Report: Refs Gave 49ers Five Free Yards on Game-Winning Drive Against Lions
By now, just about every football fan has heard about the incident between Jim Harbaugh and Jim Schwartz following Sunday’s game between the San Francisco 49ers and the Detroit Lions. However, it’s the mistake by officials at the end of the game that has become the most popular topic of discussion considering how it impacted the 49ers game-winning drive.
Thanks to Matt Maiocco of CSNBayArea.com via Michael David Smith of ProFootballTalk.com, the officials from Sunday’s game gave San Francisco an extra five yards for free on the final drive of the game. The Niners found themselves trailing to the Lions 19-15 late in the fourth quarter before taking a 22-19 lead when Alex Smith found Delanie Walker in the end zone from six yards out with just under two minutes left–which ended up being the game-winning score.
From Maiocco’s article:
“But the 49ers were the beneficiaries of one glaring mistake by the officiating crew late in the game. Ted Ginn was forced out of bounds at the Detroit 40-yard line at the end of his long return with less than six minutes remaining in the game.”
“Yet, when the 49ers’ offense took the field, the ball mysteriously was spotted at the 35. There was no penalty called on the play. (Thanks to Twitter follower @LRushing0718 for initially bringing this to my attention.)”
While it’s debatable whether or not this really would have made an impact on the drive, it’s still frustrating for the Lions and their fans to hear about such a careless mistake by a group of officials that are supposed to be the best at what they do. If you thought Schwartz was already furious about Sunday’s game–just wait until he hears about this.
Dan Parzych is the Lead NFL Content Editor for www.RantSports.com/NFL, where he writes and edits NFL content for www.RantSports.com.
Be sure to follow Dan on Twitter @DanParzych
Email Dan: [email protected]
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