Add Awful Announcing as a preferred source on Google
Add Awful Announcing as a preferred source on Google
Only two people at Highmark Stadium seemed to know the Patriots hadn’t just given the ball away on Sunday: Marcus Jones and Ross Tucker.
The play in question came on the game’s first punt. Buffalo went three-and-out to start what became a 29-26 Patriots upset, and the ensuing punt bounced toward the sideline, then hopped toward the goal line before Te’Cory Couch batted it back into the field of play to keep it from becoming a touchback. Jones grabbed it inside his own 5-yard line and tried to return it before Sam Franklin Jr. knocked it out of his hands, and the Bills came up with the ball.
To nearly everyone watching — including Ian Eagle — the Patriots had just coughed up the ball inside their own 5-yard line and handed the unbeaten Bills a golden opportunity to draw first blood. Tucker, however, recognized right away that Jones was merely playing with house money and that the Patriots would retain possession.
“So this is still Patriots football,” he explained. “A lot of people don’t realize this, but because a Buffalo Bill touched it before Jones picked it up, there’s nothing that can go bad for the Patriots.”
Ross Tucker was all over this not being a fumble in the Patriots-Bills game: https://t.co/7tBMUBAIj0
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) October 4, 2026
As CBS rolled the replay, Tucker directed viewers’ attention to the moment Couch got a hand on the ball while trying to keep it out of the end zone, telling them to “watch right there” as the Bills’ cover man made contact. From that instant on, Tucker explained, Jones could field the punt, try to run with it and even lose it to Franklin without costing New England possession, since the Patriots were entitled to the ball at the spot of Couch’s touch.
“Marcus Jones has free rein to do whatever he wants,” Tucker added. “He knows the rule. That’s a heady play by Jones.”
The officials soon backed up what Tucker had already explained, awarding New England the ball at its own 3-yard line, and viewers were quick to credit the CBS analyst for knowing a rule that seemed to stump almost everyone on the field.
@awfulannouncing Great job by Ross Tucker. He’s always tremendous
— James Kent (@Ochotexto19) October 5, 2026
Absolutely blows my mind how every player on the field including the ref right next to the play all thought it was Bills ball
How are you at the highest level of the sport and don’t know this rule?
— Perry “Chip” Maxwell (@ChipJohnson01) October 4, 2026
I enjoy reliving this moment. When Marcus Jones and Ross Tucker where the only people in the building who seemed to know the rule about touching a live punt.
https://t.co/6bhejG1O5w
— Jerry Thornton (@jerrythornton) October 4, 2026
True ball knowers are well aware of this rule and the loudest people will just publicly tell you they don’t know ball by saying the Patriots player was dumb
— PMT Stats (@PmtStats) October 4, 2026
Amazing getting to listen to an announcer who actually knows the rules
Wish I could relate
— JaguarGator9 (@JaguarGator9NFL) October 4, 2026
I love how calmly and matter of factly he stated it. That’s a ball-knower.
— Adam Gretz (@AGretz) October 4, 2026
.@RossTuckerNFL is a 10/10 person and to no surprise with more opportunity he is crushing it with Ian Eagle.
— Zach Gelb (@ZachGelb) October 4, 2026
Props to Ross Tucker for immediately knowing the punt-fumble rules
— Ben Volin (@BenVolin) October 4, 2026
Sunday was the latest feather in Tucker’s cap during a meteoric few months. He spent his first three seasons in CBS’ NFL rotation working alongside Tom McCarthy on the network’s sixth crew while juggling college football assignments and Westwood One’s Thursday Night Football radio broadcasts, before an unforeseen chain of events vaulted him into the No. 2 booth.
Prior to Tony Romo’s July arrest, Tucker was seen as having a strong chance to land the analyst seat next to Andrew Catalon on the network’s fourth team. Instead, Romo’s leave pushed J.J. Watt up to the top booth with Jim Nantz, and CBS turned to Tucker to replace Watt alongside Ian Eagle and Evan Washburn, initially for just the first two weeks of the season, while promoting Robert Turbin to fill Tucker’s old spot on the sixth crew. But on Friday, CBS announced that it and Romo had mutually agreed to part ways, cementing Watt’s place beside Nantz for the rest of the season and keeping Eagle, Tucker, and Washburn intact as the network’s second team.
Tucker has looked at home since he slid into the seat once occupied by Watt and, before him, Charles Davis. His Week 1 debut on Bills-Texans earned him a chorus of praise for his ability to teach the audience at home, whether it was pointing out that Dion Dawkins had taken too wide an angle on a block that could have sprung a big run or explaining why a lineman needed to pull to handle Jadeveon Clowney on a sack, even if a handful of fans still longed for the Eagle-Watt pairing.
Sunday was more of the same.