Some will focus on Michael Jenkins’ catch on a 3rd and 10 that wasn’t overturned by replay. Others will talk about the pass interference call on Tavares Gooden.

Most will fixate on Roddy White’s push-off.

But they shouldn’t. The Ravens didn’t lose to the Falcons on Thursday night because of the refs. They lost because they were dominated for most of the night and couldn’t catch a break or two down the stretch.

Here’s the way I would tally the final drive of Atlanta’s dramatic 26-21 win:

Jenkins’ Reception: It was a catch. The second replay showed that Jenkins kept a kung fu grip on the ball with his fingers and secured it while getting both feet down.

Pass Interference Call: I’m surprised Gooden didn’t get stopped at the Atlanta airport and picked up for the molestation of Tony Gonzalez. It was a good call – Gooden was draped all over him.

White’s Push-Off: It was clear as day – the ref missed it. I think a stiff wind could have knocked Josh Wilson down, but nevertheless White pushed off and it was a bad no call. He should have been flagged, the Falcons should have been backed up and who knows – maybe Baltimore is 7-2 and Atlanta is 6-3.

But you know what? The Ravens have nobody to blame but themselves and here’s why:

Time of Possession: 35:09 (Falcons) to 24:51 (Ravens)
Turnovers: Ravens (2); Falcons (0)
Penalties: Ravens (6 for 51); Falcons (1 for 5)
Third Down Conversions: Falcons 12 for 20; Ravens 6 for 11

The Ravens and their fans can bitch and moan about the refs but the fact is that Atlanta dominated this game for nearly three quarters. They had the better game plan, they executed better, they kept drives alive by converting third downs, they pressured Joe Flacco – they just played better.

It was a great comeback by Baltimore, but something that will be lost in the discussion is White’s dropped pass on 3rd and 4 with just over three minutes remaining in the game. He catches that pass for a first down and maybe the Falcons put the game out of reach up 20-14 and we’re not talking about Jenkins’ catch, Gooden’s pass interference or White’s push-off. The game of football is never decided by one play – that’s the beauty of the sport.

Regardless, why wasn’t White being double-teamed on that final drive? Even the horrendous announcers (Bob Papa had himself a rough night – who is Harry Davis, Bob? Do you mean Harry Douglas?) pointed out that White should have been double covered. The guy had 11 catches for over 100 yards and a touchdown at that point and you’re going to go single coverage on him with Wilson? I would have had a small army guarding White on that final drive plus three snipers in the rafters. He was destroying Baltimore’s secondary the entire night, yet he was in single coverage for most of that drive. That’s just bad coaching.

Let’s not lose sight of the fact that Matt Ryan put together one hell of a game. His protection was outstanding the entire night and he picked apart Baltimore’s secondary. The Falcons knew the Ravens would be keying on Michael Turner, so they took the ball out of his hands (which goes against everything they want to do offensively) and put the game on Ryan’s shoulders. He responded by completing 32-of-50 passes for 316 yards and three touchdowns while resembling Peyton Manning with his audible at the line of scrimmage. It was a marvelous performance by a quarterback that is heading down the road of becoming elite.

I don’t blame the Ravens (or their fans) for being upset about White’s push-off. If I were a Baltimore fan, I’d probably be pissed too. But then I’d take a step back and observe the entire picture and realize that my team didn’t show up for 60 minutes. If they had, maybe the result would have been different.

The network has him ranked #34 all time, and he’s upset about it.

Deion is going to be partial to defense (and himself), but he brings up an interesting point that there’s a huge disparity between the number of offensive players that were selected compared to the number of defensive players. But is that surprising? Offensive players put up gaudy stats while you usually can’t fully appreciate how good a defender is unless you watch film. Nnamdi Asomugha’s interception totals are always low, but he’s widely regarded as the best corner in the league because quarterbacks don’t dare throw his way.

That said, Sanders was the greatest cover corner to have played the game and maybe he does have right to complain about his No. 34 ranking. As he alludes to, quarterbacks used to stay away from his side of the field and he still found ways to make plays. He was also a highlight reel waiting to happen on special teams and even though he’s often criticized for not tackling, that doesn’t take away from how outstanding he was in coverage.

