Did refs botch game-changing call in 49ers-Eagles game?

San Francisco 49ers running back Trey Sermon fumbled his first ever NFL rushing attempt on Sunday, but officials ruled that the Philadelphia Eagles committed a personal foul on the play. That negated a crucial turnover, and there has been extensive debate over whether the right call was made.

Sermon fumbled near midfield with the Niners leading 17-3 and roughly five minutes remaining in the game. There was a flag on the play, however, as Eagles safety K’Von Wallace was called for a helmet-to-helmet hit on the ball carrier. Wallace definitely hit Sermon in the head, but many felt the contact was totally unavoidable. If you watch the replay, it looks like Wallace was going in for a low tackle when Sermon was hit by another Eagle.

Here are a couple of angles of the hit:

Was definitely not leading with his head… pic.twitter.com/xLGhkdUPRU

— Nicholas Le (@nicholasle25) September 20, 2021

The initial hit from Anthony Harris was clean. He hit Sermon in the shoulder area with his forearm, which caused Sermon to fall forward. You can even see in slow motion that the hit from Harris led to Wallace making contact with Sermon’s head. A lot of people feel the officials should know the difference and penalize (or not) accordingly.

San Francisco ended up winning the game 17-11. The Sermon turnover could have served as a huge momentum shift if it was not negated. Had there been no flag, Bart Scott might look a lot differently today.

H/T SpinMax