The saying "football is a game of inches" exists for a reason.
The 49ers are still undefeated, but San Francisco's fourth-down stop that decided Sunday’s 32-29 win over the Seattle Seahawks was the biggest play of the game.
After the 49ers kicked a field goal following the two-minute warning to take a 32-29 lead, the Seahawks moved the ball to midfield and faced a fourth-and-10.
Cooper Kupp looked like he would be stopped well short of the marker, but the veteran wide receiver fought along the sideline and stretched the ball toward the line to gain as he went out of bounds.
Officials ruled Kupp short.
Because the play came inside two minutes, it was automatically reviewed from the booth, and the call on the field stood. That gave San Francisco the ball, who lined up in victory formation to take a knee and end the game.
On the broadcast, Tom Brady and Kevin Burkhardt were stunned by how close the play was, and Brady asked FOX rules analyst Dean Blandino how officials could possibly mark it.
Blandino explained that because Kupp’s feet were in bounds, the spot is determined by where the ball crosses the sideline, not where Kupp is.
"Take that sideline and a plane of glass going up. Where does it cross?" Blandino said. "This is so close."
Tom Brady singled out a sideline throw from Sam Darnold to Jaxon Smith-Njigba on Seattle's final drive, saying it was "going to come back to haunt both those guys tomorrow morning."(Photo by Steph Chambers/Getty Images)
Blandino said the ball appeared to cross right at the line to gain, the 40-yard line, and noted that the officials had to piece together multiple camera angles without a clean look down the line.
Blandino predicted the call would stand, pointing to an earlier tight call in the game.
"Remember the call earlier that was really tight on the Deebo [Samuel Sr.] fumble. So if they're going to be consistent, I would think they'll stay with this," Blandino said.
Burkhardt agreed there was no definitive angle, saying the spot looked "like it’s just a total guess," and Brady added that horizontal camera angles made the play "impossible" to judge.
Once the ruling was confirmed, Burkhardt credited Blandino for getting it right.
"Oh my goodness! Talk about close, so close," Brady said.
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