After a 35-16 win over the Arizona Cardinals, Talanoa Hufanga and James Conner got into shoving match. The video above showed that Conner grabbed Hufanga’s face and pushed him before former 49er-turned-Cardinal Keith Ismael and George Kittle broke them up.
The jawing kept up for about a minute, even as the two were separated.
Hufanga told KNBR after the game that Conner was the one who initiated, but that he wasn’t sure why.
“Honestly, I don’t know what he was on,” Hufanga said. “Yeah, my man came up to me. It’s all good though. It’s all respect at the end of the day, it’s love for the game, but it wasn’t my thing. He just wanted to show me something.”
He threw a little shade Conner’s way after an 11-carry, 52-yard performance.
“I honestly don’t know what he was trying to show me,” Hufanga said. “He only ran for 52 yards, so I don’t know what he was really on, but told him we’ll see him next time again. Took the L today, but they’ll be good.”
There were a few scuffles throughout the game, which is not all that surprising given that the Cardinals’ offensive approach is founded in trying to run the ball physically with Conner. He was stifled and hit hard early, but also had a few solid, tackle-breaking runs as the game progressed.
Hufanga was the one to knock Conner out of bounds on a two-point conversion that prevented the Cardinals from cutting the deficit to a field goal margin.
Arizona failed to score again after that 4:12 mark in the third quarter.
These teams will face each other again a week before Christmas, on December 17 in Arizona.
