The only thing worse than watching the 49ers lose their seventh straight game in Seattle is watching a blatant foul go uncalled. Both happened on Sunday afternoon as the 49ers lost 12-9 to the Seahawks and the refs missed Richard Sherman’s pass interference of Pierre Garcon. The next day, the former the Vice President of Officiating Mike Pereira voiced his thoughts on the missed call while appearing on Gary and Larry.
“To me, it certainly looked like a hold, either a defensive holding or defensive pass interference,” Pereira said.
When pressured by Seattle’s blitz in the third quarter, Brian Hoyer threw an incomplete pass towards Garcon in the red zone before being knocked to the ground by Sheldon Richardson. Garcon tried to come back to complete the pass, but was held by Sherman, who committed what looked like a pass interference in front of the side judge.
“We replayed the hit on Hoyer, we didn’t replay that part of the play,” Pereira said. “Shanahan’s mad and yelling at the field judge and to me, our guys erroneously thought he was talking about the hit on Hoyer. I think he was talking about the fact that there was no holding call made.”
As a result, the 49ers settled for a field goal to regain a 9-6 lead. However, the Seahawks took the lead right back with a touchdown in the next possession that proved to be the deciding factor in the game.
Since the attention was focused on Hoyer being hit, Sherman got away with his illegal tackle of Garcon. Looking back on the play, it was clearly pass interference, but as Pereira points out, “we’re watching the game full screen, watching all 11 players on each side.”
“When you get a side judge, he’s got a wide receiver, he’s only has one responsibility. He’s not looking inside. He doesn’t know the fact that its an all-out blitz and he’s certainly not trying to look at pre-snap reads to try and figure out what it might be.”
To listen to the full interview, check out the podcast below and skip to 1:05 for Pereira on the missed call.
