Sando: Notes on TNF game

http://espn.go.com/blog/nfcwest/post/_/ ... djustments

I was going to post this in the gameday forum, because there was a thread about this specifically, but since it's all locked up now, I posted it here. The part I thought was interesting, was that he says that Mike Pierra, a guy who I swear seems more like a Referee apologist more than anything else, called that final penalty which was declined, a bad call. I thought it was a bad call, but then thought maybe I didn't understand the chop block rule. According to Pierra, a chop block is thigh high or lower. The block in the endzone was definitely higher than that.

Of course Obamanu's non-stretch of the ball made the play meaningless, but I thought some others here might like to see the clarification he made.

The NFL rulebook can be difficult to interpret on the fly, but I was pretty sure officials erred when they called Seahawks guard Paul McQuistan for a chop block in the end zone. That ruling gave the 49ers an option to accept the aforementioned safety. Former NFL officiating director Mike Pereira protested the call: "That was not a chop block near the end. The second block was at the waist. It has to be in the thigh area or below. Glad it was declined."

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I liked this part.

The 49ers' staff unleashed a series of trap plays to great effect. Seattle failed to adjust on the fly. I don't think San Francisco revealed a fatal flaw in Seattle's run defense. This was more a case of the 49ers' staff outfoxing Seattle on a short week. As Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said last season, the 49ers' running game has more diversity, more layers, than what is found elsewhere in the NFL. The 49ers deserve more credit than the Seahawks deserve blame for San Francisco's rushing success. Seattle must adjust for the rematch.

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It was a horsesh__ call. That wasn't a hi-low by any stretch of the imagination. I thought the spot sucked as well. What do I know. I don't think we would have won, but to lose the game on a poor spot and a hi-low is pretty sad. The spots were poor all night, so I knew he'd have to get it by about 4 or 5 feet to be sure anyway. Oh well. I've seen some hi low blocks in my day. That was NOT one. They typically only call it when you hit the guy from behind anyway, not from the side. They are trying to cut down on blind chops that fold the guy's leg up and cause his knee to tear up. This was not such a play, so maybe you could technically say it was one, by the spirit of the rule it was not.