick, they took it on faith the viewer knew of Parkey's two missed point-after tries and pair of field-goal attempts against the Lions.
While it's impossible to know for sure what another network would do, it's easy to imagine ESPN pushing the angle a lot harder than NBC did, complete with animated helicopter graphics set to "Flight of the Valkyries."
That's not to say Michaels and Collinsworth would have hesitated if Parkey's misses had been relevant.
About the only time they indicated they had more Parkey material in their arsenal was late in the game when Michaels reflected on how former partner John Madden had a word for the sound a ball makes when it hits an upright: "doink."
That's not really what it sounds like, but imagining Madden saying it was bound to make viewers smile.
That doesn't happen much when watching "Monday Night Football."
