Did Colin Kaepernick score, fumble, or something in between?

The San Francisco 49ers dropped an ugly 13-10 decision to the St. Louis Rams, and as ugly as the 49ers played, they had a chance to win it in the end. Colin Kaepernick ran a quarterback sneak from the 1, and was ruled to have fumbled the ball. The officials reviewed the play and upheld it.

The picture above shows Kap with the ball in his hand. Naturally he said after the game that he felt he was in the end zone and scored. That picture came from an end zone photographer, so it remains to be seen if the officials saw it on replay. Below is a Vine of the play, and you can see at the beginning that the ball bobbles at the beginning of the play, but then is controlled as Kap moves forward.

I can only guess that the refs saw that and then when somebody pulled it out in the pile, the refs ruled it a fumble. After the game, Jerome Boger told Matt Maiocco, "On the last play it went into a pile, and there was nothing we could see that could change the ruling on the field, on the last play at the goal line; if you are talking about the fumble."

Here is one more view of the play via television shot. If the refs had seen this version of the play, wouldn't that seemingly be enough? Given that the fumble was initially called, I'm not exactly shocked that the refs would not overturn the play. I did not mind the call of a sneak given the 49ers had a timeout in their back pocket. They could have called the timeout and kicked a field goal to tie the game and force overtime. But alas it was not to be. The 49ers did not play like a team that deserved a win, and yet they still had their chance. That is so frustrating.

Ball still in Kap's hands whilst there's hands in his face mask....I thought at this point he had crossed the line. pic.twitter.com/fOWfW4nrZA

— Jennifer Chan (@jenniferleechan) November 3, 2014