Amidst the Cardinals epic collapse and the one-for-the-ages Dennis Green press conference, one integral component to the Monday Night Football classic last night has largely been overlooked: Just how much the MNF crew has regressed.

Remember a couple weeks ago when Kornheiser apologized for sucking on MNF? Well either he owes us another apology or he needs to come to grips with the fact that he doesn’t know enough about football and he’s incapable of being consistently funny during a live broadcast (Pardon the Interruption is taped). And the occasional barb at microphone-hogging Theismann isn’t going to cut it. And please don’t get us started on Carmen Electra and all the extra curricular halftime bullshit.

Last night, during one of the greatest NFL comebacks ever, the MNF crew reached its nadir. While the Bears stormed back, TK and Theismann could only muster the most annoyingly obvious statements about how incredible the comeback was. Sure, the comeback nearly rendered everyone speechless, but somehow, we think Jaws and Vermeil would have been able to provide something remotely interesting.

We could have used some poignant criticism of Denny Green. Or why Edge James has turned out to be a massive waste of money. Urlacher wasn’t just incredible – he wasn’t being blocked! We had to wait for him to tell the sideline reporter that. After the game, Steve Young gave us better insight than the entire MNF crew into why supposed MVP candidate Rex Grossman was beyond terrible.

And we’re being polite. After the jump, bloggers aren’t as nice, and even Kornheiser’s comrade at the Washington Post, Len Shaprio, offers a few suggestions:

The following ramble is from someone named poindexter over at sportsjournalists.com. Very accurate stuff.

But now, at least some halftime highlights. Or so you’d think. But, no!! They’ve been “ESPN-ized”. Which means you get highlights featuring fuzzy focuses, and the dreadful, “speed-up the action to 4x regular speed”, then slow it down. So you have no clue of what just happened. Who sits around and thinks up ways to fuck up NFL highlights? ESPN does.

Halftime isn’t over. Now it’s to Lazy Eye to debut a Jay Z video. Thanks, that’s the reason the fast-forward button on my TIVO gets such a workout while on the ESPN networks.

Kornheiser just plain sucks. He’s a great guy at a cocktail party, I’m sure, but up in the broadcast booth, he’s a one-man Hindenburg. When the game is dull, he’s mute. When the game is thrilling, such as last night’s fourth quarter, he’s all over the place … You’ve spent a decade telling us how little you don’t know about sports, Tony. So when you attempt to put things in perspective, like saying that “this would be the biggest upset in franchise history”, I know damn well you are pulling that straight out of your ass.

We linked to this previously, but last week, TK’s longtime pal at the Post, Leonard Shapiro, wrote a mildly critical column about why MNF isn’t working. Today, he fielded questions in his sports and broadcasting chat, and insists the problem is Theismann hogging the mic. Shapiro actually suggests that if Theismann were replaced by Ron Jaworski, chemistry levels would rise.

Baltimore: You were too easy on Kornheiser. He has been awful. How did they chose him as the journalist/celebrity when there are plenty of other talking heads who know more about football? It’s obvious he was chosen because he knew the right people. He knows nothing about football.

Leonard Shapiro:
Let’s agree to disagree. In a column last week, I merely pointed out some of the areas they could all improve on, and during the Bears-Cardinals game, it sounded as if somebody might have been listening. How do you declare something a failure 10 weeks in, and not even halfway through the schedule. It’s a work in progress, and I think Tony’s going to be terrific, if he can just get the microphone out of Joe T’s hands a little more often.

In an earlier post, we referenced a rec league basketball team we’re on, and how we have the makings of a good team, but we rarely play well as a unit. You know what? After a harrowing overtime loss last week to one of the worst teams in the league, we pretty much decided the team will split up at season’s end. Sometimes, when it’s not working, you just have to blow it up and start over. We can’t imagine this MNF crew staying together after this season.

The Verbal Fellating of Matt Leinart (Awful Announcing)