Niners Nation
Last time I made fun of an NFL referee not named Bill Vinovich, we went to the cold climate of Cleveland, Ohio, in 2023. Here, John Hussey’s crew ruined a few hours of our lives en route to a San Francisco 49ers’ loss at the hands of the Cleveland Browns.
Well, guess who gets to be the center of attention now? It’s none other than Hussey again and his crew’s officiating for Sunday’s 16-15 win over the Arizona Cardinals.
First, a disclaimer: The 49ers won because they overcame adversity and made fewer mistakes than the Cardinals. The 49ers won because they took care of business despite playing the Cardinals and the refs. Had they lost, the officiating would not have been the reason. They would have lost because Christian McCaffrey had some key drops. They would have lost because Mac Jones threw an interception. They would have lost because the offense churned out three-and-outs like they were on sale.
But the two are not mutually exclusive. We can criticize the 49ers’ play plenty, while groaning about the officiating, because it was terrible for both teams.
But this is a 49ers site, and I’m not here to level that playing field. Let’s get biased: the Cardinals got away with what seemed like a lot of false starts. And a lot of holding. It was baffling how few penalties were called in their direction when you’re watching the game.
We begin with a play I was trying to find a video of that I could share, but I wasn’t so successful. On second and 9 with 28 seconds to go in the first half, Cardinals defensive end Calais Campbell gets around the edge and jumps on Mac Jones as he’s throwing the ball. That wasn’t so bad.
What was bad was Campbell driving him to the ground when there was plenty of time to let up. After the play, you can see Campbell having a chat with a referee, and that’s all we heard of it.
It seemed Campbell was driving him to the ground, giving him plenty of time to realize the ball was gone and shove off Jones. I’m not on the field, I don’t know what the timing window was, but it looked unnecessary. As the ball is sailing, you see Jones being pulled to the ground. I guess a conversation with the ref was all that was needed for this.
Another play to bring up is first and 10 with 4:33 in the third quarter. Christian McCaffrey ran to the sideline, and as he was stepping out, Cardinals linebacker Mac Wilson body slammed him. That is, again, another judgment call that can go either way, but I couldn’t help but think that if the roles were reversed, we’d have seen a flag, especially when it wasn’t a hit, but instead something more akin to a DDT.
Those are just the appetizers. Another call that really irked me was this play on fourth down, where Christian McCaffrey got blasted...
