John Lynch offers encouragement to Carlos Hyde after ejection [Photo]

The San Francisco 49ers and Arizona Cardinals got into a fracas late in the fourth quarter of Sunday’s Week 9 contest, and it resulted in Carlos Hyde, Frostee Rucker, and Haason Reddick all getting ejected for fighting.

At the 3:29 mark in the game (video), quarterback C.J. Beathard scrambled from the pocket, and as he was sliding to the ground, Antoine Bethea lowered his shoulder and hit him in the face. Bethea was flagged for a hit to the head/neck area. Beathard started his slide a little late, and if Bethea had hit him in the chest or lower body, I don’t think we would have seen the personal foul. Nonetheless, tempers quickly flared. There was pushing and shoving, and at one point, Frostee Rucker shoved Carlos Hyde to the ground. Hyde got up and pushed back, and threw a quasi-punch at Rucker.

Hyde had to leave the field for the ejection, and Matt Maiocco tweeted that he was greeted by an enthusiastic John Lynch. According to Maiocco, Lynch gave Hyde a low-five as the running back left the field. After the game, Kyle Shanahan said he “really loved how [Hyde] went and got our quarterback’s back.” It’s clear from the Lynch and Shanahan responses that they support Hyde defending himself and his quarterback.

In the video following the play, you briefly see Lynch coming on the field to greet Hyde after the play. It is during the live shot, it is very brief, and we don’t see anything on the replay. However, fan and photographer Ricky Helton managed to snap this picture of Lynch enthusiastically greeting Hyde. Check out Ricky’s Twitter feed for all sorts of pictures from the game.

I’m loving this picture!