The Baltimore Ravens and San Francisco 49ers always felt like a possible Super Bowl preview as the team’s prepared to face off on Christmas Day to cap Week 16. Baltimore entered the game as the No. 1 seed in the AFC, while San Francisco entered as the top seed in the NFC. It was also a showdown of two MVP favorites with quarterbacks Lamar Jackson and Brock Purdy.
For such a marquee matchup, the scoring in Baltimore-San Francisco sure started in the strangest way possible.
The Niners scored two points on a safety when Jackson scrambled back 20 yards and appeared to trip on a stumbling referee in the end zone. Jackson was called for intentional grounding, which resulted in the safety. Watch the play here:
Here’s an alternate angle of the play that shows the ref falling down right as Jackson is about to run by him in an attempt to avoid the 49ers pass rush:
If the official can’t get out of the way, should the refs really still call intentional grounding? It feels like a ‘letter of the law vs. spirit of the rule’ type of debate.
The ref’s face as he’s falling down might just be the last great sports meme of 2023. Let it wash all over you:
The ref is Alex Moore. It’s possible that Moore falling wouldn’t have changed the outcome of the play: the San Fran pass rush was coming was coming for Lamar, and he wasn’t going to have much time to get rid of the ball either way. Still, it’s a tough break for the Ravens when they could have been punting — and prevent two points — without the penalty.
We’ll see if the safety ends up changing the outcome of the game.