Alan Pergament: Chris Brown has play-by-play flaws but still impressed as first-time caller of Bills games

I didn’t know whether to just chalk that up to friendship before I listened to a replay of the call by Brown and analyst Eric Wood.

He was impressive, especially considering it was his first full game since Murphy suffered a stroke and his first play-by-play performance since his days calling high school games, college, Arena football and pro soccer games, most of it 20 years ago.

Brown's most recent play-by-play duties were three years ago on high school football games, which are a long way from calling NFL games.

The Bills have confirmed that Brown will be back in the booth on WGR-AM this Sunday for the Bills wild-card playoff game with the Miami Dolphins as their veteran radio voice continues to recover.

The Bills declined a request to interview Brown, apparently out of sensitivity to Murphy’s situation. While understanding the sensitivity, I am baffled by the unwillingness to allow Brown, the co-host of “One Bills Live” on WGR and MSG, to be interviewed.

Brown seemed sensitive to subbing for Murphy Sunday, giving Murphy best wishes before the game started and after it ended and giving him a shoutout after an interception by Bills cornerback Tre’ Davious White in the third quarter.

“Hey, Murph, it is a Tre Day,” said Brown, using one of Murphy’s signature calls.

I have no interest in comparing Brown to Murphy, especially since I concentrate on the TV announcers of Bills games weekly and haven’t heard a Bills radio broadcast this season. The only comparison I will make concerns their voices. It is subjective but my view is that Murphy has a major league voice. Brown does not.

Otherwise, Brown had a good Sunday performance calling the emotional game.

He sets the scene well before each play, is very fast detailing where the ball is after running or passing plays and who made the tackles. Perhaps some of the credit should go to his spotter, John Murphy’s son Mark, who performs that duty for his father at Bills home games.

Brown’s excitement level on key plays is very good and, perhaps most impressively, he even was excited on key plays made by the Patriots.

I wish he would find a different expression than “holy mackerel,” which he used a couple of times. But his descriptions of some plays were enjoyable.

During a run by Devin Singletary, he said the Bills back made Patriots cornerback Marcus Jones “look like a potted plant.” He said Singletary’s later fumble came on a textbook “peanut punch.” He described a hit by the Bills nickel back Taron Johnson on a Patriot receiver as “a sledgehammer.”

Of course, there were many exciting plays during the roller coaster game, including interceptions, a fumble and touchdowns.

None was bigger than Nyheim Hines’ opening 96-yard kickoff return that gave the Bills a 7-0 lead. Brown’s excitement level was more than passable, but his words failed him. He made me research one comment he made during the return that CBS announcer Jim Nantz called “storybook” as it happened and led WGR sideline reporter Sal Capaccio to ask: “Is this Hollywood or Buffalo?”

Brown said the kickoff happened on “the first play from scrimmage.” My research confirmed my belief that a play from scrimmage occurs after a kickoff or punt return.

While Brown did the traditional call of noting every 5 or 10 yards that Hines passed on the first kickoff return, I preferred Brown’s call of Hines’ second kickoff return for a touchdown when he quickly said, “they’re not going to get him.”

Brown confused me during a failed two-point conversion by the Patriots by saying New England was “short of the yard to gain.” The yard to gain was the end zone.

But over a three-hour game in which an announcer says thousands of words, he is bound to trip a few times.

Brown may have misread a CBS graphic when he said that Josh Allen’s interception was the quarterback’s first in 197 throws. It was the first of 197 passes against New England. Allen had two picks in the Bills’ loss to the Chicago Bears, which was the previous full game.

Brown also was wrong when he was sure New England receiver Jakobi Meyers’ didn’t get his two feet down at the back of the end zone on a two-yard touchdown pass by New England quarterback Mac Jones that tied the game at 7.

“I’m going to tell you right now both feet are not down,” said Brown. But as Wood conceded, somewhat amazingly they were down.

Wood is an excellent analyst, who provided the big picture. He frequently noted that the Bills needed to get more pressure on Jones, who was easily dissecting man coverage. Better yet, he also was excellent putting the emotion of the opening kickoff and the entire game following the injury and recovery of Damar Hamlin in much-needed context.

“What a tribute to Damar,” Wood said after Hines’ first kickoff return. In the fourth quarter, Wood called the game after Hamlin’s progress “a joyful moment that this town needed.”

He does occasionally criticize Bills, which is a hard for some former players who become announcers to do. He said he loves Allen before gently criticizing his red zone interception. He also gently criticized receiver Gabe Davis for not giving the effort he thought Allen wanted on one incomplete pass. Wood just needs to cut down on some of the obvious things he says.

But back to Brown.

He reminded me of the late Bills play-by-play legend Van Miller in asking questions. I can still hear Miller asking after some confusing plays, “what do we have here?”

“Did Stefon Diggs make the catch?" asked Brown. "What are they going to say?”

After a Patriot run: “Is he a yard short” of the first down?

Brown’s reporting on the team benefited his play-by-play call.

When Bills linebacker Matt Milano intercepted a tipped pass in the end zone, Brown cracked: “Maybe his teammates will stop ribbing Milano for others they thought he should have caught.”

He also referred to Bills linebacker Tremaine Edmunds as “The Condor” – which is apparently his nickname – after his interception of a tipped pass.

“It is tip drill city,” said Brown. “The Condor scooped it up for the interception.”

And after the clinching touchdown pass from Allen to Diggs, Brown undoubtedly brought smiles to Bills fans when he asked: “Can you dig it?”

At game’s end, Wood was putting Hines’ opening kickoff in much-needed perspective.

“I don’t know if I’ve seen many moments in sports, especially in person that felt like that,” said Wood.

“It might have registered on the Richter scale,” Brown said of the crowd noise level.

Overall on a scale of performances by first-time NFL play-by-play announcers, Brown registered at a decent enough level as a backup to stay in the position until – if and when – Murphy is able to return.