Absolutely nobody was spared during Mike Zimmer’s postgame press conference this week.
The Minnesota Vikings head coach had several complaints after losing to the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday. Zimmer took aim at both the 49ers players for constantly holding as well as the referees for not calling it.
“These guys [the 49ers] hold every play,” he said, per Ben Goessling of the Star Tribune. “They don’t want to call it every play. Until they start calling it every play, they’re not going to stop doing it.”
The 49ers were penalized five times for 57 yards on Sunday. That was about on par with the Vikings, who found themselves penalized five times for 38 yards. But there were indeed a couple of controversial officiating decisions from which the 49ers seemed to benefit. One came on Deebo Samuel’s 20-yard touchdown run in the first quarter when both Kyle Juszczyk and George Kittle appeared to get away with extra contact.
Meanwhile, a questionable defensive holding call went against the Vikings in the second quarter on a third-and-8 play for the 49ers. The penalty on Patrick Peterson extended San Francisco’s drive, and the 49ers would eventually score a touchdown to close out the half.
Granted, it is easy to nit-pick specific plays that went against your team while conveniently ignoring others than might have gone in your favor down the stretch. The Vikings, who lost 34-26, had plenty of chances to tie the game in the fourth quarter but turned the ball over on downs on their final two drives. They also committed an embarrassing gaffe in a crucial moment. As a result, it is tough to argue that Sunday’s game was lost for the Vikings by what the officials did or did not call.
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