Ref says replay of controversial 49ers fumble was inconclusive

Screened by a mass of limbs and bodies, referee Jerome Boger said he was unable to ascertain whether Kaepernick crossed the goal line before the ball came loose with two seconds remaining in the game.

“On the last play it went into a pile, and there was nothing we could see that could change the ruling on the field,” Boger told Matt Maiocco of CSN Bay Area.

With the 49ers perched on the St. Louis 1-yard line, Kaepernick bobbled the snap as he lunged ahead on a quarterback dive. He appeared to corral the ball before heading into the pile, but loses it again somewhere in the scrum. The Rams came out of the pile with the ball and were awarded possession. The call on the field stood after a video review.

It’s possible that Kaepernick was either down by contract or across the goal line by the time he loses the ball for good. But the mass of humanity around him makes it impossible to tell.

The NFL’s vice president of officiating, Dean Blandino, offered a detailed explanation of the call on NFL Network’s NFL AM on Monday morning.

“Kaepernick goes into the pile, the umpire sees the ball loose, he has 55 on St. Louis recovering the loose ball,” Blandino explained. “It went to review, we looked at it. There’s one angle from behind the defense where you can see Kaepernick going toward the ground, the ball does come loose, but you never saw a body part like an elbow or a knee down prior to that. It was impossible to tell where the ball was in relation to the goal line before it came out, so again, the ruling on the field stood.

“The evidence just wasn’t definitive either way, and that’s why the call stood as called.”

Kaepernick was adamant after the game that he scored on the play, according to Niners Nation.

“I know I crossed the line ... Yeah, I did bobble the snap, but regardless.”