The Seahawks were trailing the 49ers by five points on Sunday night, and driving with less than two minutes remaining in the fourth quarter. With the ball at the SF 12-yard line and 55 seconds remaining in the game, Russell Wilson fired a throw to tight end Jacob Hollister in the end zone.
Hollister was unable to even make an attempt to catch the ball, however, because 49ers linebacker Fred Warner mugged him in the end zone. Everyone waited for the flag to be thrown at Warner’s feet for pass interference, but nothing happened. No flag was thrown.
As there were fewer than two minutes remaining in the game, Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll was not allowed to challenge the call. HOWEVER, the league does have rules in place now where the league office can choose to review the play if they feel blatant PI occurred.
That … didn’t happen. For some reason. Seattle even called timeout after the play to give the league office time to review the decision, and … they didn’t. Nothing happened. Or they did quickly and decided not to do anything.
The call had massive repercussions. The Seahawks (thanks in part to some boneheaded coaching from Carroll) would go on to lose the game by five points.
That loss gave the 49ers the No. 1 seed in the NFC, and knocked the Saints out of a first-round bye in the process.
So now you had furious Seahawks fans, AND furious Saints fans who felt that had been cheated by another terrible, missed pass interference call.
As to how bad the call was? Well, yeah, it was pretty bad.
Pretty clear PI on the 49ers totally missed by the officials that would’ve put the Seahawks with first and goal at the 1 #SFvsSEA pic.twitter.com/4DBpPslTHs
— Bad Sports Refs (@BadSportsRefs) December 30, 2019
Crazy that the NFL instituted defensive pass interference penalties this year and totally ignored it at the biggest moment.
— Field Gulls (@FieldGulls) December 30, 2019
The NFL looks so bad not even reviewing that blatant pass interference. Didn't even stop the game for a look at it! How could this happen after the nightmare in New Orleans last year??? This noncall just might have decided the NFC Super Bowl representative AGAIN!
— Skip Bayless (@RealSkipBayless) December 30, 2019
I just saw the video from last night's game…Wasn't that Pass Interference?!?!? WTF!!!! #SFvsSEA #NFL100 This is RIDICULOUS!!!!
— john lewis (@jhonnyboy0123) December 30, 2019
I think we got our answer on whether or not obvious a pass Interference penalties would be overturned in the playoffs. No. Where was the NFL office on that 3rd down play?
— Tony Dungy (@TonyDungy) December 30, 2019
Honestly, what's the point of having this pass interference review rule if New York isn't going to review a pretty huge potential penalty in a primetime game that had huge playoff seeding implications.
I think coaches should be allowed to challenge inside the 2 min warning
— ᴇᴠᴀɴ (ᴛᴜᴀ ᴀᴘᴘʀᴇᴄɪᴀᴛᴏʀ) (@evanatort1600) December 30, 2019
Once again a pass interference no-call screws the #Saints, this time at the end of the 49ers/Seahawks game that would have given Seattle a first and goal at the 1 yard line. See a pattern here?
— BDDriver (@theamazingblake) December 30, 2019
The NFL looks so bad not even reviewing that blatant pass interference. Didn't even stop the game for a look at it! How could this happen after the nightmare in New Orleans last year??? This noncall just might have decided the NFC Super Bowl representative AGAIN!
SHAME! https://t.co/fZObZwOATd
— Sergio (@sergiofdz22) December 30, 2019
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