Does he have a beef? Should he be in the top 10 or is his ranking justified?

Sports Illustrated put out this list of what it believes to be the Top 20 all-time sportscasters. Some of these guys are before my time, but unfortunately, most of them are not. Anyway, here is the list and a snappy comment or two, as well as who they missed and who I’m glad is not on here:

1. Jim McKay—The Bob Costas of his time. McKay hosted ABC’s “Wide World of Sports” as well as The Olympics. It’s hard to argue with putting him on top here, but it’s also easy to argue for a few of these others to be #1.

2. Vin Scully—If I hear ol’ Vin doing a game on TV, and with the MLB package it’s nice to still hear him doing Dodgers’ games, I don’t care who is playing….I stop and watch, and listen. It’s just comforting to hear the guy’s voice, which was made for broadcasting baseball.

3. Mel Allen—He did Yankees games before I was born, but I remember his distinctive voice as the host of “This Week in Baseball.”

4. Red Barber—Way before my time, but I’ve heard great things

5. Ernie Harwell—Even hearing his voice doing interviews before he passed away recently, you couldn’t not be engaged to listen.

6. Jack Buck—Loved hearing him do both baseball and football, and who can forget his call in the 1988 World Series when gimpy Kirk Gibson hit that home run against Dennis Eckersley? “I don’t believe what I just saw!”

7. Bob Costas—Many of you don’t like this guy, but he’s a pro and as knowledgeable as they come.

8. Curt Gowdy—Another voice from my childhood that is synonymous with baseball.

9. Howard Cosell—Who can forget Cosell doing “Monday Night Football” along with Frank Gifford and Dandy Don Meredith? The fact that Cosell was so annoying just added to his charm.

10. Keith Jackson—Even if you were never into college football, you had to tune in when Keith Jackson did a game. It was like religion. “Oh, Nelly!”

11. Harry Caray—I remember when we first got cable and had Cubs’ games on WGN. I was like, “who is this old dude doing the games?” But Harry was awesome, especially when trying to pronounce names he couldn’t pronounce.

12. Jack Brickhouse—Um, also before my time.

13. Al Michaels—He’s not my favorite announcer ever, but he’s not hard to listen to either. Michaels is smart and extremely professional, and his resume is enormous. His claim to fame was calling the “Miracle on Ice” in 1980.

14. Dick Enberg—“Oh My!” I still love hearing this guy do NFL games.

15. Marv Albert—Yeah, you can poke fun all you want about his extra-curricular, um, issues in 1997, but there is no better basketball announcer, and he was doing hockey games when I grew up in New York too. About as recognizable a voice as there is in sports. Hard to believe he’s almost 70!

16. Don Dunphy—This was a boxing guy from before my time

17. Jack Whitaker—Also covered many sports, probably before I was born

18. Chick Hearn—Was the voice of the Lakers for many years. I never heard him do a game, but heard how awesome he was.

19. Chris Schenkel—I remember watching PBA bowling on Saturdays with my grandpa, and this guy was the voice of that as well as several other sports. A true pro.

20. John Madden—There is/was no one better at color commentary, and to think he planned on stopping in the broadcast booth temporarily before he found another coaching job. But wait? He’s 20th? That is kind of bogus. Madden should be Top 10, easily.

Some guys they missed:
Joe Garagiola—I loved hearing him and Tony Kubek do NBC’s “Game of the Week” in baseball when I was a kid.

Lindsey Nelson, Bob Murphy and Ralph Kiner—This trio was the soundtrack to my youth watching the Mets.

Phil Rizzuto—Holy cow! Phil isn’t on this list?

Gary Thorn and Mike Emrick—Two of the best I’ve ever heard do hockey games.

Jim Nantz—This guy just excels at football, basketball and golf

Gary Cohen—Did Mets radio for many years and is now the voice of SNY for the Mets. This guy is a walking Mets encyclopedia, and I know many of you don’t know who he is, but he’s remarkable as both an announcer and historian.

Bob Papa—Sorry to be the homer here, but this Giants’ radio play-by-play guy now does the Thursday night NFL games, so you all get to here how great he is.

