I had no idea that there was a "controversy" surrounding San Francisco 49ers fullback Kyle Juszczyk scoring so quickly in the final minute against the Green Bay Packers until I heard it discussed during the latest episode of the No Huddle Podcast. Then when I heard about it again this morning, I was shocked it was a thing.
Juszczyk and the 49ers offense left 37 seconds on the clock after what seemed to be a game-winning touchdown reception by the fullback. That turned out to be more than enough time for Aaron Rodgers to get the Packers into range for a game-winning field goal.
If you have an opportunity to score in the NFL, you take it. There is probably a good amount of blame that you can pass around following the heartbreaking Week 3 defeat, but Juszczyk probably should not be a recipient of any of it.
The criticisms were brought up during Juszczyk's Tuesday-morning interview on KNBR, and the fullback responded as most would expect — rationally.
"I've been disappointed in seeing kind of the outlash of people saying that," Juszczyk said during the Murph & Mac show. "I mean, all I can say is there are some plays that I want back in that game. I promise you, that's not one of them. That's one I'm not going to change a hundred times out of a hundred. From a football sense, it doesn't make sense.
"You don't get to choose in the NFL when you score, even if you're on the one-yard line. And even at that [point], we're down six points, so we're not kicking a field goal. And at what point — how many chances do you give yourself? From then on, do I snap the ball at 32 seconds? Do I snap the ball at 15 seconds and only leave myself two or three plays? There's too much left to chance there.
"Like I said, that's not one I'm changing. I'm scoring every time."
Head coach Kyle Shanahan backed up his fullback's thinking in that situation.
"We wanted to run it down," Shanahan shared on Monday. "No one wants to give it back to Aaron. I'm also not going to tell Juice to not try and score. ... I mean, it took us seven plays in the second quarter to score from inside the 11. Five plays from the one to score."
Added Juszczyk: "If the game ends with us winning, I think that goes down as probably one of my bigger plays in my career. But it's unfortunate it will be overshadowed by that."
You can listen to the entire conversation with Juszczyk below.