Shawn Hochuli’s officiating crew badly blew a facemask penalty call in Thursday night’s game between the San Francisco 49ers and Tennessee Titans.
The Niners were leading 7-0 late in the first quarter and had a 2nd-and-7 in their territory. Jimmy Garoppolo dumped off a pass for Kyle Juszczyk, who turned it into a 26-yard gain. But they got even more yardage than that thanks to a bad facemasking penalty that was called on Kristian Fulton.
The penalty tacked 15 yards on to the end of the play. The Niners got the ball at the 25 after that, in field-goal range. Maybe justice was served after the possession ended with an interception.
But that was a badly missed call, and one that was made solely based on how the play looked. It’s much easier to call things in replay than real-time, that’s for sure.
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