The NFC Championship game for the San Francsico 49ers was awful. Mistakes were made on both sides of the football and the officiating was sub par and that is being generous.
John Hussey and his officiating crew made an immediate impact on the game during the opening offensive possession for the Philadelphia Eagles. On a 4th-and-three play, Jalen Hurts threw deep to DeVonta Smith along the sidelines.
Smith appeared to make a great catch. The Eagles then rushed to get the play off before Kyle Shanahan considered challenging. A discussion on Twitter ensued that stated that a play like that is looked at in real time as well, meaning that the booth needed to alert the officials to review the play on the field yet elected not to. Somehow determining that it was a catch.
So Shanahan needed to throw the flag then. An angle that was obviously available of said play shows clear and obvious visual evidence that Smith did not complete the process of the catch. With no challenge two plays later Miles Sanders ran the ball in for a touchdown.
Beyond that missed call, Lane Johnson seemingly on every pass play got going early. Yet no penalty was called for a false start.
Defensively, the 49ers made plays and then mistakes. Jimmie Ward nearly intercepted a pass and it turned out he instead interfered with A.J. Brown. Several plays later after forcing Hurts out of the pocket, Charvarius Ward got called for illegal contact on tight end Dallas Goedert. Sanders capped the drive off with a 13-yard touchdown run.
On offense Brock Purdy started off well completing his first two passes for 19 yards, yet on his third passing attempt he got strip sacked by Haason Reddick.
As a result of the hit which was to his right elbow, he was unable to return until the third quarter and even then he could not throw the football.
This meant that fourth string quarterback Josh Johnson took over. He did not look good or comfortable.
Johnson and the 49ers offense got good field position twice in the first half, one of those drives resulted in a punt. The other resulted in San Francisco’s only touchdown of the game, a tremendous 23-yard run by Christian McCaffrey.
With a little over a minute-and-a-half left, head coach Kyle Shanahan who is normally known for being conservative in the closing seconds of the first halves of games elected to become aggressive.
It did not turn out well even after a completion to Deebo Samuel. Shanahan instead of running the clock out decided to let Johnson throw, like Purdy he fumbled as a result of a sack by Reddick. Three plays later, Kenneth Gainwell scored to put the Eagles up 21-7.
Johnson in the second half did not do much even after a nice play to George Kittle picked up 22 yards. It then became the Mitch Wishnowsky show, Purdy did come back in the game due to an injury. By that time without any rhythm and the ability to thriow, the game was over after. Hurts sealed any chance at a comeback when he ran one in to cap off a 15-play 91- yard drive.
An ugly loss on the biggest stage by the 49ers, has become the norm with Shanahan. It is time for John Lynch and the organization to trade him for picks.