Cris Collinsworth, Terry McAulay debate controversial George Kittle touchdown, Skip Bayless reacts
There was some confusion on a touchdown catch from 49ers tight end George Kittle in the third quarter of Sunday’s game against the Dallas Cowboys. A flag was initially thrown for offensive pass interference on the play after receiver Chris Conley ran into a pair of defenders, freeing up Kittle on the outside.
However, officials surprised by reversing the call and granting the touchdown to the San Francisco, which took a 20-10 lead. NBC rules analyst Terry McAulay came on after to explain the call.
“It looks like the defender steps in front of the receiver trying to run a route,” he said. “Second, the other defender engages him and kind of rides him into him right here. So this was not offensive pass interference. This was correctly picked up.”
NBC analyst Cris Collinsworth was surprised to learn the move from Conley was legal. He believes that with that revelation, more teams will try to employ it going forward.
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“If that’s gonna be legal from here on out, we’re gonna have a lot of people taking acting classes here saying they were pushed into the other guy,” Collinsworth said. “I believe you, but I’m just saying, we’re gonna see a lot of that going forward.”
Sports personality and Cowboys fan Skip Bayless had a much more emphatic reaction to the play.
“NO, THAT DEFINITELY WAS AN ILLEGAL PICK PLAY,” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “BLATANTLY SO.”
Regardless, it would be ruled a touchdown as the 49ers went on to outscore the Cowboys by a score of 21-0 in the third quarter after trailing 10-6 at halftime. They went on to win 30-24 as they fended off a late Dallas rally to improve to 4-4.
Kittle left a big impact on the game not only with his touchdown, but in setting up the go-ahead score before that as well. He finished with six catches for 128 yards as San Francisco will look to hold on for the win.