Terry McAulay calls out officials for obvious missed 49ers penalty on game-sealing TD vs. Falcons

NBC rules analyst Terry McAulay called out officials during the Sunday Night Football game between the Atlanta Falcons and San Francisco 49ers. After 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey scored a touchdown late in the fourth quarter, McAulay said the officials should have called a penalty on the 49ers since McCaffrey was pulled into the end zone.

“It’s illegal to lift or pull the runner in any direction,” Terry McAulay said on the broadcast. “No. 75 clearly grabs him and pulls him in the end zone. This should have been a foul for helping the runner, 10-yard penalty from the spot of the foul.”

Some day, some official will throw a flag for a foul for pulling the runner which has not been called in almost 35 years. Today could have been that day, but it was notpic.twitter.com/Hrs7zLFZDK

—  Fᴏᴏᴛʙᴀʟʟ Zᴇʙʀᴀs🇺🇦 (@footballzebras) October 20, 2025

The touchdown gave the 49ers the 20-10 lead over the Falcons, and that would be the final score. Had the officials called a penalty on the play, the Falcons could have gotten a stop, and the outcome of the game could have been different.

But with the way McCaffrey was playing on Sunday night, he would have likely scored anyway. The 49ers running back finished the game with 129 rushing yards, 72 receiving yards, and two touchdowns to help the team improve its record to 5-2. The Falcons, who have won the last two games entering Sunday’s matchup, fall to 3-3.

More on the Falcons-49ers matchup

The game was all about McCaffrey facing Falcons running back Bijan Robinson. Last week, Robinson recorded 238 yards from scrimmage to help the Falcons take down the Buffalo Bills 24-14. On Sunday, the former Texas star tallied 92 scrimmage yards and one touchdown.

On3 recently spoke to 49ers legend Frank Gore about the McCaffrey-Robinson matchup. “I’m looking forward to it because they also trained this all season to get together, so you know the competition going to be real high,” Gore told On3. “That’s like when me and Shady [LeSean] McCoy used to play against each other because we trained. I wanted to outshine him so bad, he wanted to outshine me so bad. But this week I want Christian to go do his thing, like he always will, like he always do, and I want our young home defense to go shut Bijan down, man. Bijan, probably one of the top guys in the NFL right now. But we slow him down, I think we get a W.”