San Francisco 49ers Players Comment on Penalties in Loss to Arizona Cardinals
SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Alex Boone was outraged in the San Francisco 49ers’ locker room after losing 19-13 to the Arizona Cardinals.
“If you don’t like what we say, then don’t like what we say—but don’t throw a flag for it,” Boone said. Officials penalized the Niners 13 times on Sunday afternoon.
“That’s what I’m sick about this league. This is supposed to be a man’s game. Be a man. And that’s what pisses me off. Guys like that work in this league and work on this field, and we have to deal with it. Whatever. It was a terrible call.”
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Boone was referring to a penalty in the fourth quarter. Wide receiver Torrey Smith, who was on the sideline, was flagged for standing too close to the field and bumping into an official during a play. Boone thought the penalty was on left tackle Joe Staley for running onto the field to argue the call. Boone was confused.
“They had terrible calls all game,” he continued. “I don’t care what the league says. I don’t care what Roger (Goodell) says—it’s the truth. If you don’t like it, get the hell out of here.”
“Did you feel (the officials) were a second opponent?” a reporter asked.
“Yeah. I mean, how many pass-interference calls did we have at one time? Four? Five?”
Answer: three defensive pass-interference penalties and one illegal-use-of-hands penalty during a seven-play sequence inside the Niners’ 5-yard line.
“It’s football; it’s a violent game,” Boone said. “A lot of people don’t want to play it. Let us play it.”
Before I entered the 49ers’ locker room, I thought a loss was a loss. Boy, was I naive.
Apparently, the Niners should have won. Apparently, officials shouldn’t be allowed to call 13 penalties against an offending team. Apparently, there should be a limit on the number of penalties officials can call. Apparently, officials shouldn’t be allowed to call more than two or three pass-interference penalties during one drive. Apparently, officials aren’t manly enough in general.
I learned so much from Boone.
After he finished his lecture, I walked around the locker room to learn more. Over there in the far corner, Anquan Boldin was talking to a group of reporters.
Anquan, what did you think of the officiating?
“I thought it was ridiculous all day,” he said. Boldin was flagged for offensive holding in the second quarter. “If you’re going to call the game that way, call it both ways. Don’t let it just be so lopsided where it’s blatant.”
Boldin’s lesson: Officials should throw an equal number of flags on both teams even if one is committing more penalties than the other.
Clearly, the refs should have called a defensive holding penalty on the Cardinals to offset the offensive holding penalty they called on Boldin—that would have been the fair thing to do.
Moving on.
Inside linebacker NaVorro Bowman gave his lecture in the 49ers’ auditorium. NaVorro, what did you make of all the penalties?
“We’re playing hard,” he said. “That’s all I got out of that. Them not being able to get quick-hitting touchdown passes and flaring their arms and things like that. I think that’s what caused the flags. What happened or what drew the flags is just us playing hard. There is no intentional pass interference.”
Bowman’s lesson: Grabbing a wide receiver downfield is pass interference only if the defensive player isn’t playing hard. If the defender gives all he’s got and still grabs the receiver before the ball arrives, the official should stuff his flag in his pocket and commend the defender for his effort.
This was fun.
Back to the locker room. Torrey Smith was talking to a horde of reporters. Torrey, what did you learn from today’s game?
“What I learned from today, I false-started—they got that right,” Smith said. Technically, he false-started twice and committed one unsportsmanlike-conduct penalty, but who’s counting?
Smith went on. “We don’t know what a catch is, but we know what a pass interference is. I’ve seen 1,000 different ones called. That’s just the way it goes. They’re humans. I’m not going to say they got everything wrong or they got everything right.”
Smith, the philosopher. Smith, the diplomat.
Was that you who bumped into an official on the sideline, Torrey?
“Yeah, he bumped into me...I bumped into him...well, he was moving; I wasn’t. So, he bumped into me. I was too far from where I was supposed to be, so that was my fault.”
“Were you in the field of play?”
“No. There’s that little yellow line—we’re supposed to be behind it. We practice it all the time. I probably am going to catch hell from [head coach Jim] Tomsula for it, but we had another flag on the play, too. We couldn’t help ourselves in that situation, but I should have been standing back. Best believe when we’re on defense, I’m sitting down and watching that big screen.”
Smith’s lesson: He learned a valuable lesson by committing a 15-yard penalty in the fourth quarter of a tie game. Next time, he won’t commit that penalty. He actually became a better player for making that mistake. Things are looking up in Ninerville.
Back to the auditorium.
Tomsula walked to the podium. Big frown.
Coach, what did you think of the officiating?
“I’m not going to comment on the officiating.”
Did you have a problem with it?
“I’m not going to comment on the officiating.”
How do you view this game? You took a division-leading team to the last play. Do you look at this as a positive?
“It’s a loss,” Tomsula said. “What I see in the positive are the things that we emphasized in ourselves, in terms of defensively with the run fits and tackling and going after those things. I see the positive in the offense, in terms of the reads and picking things up and improvement there. But, it is a loss. We lost the football game.”
Wrong—the Niners really won the football game, but the officials robbed them. Tomsula could learn a thing or two from his players.
All quotations obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted.
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