Trent Williams got away with a punch, — and a possible ejection, — before halftime Thursday night against the Giants, as the 49ers’ offensive lineman swung at defensive tackle A’Shawn Robinson, with seconds remaining in the second quarter.
Williams and Robinson were both penalized for unnecessary roughness, but the punch wasn’t mentioned in the calls from officials, and Williams called it a “love tap” that “wasn’t that hard” when asked about it after the game.
Everything appeared to start with Robinson giving another offensive lineman an extra shove after San Francisco quarterback Brock Purdy opted to kneel for the final play of the half with the 49ers in the lead.
Then, Williams confronted Robinson — who signed with the Giants in the offseason after three years with the Rams in the NFC West, where he faced Williams — and appeared to potentially swing at him twice, with the second one an obvious punch that connected with Robinson’s helmet.
That’s when a flag was thrown next to the play, and the 49ers needed one more snap to run the remaining time off the clock to take their 17-3 lead into halftime en route to a 30-12 victory.
NFL senior vice president of officiating Walt Anderson told the Giants-49ers pool reporter that Williams’ strike “didn’t rise to the level of flagrant” since they couldn’t determine whether he used a closed fist while striking Robinson’s helmet.
They looked at the video available to referees, Anderson said, which included plenty of camera angles since it was a primetime broadcast.
“These are judgment calls and a lot of times you might end up having an open hand, often a stiff arm to the face, versus a closed fist punch, which certainly carries a different weight to it,” Anderson told The Athletic’s, Matt Barrows. “So, we ended up looking at the available video we had and just didn’t feel like the actions rose to the level of flagrant.
“You can certainly end up having contact with hands to the helmet, and some of those actions would be deemed a punch, others would not.”
Williams, who spent the first nine seasons of his career with Washington before shifting to the 49ers during the 2020 season, helped anchor the San Francisco offensive line, as lead running back Christian McCaffrey collected 85 yards and a touchdown in the ground game.
The team finished with 141 total rushing yards in the San Francisco win.
