SF 49ers outraged by roughing call on Saints QB Drew Brees

The SF 49ers weren’t happy about a questionable roughing-the-passer call on Kentavius Street who hit Saints quarterback Drew Brees.

One hit wasn’t the reason why the SF 49ers lost their Week 10 road bout to the New Orleans Saints on Sunday.

But it certainly carried some significant ramifications.

At the 8:42 mark of the second quarter, and with the Niners up 10-3, defensive tackle Kentavius Street managed to get through the Saints offensive line and appeared to sack quarterback Drew Brees.

After pleading his case, however, Brees managed to convince the officials Street should be receiving a roughing-the-passer call.

That turned out to be the call.

Had the sack stood, New Orleans would have faced a 3rd-and-18. Instead, the penalty gave the Saints a first down and moved the chains 15 yards, ultimately leading to the game-tying score and a complete momentum shift away from San Francisco.

Needless to say, many of the still-injured SF 49ers watching elsewhere weren’t too happy about the call.

“That’s just how he saw it,” head coach Kyle Shanahan told reporters of Brees pleading his case. “He got some agreement from the refs around him.”

That play would have also been Street’s first sack at the NFL level. Instead, defensive tackle Javon Kinlaw managed to record 1.5 sacks later on in the game.

For Brees, he stuck it out for the rest of the first half before exiting with an apparent ribs injury and in favor of his backup, Jameis Winston, who stayed under center for the rest of the 27-13 New Orleans win.

Shortly after the play, NBC Sports Bay Area’s Matt Maiocco tweeted out the section of the NFL rulebook specifying roughing-the-passer calls:

Street landed mostly to the side of Brees and was being pushed in the back before he went down anyway. And even Fox Sports color commentator, Mark Schlereth, joked about quarterbacks not being actual NFL players if they couldn’t take hits like that.

San Francisco was doomed to lose the game due to a number of other reasons, including turning the ball over four times.

But the penalty on Street certainly didn’t help matters.