The San Francisco 49ers are looking forward to maintaining their 3-0 streak in Week 4, when they host the Denver Broncos at Levi’s Stadium on Sunday. But one wrong ruling by the league that decided the Rams vs. Broncos game in Week 3 became the point of discussion during Niners head coach Kyle Shanahan’s interaction with the media on Wednesday.

Reporters wanted to know more about Shanahan’s opinion on the Defensive Pass Interference call against their divisional rivals in the final minutes of the fourth quarter. Broncos quarterback Bo Nix threw a short pass intended for receiver Pat Bryant, intercepted by Rams cornerback Josh Wallace.

League officials called a DPI penalty and nullified his interception, granting the Broncos the first-and-goal that sealed their win seconds later. One reporter asked Shanahan if he thought the experiment from 2019, which allowed coaches to challenge DPI calls, should be brought back.

“I was excited when they made pass interference challengeable back then. And then after going through that year, I don’t think I ever won it back because it got too much,” Shanahan said. “It just gets a little hard. So probably not a fan of it anymore.”

Controversial pass interferences can make or break a game, as the Broncos’ Week 3 game proved. The Rams had also benefited from this call back in 2018 during the NFC Championship against the New England Patriots. But too many such mistakes led to the NFL making a change to Rule 15, Section 3, Article 10 of the league’s Football Operations rule book.

It allowed coaches to challenge penalties in the first 28 minutes of each half of a game, with the last two minutes dedicated to reviewing the play in question.

But as Shanahan explained, the rule change became tedious and difficult to implement, especially for subjective plays. More than half the challenges issued by coaches were overturned during the reviewing process due to lack of clear visual evidence. In fact, Shanahan had never challenged a pass interference during that entire season.

The rule lasted just a year before it was abandoned. In the current NFL rulebook, Article 10 under ‘Reviewable Rulings’ is now dedicated to player disqualifications.

However, the 49ers head coach didn’t deny that the PI rule did have its fair share of advantages. It could be extremely frustrating when the NFL called a penalty that worked to the advantage of players orchestrating a specific penalty scenario.

“I mean, I thought it was good going into it then because I’m always regardless of what happens, I just want them to get it right. You know, you just want it done right and especially if you can see it on TV,” Shanahan explained. “You know, it sucks to have to live with the wrong way when you’re in the heat of battle on the field, which is what the challenge is for refs, challenge for everybody.”

During an interview about the Week 3 game, Broncos wide receiver Pat Bryant admitted that he “did sell it just enough” for the officials to call the DPI in his favor. While he maintained that Wallace had nudged him while intercepting Bo Nix’s pass, the call remains a topic of much debate.

“It was either the ball or the call, and we ended up getting the call,” Bryant said. 

However, Rams head coach Sean McVay’s stance remains unclear. Initially, he seemed quite frustrated with the ruling, and promised to review it during the post-game presser. But seemingly moved on from the debate the next day, accepting the ruling.

“Looked like it was a good, competitive play from my vantage point.”

McVay maintained that he wouldn’t have asked Josh Wallace to play any differently, but refused to “play the victim card” as an excuse for their loss.