And who I’m glad they did miss:
Joe Buck—I just don’t see what the appeal is. I loved listening to his dad, but this guy just grates on my nerves. He’s smart and witty, but he’s more annoying than entertaining. He’s like the Ryan Seacrest of sports.

Gus Johnson—There is a reason he does the D-list NFL games on CBS—he’s hyper to a fault. Sometimes it’s funny, but mostly it grates on my nerves.

DirecTV subscribers may be wondering if the NFL Network’s new channel, “NFL RedZone” is the same as the RedZone Channel that is available as part of the Sunday Ticket package. The answer is yes…and no. It’s not the exact same channel. It has a different host and a different studio, but the concept is the same.

The channel will bounce around from game to game to show live action or instant highlights from a multitude of games. I’ve watched the DirecTV version for six hours straight, and it’s a great way for fantasy football enthusiasts to spend a Sunday. I assume that the NFL Network’s version will be just as good.

I have long been critical of the NFL’s decision to make the Sunday TIcket exclusive to DirecTV, largely because I’m a diehard Packer fan living in a California condo with no view of the southern horizon (making me one of the millions of football fans that simply can’t get DirecTV without moving). The DirecTV monopoly exclusive rights extend through 2014, though the package may be available to non-DirecTV subscribers in 2012. I mention the Sunday Ticket debacle because this NFL Network Red Zone channel is a step in the right direction.

Of course, the NFL Network is still at odds with several cable companies — including my carrier, Time Warner — as they haggle over carriage fees for the channel. Actually, “haggle” would imply that the two sides are negotiating. As far as I know, they’ve both walked away from the table.

The cable giant wants to offer NFL Network on a sports tier, while the NFL Network wants the channel to be on the basic tier, which due to its high carriage cost, would have a significant impact on the bottom line and increase cable rates for all subscribers. Essentially, the Network wants every subscriber to pay for the channel even if they don’t want it in their lineup.

It was one thing for Time Warner to walk away from negotiations when the NFL Network only carried eight games in a season, but now that TWC’s subscribers will be missing out on this new Red Zone channel, I’d expect the pressure to strike a deal will be amped up. I, for one, am not pleased that this product is readily available and the 2nd-largest cable company in the country does not offer it. What’s the point of having a monopoly if you aren’t going to use your negotiating power to get what you want?

Between the offering of exclusive rights to Sunday Ticket and the high carriage fees of the NFL Network (and presumably, the new RedZone channel), the NFL is not treating a subsection of its fan base very well.

We just want to watch the games — all of them. Why is the league making it so difficult for fans to consume its product?

According to Peter King of SI.com, the NFL Network is furious with Jon Gruden, who nixed a deal with them to replace Tony Kornheiser and join the cast of Monday Night Football.

Do not invite Gruden and NFL Network czar Steve Bornstein to the same event anytime soon, or ever. Bornstein wants to wring Gruden’s neck. The NFL Network is furious with Gruden for jilting the network after he’d verbally agreed to a deal to work there. The former Bucs coach had been very good on the NFL Network, colorful and opinionated, at the NFL scouting combine and the NFL draft, and the network had finalized everything but the signature on the paper for Gruden to begin working there immediately. In fact, he was slated to be at NFL Films this week to begin his job full time. But ESPN swooped in, offered Gruden the Monday night seat vacated by Tony Kornheiser (how convenient), and Gruden took it.

The NFL Network planned to put Gruden on the air all season, then move him to the Thursday night football booth alongside Bob Papa, replacing Cris Collinsworth. Now it’s back to ground zero in its search for a voice to pair with Papa.

One of the reasons the NFL Network is so steamed, I’m told, is that no one from the Gruden camp called Bornstein to tell him. In many cases like this, the league might work with its TV partners to tell them, “Hey, hands off,” or “Play fair here,” but that didn’t happen here. ESPN got to Gruden too fast.

Now there are two people who should have been NFL Network stars this fall — Gruden and ace reporter Adam Schefter — who will instead work for ESPN. And the NFL Network is not pleased about the defection of either one.

