As the San Francisco 49ers defense racked up seven neutral zone and encroachment penalties in Detroit, there was talk on the 49ers sidelines of the Lions' center moving the ball while being set up on the line. Head Coach Jim Tomsula touched on this in his post game presser as did NaVorro Bowman. Matt Maiocco tweeted yesterday that there was no evidence of the movement but personnel on the field reported otherwise.
Five #49ers takeaways, including no evidence Lions C Travis Swanson was moving the ball to coax seven penalties. https://t.co/vMFVAwokIv
— Matt Maiocco (@MaioccoCSN) December 28, 2015
NaVorro Bowman spoke to the media after the loss:
Can you comment on the game?
I look at it as it was a good game. The Lions, they finished better than we did.
Was it Stafford's hard count that was got guys offsides?
Yeah, he was doing a good job with mixing up the cadence and he got us a few times.
Were they moving the ball around to get you guys...
Yeah they were doing a little bit of movement. Referee said that he would look at it and we left it at that.
You had a long talk with the referee at the end of the 3rd quarter, what did that entail?
Stuff where I pulled up on their quarterback when he was close to the sideline, just trying to get the game called fairly that's all.
How difficult is it with all of the penalties?
Yeah, it makes it very difficult, especially on 3rd down when we have a chance to get off the field [and] we shoot ourselves in the foot with penalties that we cause on our own. This just comes down to discipline and focusing on your assignment.
With all of the offsides, you were probably yelling "stop."
Yeah, we just uh, I believe I said "watch the ball" about 50 or 60 times today and after we jumped off about 5 so, that's pretty much just what you can keep doing, keep reminding the guys to watch the ball. They're trying to make a play. I understand that, but we have to be disciplined.
Does this feel like a step back?
We're just trying to finish the season with the same amount of energy we went into the season with. Not really an opinion on the game but we just want to finish strong.