The San Francisco 49ers 36-24 win against the Seattle Seahawks was surprising, considering how they didn’t have some of their key players on the field. Then there were a couple of injuries on the Bay Area team, but nothing was as controversial as the heinous officiating that the fans witnessed on the Amazon Prime broadcast.

It happened at the start of the fourth quarter when 49ers’ Chris Conley was pushed into Seahawks’ returner Dee Williams before the punt came down it. It was decided by the refs that Conley was pushed into Williams by Seahawks’ Devon Witherspoon, and the penalty was taken away.

Ideally, the ball should have gone to the San Francisco 49ers and Kyle Shanahan even challenged the claim. There was a lengthy commercial break following the play call, but the broadcast later revealed that Dee Williams touched the ball, but the call wasn’t overturned. This caused the commentators on Amazon Prime to question the officiating.

It was Terry McAulay, a former referee, who called the refs out on the broadcast, saying, “We’ve seen two different angles where it’s pretty clear it hits the finger of the receiving team player, and then there’s a clear recovery,” and that “I believe this should have been reversed to San Francisco’s football.”

The Atlanta Falcons‘ safety Justin Simmons took to X and added to the narrative of bad officiating. He wrote, “WAIT. There was a challenged replay and the reason they missed the call was because they didn’t have the best video angle…?!? Okay….”

The San Francisco 49ers lost 70 yards of field position as a result of this call. The thing is, the NFL didn’t see the enhanced video of the ball touching the Seahawks’ returner’s finger. Terry McAulay spoke to the NFLs senior VP of officiating and a concerning updated made it to the surface.

Per the announcer, “They (the command center) did not get our enhanced video that we showed – the ball touching the finger. What they had was the raw feed from our cameras. And it was not clear and obvious to them that it touched the finger.” If it wasn’t for the controversial call, the 49ers might have been sitting on a double-digit lead and the win would have been even more remarkable.

So, what are the fans saying about all this? Well, they are not happy, to put it mildly.

NFL officials face backlash over a botched call in Seattle Seahawks’ favor

The first reaction comes from Dov Kleiman, who downright called the officiating “awful.” Kleiman took to X and wrote, “Awful: The ball CLEARLY touched Seattle’s punt returner’s finger, yet the call was not overturned. One of the worst missed calls I’ve ever seen.” But there were others who seemed to agree with this sentiment.

Another fan took shots at the command center and penned down, “Are they drunk and passed out in the replay booth?” Some people are not happy with NFL not keeping up to date with technology and didn’t stray further from expressing their dismay.

“The @NFLis worth billions. GET SOME F—-NG GOD D–N F—-NG BETTER REPLAY EQUIPMENT!” wrote another fan on X. A 49ers fan account on X wasn’t afraid to tag Prime Video and FOX in his post and called them out for not providing better viewing angles. They happen to think that the refs are “cheating.”

“So, officials are cheating now. #NFL @NFLonFOX @PrimeVideo.” Another fan penned down how “This is a brutal embarrassment for the NFL. But it must not have fit the script.” A win matters the most in the end, but the loss of those 70 yards still hurts. Hopefully, NFL explores the issue and comes out with better countermeasures.