The NFL Network has a tough roe to hoe when a bigger network such as ESPN comes a calling for some of their “players”, considering their reach and audience isn’t that big. If you got the opportunity to call a Monday Night Football game when you knew millions of people will be watching on a weekly basis, why would you stay at NFL Network calling late season Thursday night games for an audience of about 12 people?

Still, if this report is true what a crappy move by Gruden. You have to at least have the decency to tell your employer that you’re moving on if you already had an agreement with them to stick around for a while. Either way, he’ll likely be back on the sidelines in 2010, so ESPN will be looking for his replacement soon enough.

King also added that the NFL is on the verge of reaching a two-year contract extension with FOX and CBS to continue broadcasting their Sunday game packages. Many feel that NBC will likely follow suit and agree to a similar deal for their Sunday evening game package sometime before the start of the season.

Here is the breakdown of the potential agreement between the NFL and Comcast:

NFL Network had been carried on a pay sports tier for Comcast’s 24-million subscribers, and the NFL for years has been arguing its channel should be on the regular digital cable package with the ESPNs and CNNs of the cable TV world. Now that is close to happening. The deal would mean that instead of paying about $7 per month for the channel and other pay-TV sports channels, Comcast subscribers will get NFL Network with its regular digital package — and it will increase the number of TV homes the Network is seen in from about 35 million to close to 50 million. More importantly, it could well pave the way for the NFL to make deals with other cable companies similarly chapped at the league’s demand for huge rights fees for a sports channel with only 24 hours of NFL regular-season game programming per year.

Many in the league office feared that without a wider distribution of the NFL Network, the owners would have moved to cease operations of the channel. They were getting frustrated with the lack of movement in their five-year battle against Comcast on the network’s distribution rights.

The NFL will return to the negotiating table later this spring, as talks between the league and the NFL players association will begin on coming to a new collection bargaining agreement.

Well, they have been on the clock since the first week of preseason. The unofficial kickoff to the upcoming football season is here, as the 2009 NFL Draft will be the highlight event of the weekend. Your mock draft is due prior to the start of the draft. So be sure to cram in every player’s 40 yard time and wonderlic score during an all-night study session tonight. And if you want to play a good drinking game on Saturday, take a sip when Mel Kiper says “that was a value pick” or “he was the best player available.” I guarantee you will pass out halfway through the first round.

All times ET…

NFL
Sat, 4 PM: 2009 NFL Draft (ESPN/ESPN2/NFL Network)
Sun, 10 AM: 2009 NFL Draft (ESPN/NFL Network)

NBA Playoffs
Fri, 7 PM: Cleveland Cavaliers @ Detroit Pistons (ESPN)
Fri, 8 PM: Orlando Magic @ Philadelphia 76ers (ESPN2)
Fri, 9:30 PM: Portland Trail Blazers @ Houston Rockets (ESPN)
Sat, 1 PM: Denver Nuggets @ New Orleans Hornets (ESPN)
Sat, 4 PM: San Antonio Spurs @ Dallas Mavericks (TNT)
Sat, 6:30 PM: Atlanta Hawks @ Miami Heat (TNT)
Sat, 9 PM: Los Angeles Lakers @ Utah Jazz (ESPN)
Sun, 1 PM: Boston Celtics @ Chicago Bulls (ABC)
Sun, 3:30 PM: Cleveland Cavaliers @ Detroit Pistons (ABC)
Sun, 6:30 PM: Orlando Magic @ Philadelphia 76ers (TNT)
Sun, 9 PM: Portland Trail Blazers @ Houston Rockets (TNT)

NHL Playoffs
Fri, 7 PM: New York Rangers @ Washington Capitals (Versus)
Sat, 1 PM: Pittsburgh Penguins @ Philadelphia Flyers (NBC)
Sat, 10 PM: Anaheim Ducks @ San Jose Sharks (Versus)
Sun, 2 PM: Washington Capitals @ New York Rangers*if necessary (NBC)
Sun, TBD: New Jersey Devils @ Carolina Hurricanes (Versus)

MLB
Sat, 4:10PM: New York Yankees @ Boston Red Sox (Fox)
Sun., 12 PM: Philadelphia Phillies @ Florida Marlins (TBS)
Sun., 8 PM: New York Yankees @ Boston Red Sox (ESPN)