Referee admits botching call that led to 49ers' TD (USA News)

SAN FRANCISCO – Referee Bill Leavy conceded he committed an error by giving the San Francisco 49ers an additional down that brought about a touchdown in the second quarter of Sunday's 34-28 win over the Green Bay Packers.

It happened after Packers linebacker Clay Matthews hit 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick well too far out on a third-and-6 scramble that surfaced 2 yards short of the first-down marker.

49ers handle Joe Staley ran into the resulting shred and snatched Matthews, drawing a punishment for unsportsmanlike conduct that Leavy reported might balance Matthews' particular foul – and after that mistakenly replayed third down.

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"The down might as well have tallied," Leavy told a pool news person after the diversion. "The punishments were both dead ball, and they might as well have counterbalanced at the spot where the runner went beyond the field of play. What's more it might have been fourth down."

Kaepernick exploited the additional snap, tossing a 10-yard touchdown to Anquan Boldin that gave the 49ers a 14-7 lead – a four-focus swing, expecting the 49ers might have kicked a field objective on fourth-and-2.

Packers mentor Mike Mccarthy rejected inquiries regarding the blunder as "a component of the amusement" and shielded his choice to acknowledge an illicit creation on the past snap, giving the 49ers third-and-6 from the Green Bay 10-yard line in place of fourth-and-1 from the 5.

"Clearly, the play went into an alternate grouping of plays where there were two fouls called," Mccarthy said. "I don't truly surmise that even figured in the amusement. In this way, assuming that that is your feedback, then
49ers mentor Jim Harbaugh was miffed there were balancing punishments whatsoever. Replays indicated Staley get Matthews close to the shoulder cushions, and Matthews countered by twice pushing a hand into Staley's facemask.

"Joe finished precisely what we mentor him to do," Harbaugh said. "When some person's taking a shoddy move or attempting to do something after the whistle, we show them simply to bolt up. He did that, and afterward Matthews tosses two punches at him.

"The authorities had their description, that perhaps they saw some different things that I didn't see. …  For it to even be balancing was – I didn't see it that path, from my vantage focus."

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Kaepernick said the late hit didn't trouble him. Matthews conceded "it wasn't an exceptionally savvy play" yet demanded it was nothing individual.

Eight months in the wake of demolishing the Packers with his legs, hurrying for 181 yards and two touchdowns in the 49ers' divisional playoff win, Kaepernick beat them with his arm Sunday, tossing for 412 yards and three scores.

"I need to offer credit to the quarterback, Kaepernick, for making the plays when he would have been wise to," Matthews said. "I felt like we made an exceptional showing keeping him held and not giving him a chance to amplify plays very much alike to what they did in the playoff diversion. Yet he still made those

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