First half of Panthers-49ers game features some shaky officiating

Carl Cheffers and his crew have lived up to the league's standards. (Tom Gannam/AP) After the league's officiating crews let the players play during the

Doug Farrar | Jan 12, 2014

First half of Panthers-49ers game features some shaky officiating /

Carl Cheffers and his crew have lived up to the league's standards. (Tom Gannam/AP)

After the league's officiating crews let the players play during the wild-card round, NFL VP of Officiating Dean Blandino said in a video presentation released to the media that he wanted his refs calling things in the playoffs as they did in the regular season. And based on the first half from Carl Cheffers' crew, said refs are doing just that. As they so often did in the regular season, these particular officials are calling and not calling penalties randomly, unevenly, haphazardly and without paying attention to some of the most basic rules of the game.

First, there was the case of the uneven headbutts. Panthers cornerback Captain Munnerlyn was given a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct call for this headbutt of 49ers receiver Michael Crabtree. Fair enough.

However, 49ers receiver Anquan Boldin was not flagged for this headbutt of Panthers safety Mike Mitchell, which occurred later in the first half.

(GIFs via The Big Lead.)

Then, there was the case of "Can you guys count to 12?" which Cheffers' crew answered with a definitive "No." At the end of the first half, Colin Kaepernick threw a one-yard touchdown pass to tight end Vernon Davis ... which of course was originally called out of bounds and overturned on review, despite the fact that Davis put a huge divot in the end-zone turf when he dragged his second foot inbounds. Niners head coach Jim Harbaugh went ballistic after the no-touchdown call (though he may have been complaining about the clock), and got a 15-yard flag of his own.

(GIF via Bleacher Report)

Still, no harm, no foul, right? Well, not exactly. As the FOX Sports announcing team of Joe Buck and Troy Aikman pointed out, San Francisco had 12 men in the huddle before that play, and though they tried to right that wrong pre-snap, rules indicate that only defensive huddles can substitute as such. It didn't matter then, that tight end Vance McDonald (No. 89) tried to get off the field in time. As FOX Sports analyst and former NFL VP of Officiating Mike Pereira pointed out, that should have been a dead-ball foul with the 49ers backed up five yards.

(Photo via Bleacher Report)

Published Jan 12, 2014

DOUG FARRAR

SI.com contributing NFL writer and Seattle resident Doug Farrar started writing about football locally in 2002, and became Football Outsiders' West Coast NFL guy in 2006. He was fascinated by FO's idea to combine Bill James with Dr. Z, and wrote for the site for six years. He wrote a game-tape column called "Cover-2" for a number of years, and contributed to six editions of "Pro Football Prospectus" and the "Football Outsiders Almanac." In 2009, Doug was invited to join Yahoo Sports' NFL team, and covered Senior Bowls, scouting combines, Super Bowls, and all sorts of other things for Yahoo Sports and the Shutdown Corner blog through June, 2013. Doug received the proverbial offer he couldn't refuse from SI.com in 2013, and that was that. Doug has also written for the Seattle Times, the Washington Post, the New York Sun, FOX Sports, ESPN.com, and ESPN The Magazine. He also makes regular appearances on several local and national radio shows, and has hosted several podcasts over the years. He counts Dan Jenkins, Thomas Boswell, Frank Deford, Ralph Wiley, Peter King, and Bill Simmons as the writers who made him want to do this for a living. In his rare off-time, Doug can be found reading, hiking, working out, searching for new Hendrix, Who, and MC5 bootlegs, and wondering if the Mariners will ever be good again.