Pushing the ballcarrier is still legal. Pulling the ball carrier is not.
It clearly happened on 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey’s second rushing touchdown of the night, with offensive lineman Connor Colby pulling McCaffrey into the end zone. It was not called.
The reality is that it’s never called . And it’s been illegal for years.
Through 2005, both pushing and pulling were prohibited. The ban on pushing went away in 2006. The rule against pulling remained in place.
But it’s routinely not called. It should be, or the rule should be changed to allow pulling.
And it was a factor on Sunday night. The 49ers should have been penalized 10 yards from the spot of the foul. If the Falcons had held San Francisco to a field goal, Atlanta would have gotten the ball down six with time to win the game. Instead, the Falcons trailed by two scores — and it was too late to make something happen.
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