It was not a good day for John Hussey’s officiating crew. One of the more noticeable things from the 49ers’ 34–24 win over the New York Giants on Sunday was how baffling some of the calls that fell on Hussey’s watch. The 49ers got away with a couple of things, too—notably a false start on 4th and 1. That’s nothing compared to these three plays that happened in the third quarter.
Things start with 10:00 to go on 3rd and 13. Mac Jones dropped back and threw toward Jauan Jennings — and even live, it looked like he was tangled up.. When you actually see the replay, it shows his arm held and other stuff that isn’t exactly allowed. Why a flag was not thrown here is beyond me:
Jennings had a chat with the official afterwards, and teammates had to escort him back before the potential unsportsmanlike flag. Jennings has a case here: that was a catchable ball, and Giants cornerback Korie Black was not watching the ball as Jennings was trying to catch it.
Luckily, the 49ers made the field goal. Things got stranger on the ensuing Giants possession. Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart took off running and clearly was not passing. As he was running, 49ers linebacker Tatum Bethune popped him good. The laundry came out with an unnecessary roughness hit. They said the hit was helmet-to-helmet.
“From what I saw,” 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan said during his post-game press conference. “I didn’t agree with it.”
Shanahan wasn’t the only one. Former 49ers cornerback Richard Sherman also spoke out on social media regarding it.
Then there’s the illegal shift.
I tried to find a video of this, but was unable to. On third and short, the 49ers decided to get a bit cute and had a play where Mac Jones looked at his wristband while Kyle Juszczyk went under center to take the snap. It appeared like everyone was set, but Hussey’s crew disagreed and flagged the 49ers.
To be fair, the 49ers probably got too cute for their own good on the play, but it still seemed a bit ticky-tacky. Jones threw an incompletion on the next play, and the 49ers punted. So three really weird plays that happened within five minutes of gametime.
But you know where I’m going with this: despite the bad calls, the 49ers still won. That’s what good teams do. Had the 49ers lost, we wouldn’t be saying it was because of those calls. It was because of the offensive line falling apart on huge plays (the Jones fumble/interception/whatever the hell it was comes to mind), it was because of them getting cute (even though the play was weird).
The 49ers were still able to make some huge plays that not only won them the game, but numbered enough that we, the fans, didn’t have to reach for blood pressure medication in the final minutes of the fourth quarter.
Still, it’s disappointing that the NFL continues to let officiating crews oversee games with this level of inconsistency.
About the Author: Insidethe49
