If you're furious with the performance from the officials on Thursday night, you're not alone. The final whistle just went off in Santa Clara and unfortunately for the New York Giants, they're now 1-2 on the year after suffering a 30-12 loss to the 49ers in primetime.
We don't want to make any excuses - give credit to San Francisco for making the necessary plays to improve to 3-0 on the year. However, a major topic of conversation will no question be on some of bogus calls made by the group in stripes.
Throughout this contest, head man Brian Daboll was livid with all the laundry he was seeing tossed on the field against his team. Here are the three worst calls we saw from the refs in this one:
3. Roughing the passer on Leonard Williams in the first half
To start, this was just awful. The Giants were having a nightmare trying to stop the 49ers on third down throughout the game. Late in the second quarter, the Giants were finally able to make a play, with George Kittle being stopped short of the sticks. However, a penatly was called on Leonard Williams for roughing the passer. You be the judge:
Do you agree this was roughing the passer on Leonard Williams….? pic.twitter.com/djRcE3Mf4N
— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) September 22, 2023
This was a bang-bang play. With Williams going full speed, what is he supposed to do here? We understand that the refs want to protect the quarterback, but in our book, Williams didn't do anything wrong. He himself was quite upset with the call. He couldn't believe that the flag was thrown and neither could Giants fans.
Instead of that stop forcing a Jake Moody field goal attempt, the 49ers were given a first down and star running back Christian McCaffrey was able to run in for a short touchdown run moments after. At the time, the Giants were down 10-3, but the McCaffrey score made it 17-3. That was a brutal call and one we entirely disagree with.