Boomer Esiason argues 49ers trick play touchdown shouldn’t have counted

“By the way, Jake Brendel – the center for the San Francisco 49ers – should have been called for an illegal man downfield,” Esiason said. “This touchdown should not have counted.”

Upon further review, it appears Esiason was incorrect in his analysis. McCaffrey caught the ball from behind the line of scrimmage, meaning it didn’t matter if Brendel was downfield. As stated from the NFL’s rule book courtesy of Awful Announcing, “ineligible pass receivers can advance more than one yard beyond the line of scrimmage … provided that they do not block or contact a defensive player.”

Chiefs defeat 49ers after questionable decision from Kyle Shanahan

The play did indeed count and turned out to be the highlight of the 49ers’ appearance in Super Bowl LVIII. Kansas City walked away with a 25-22 overtime victory to secure its second consecutive Super Bowl win and third in the last five seasons.

The 49ers watched the game slip away as Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes found receiver Mecole Hardman for a game-winning score in overtime. Kansas City’s game-winning score followed San Francisco’s overtime drive, which ended with a field goal. Head coach Kyle Shanahan made the decision to take the ball first under the new overtime rules, which guarantees both teams at least one possession.

That decision backfired. After the game, Shanahan explained his decision to take the ball first in overtime.

“It’s just something we talked about,” Shanahan said. “None of us have a ton of experience with it. But we went through all the analytics and talked to those guys. We just thought it would be better. We wanted the ball third. If both teams matched and scored, we wanted to be the ones who had the chance to go win. So got that field goal, so knew we had to hold them to at least a field goal and if we did, we thought it was in our hands after that.”