San Francisco 49ers' wide receiver Michael Crabtree is not happy with what he claims was a "missed call" by referees in Sunday night's Super Bowl. He believes the call handed the Baltimore Ravens the Super Bowl XLVII win. Crabtree had the chance to be the games hero and the missed catch ended his hopes as the receiver believes Ravens' Jimmy Smith held him on the fourth down play.
San Francisco trailed by five points with 1:50 left in the biggest football game of the year. The offense faced fourth-and-goal on the Baltimore 5-yard line. Only a touchdown would win the game. Crabtree went up for a pass by quarterback Colin Kaepernick headed for the endzone and fell just out of reach of Crabtree's hands. Crabtree got tangled with Smith as he went up for the grab and afterwards he insisted the referee had to throw the flag for holding. Along with Crabtree, head coach Jim Harbaugh emotionally insisted on the call from the sideline, but the play stood, thereby ending the 49ers' chances for a comeback. The Ravens were named champions a few plays later.
"It was a missed call. The referee missed two or three in the game but that was it right there, the Super Bowl was right there," Crabtree said in disappointment postgame.
Harbaugh agreed with Crabtree that the referees missed one of the most important calls of the game, stopping in the middle of his news conference to express his displeasure.
"I realize I'm on the side of the 49ers. I'm the coach of the 49ers-there is some bias there. But I wouldn't bring it up unless it was obvious. But that's not the way the refs saw it," said Harbaugh.
Harbaugh insisted that he did not want to keep bringing up incident and wanted to handle the game with class. He believed his team had numerous chances to win and did not play to the best of their ability, but was adamant on the belief that there was pass interference and a hold on Crabtree on the fourth down call.
Crabtree finished the game with five catches for 109 yards and a touchdown in the third quarter.
