The Seattle Seahawks lost a heartbreaking game at home to the 49ers that dropped them down to the 5th seed in the playoffs and has them playing on Wild Card weekend.
But it probably shouldn’t have ended that way.
Seattle was called for a costly delay-of-game penalty at the one-yard line and saw tight end Jacob Hollister’s would-be game-winning touchdown on fourth down in the closing seconds dramatically ruled short of the end zone by inches. But before that play came a crucial one where Hollister was clearly interfered with in the end zone, but no flag was on the field.
Not only that, the replay booth didn’t even stop the game to check it out to see if the correct call had been made.
However, the NFL’s vice president of officiating Al Riveron stated in a pool report post-game that there was actually a review, but wasn’t enough evidence to stop the game.
Via NBC Sports:
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“Well, we actually looked at it here in New York. We had a great look. NBC gives us a great look of the entire route. So, we actually did perform a review, but based on what we saw, we didn’t see enough to stop the game. But we did review it. What we see is, we see the offensive player come in and initiate contact on the defensive player — nothing that rises to the level of a foul which significantly hinders the defender, nothing that is clear and obvious through visual evidence, which hinders the defender. The defender then braces himself. And there is contact then by the defender on the receiver. Again, nothing which rises to the level of a foul based on visual evidence. Nothing happens that rises to the level of a foul while the ball is in the air before it gets there by either player.”
With that loss, the Seahawks will have to travel on the road to face the Philadelphia Eagles in the wild-card round of the playoffs.
