National Football League

Anquan Boldin rips refs for 49ers' loss to Cardinals

Published Sep. 22, 2014 1:39 p.m. ET

James Parziale

The 49ers have blown leads in each of their past two games, and wide receiver Anquan Boldin thinks it has more to do with the referees than it does with San Francisco’s opponents.

Through three weeks, the 49ers have a league-high 36 penalties. They have cost the 49ers dearly in their last two games – both losses that came after blown leads.

On Sunday, the 49ers had two personal fouls called on consecutive plays on the Cardinals’ go-ahead drive of a 23-14 win. In the third quarter, Boldin got flagged for unnecessary roughness for head-butting Cardinals safety Tony Jefferson. That pushed the 49ers back from a first-and-goal at the 6-yard-line to the 21.

The drive ended up in a blocked field goal rather than a potential go-ahead touchdown. Afterwards, Boldin was fuming.

“You send the tape in, and the NFL just reports back, ‘We made a mistake.’ But at the same time, the crap is costing us games. At some point, they need to be held accountable,” Boldin said.

Asked about his penalty, Boldin said: “My penalty was my penalty. I shouldn’t have did it. The guy’s been taking shots at me the whole game. I told the coach that. I told the ref that three times. ‘I didn’t see it . . . I didn’t see it . . . I’ll look for it.’ But as soon as we do something, wow, they see it. But when guys are doing crap to us, ‘We didn’t catch it.’”

Here are Boldin’s full comments:

H/t CSN Bay Area