The San Francisco 49ers earned a 20-9 victory over the Carolina Panthers in Monday’s NFC showdown, but wide receiver Jauan Jennings was not happy in the immediate aftermath.
In fact, he approached Tre’von Moehrig after the game and shoved the safety in the helmet until they were separated by linebacker Krys Barnes. That was notable because video captured Moehrig punching Jennings below the belt during the game. NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero reported the NFL will review the altercation.
Both Jennings and 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan addressed the situation:
“I was just responding to some childish behavior,” Jennings told reporters.
“That was just out of nowhere,” Jennings added. “I think it’s probably just like I was saying, just the history of me playing ball. I play hard. I’m physically stronger than a lot of DBs out there and a lot of things happen in between the whistles. With me at least.”
Moehrig provided his perspective after the game, while noting that he “most likely” will be fined for his actions:
“He was just doing some extra stuff after the play,” Moehrig said. “I’ll take that one. It wasn’t just frustration. It was isolated.”
Panthers head coach Dave Canales told reporters that he’ll get to the bottom of” what took place. “I want to see exactly what happened. I haven’t had the chance to talk to Tre about that yet. That’ll be a conversation,” Canales said.
The postgame scuffle brought more fireworks to the proceedings than the actual game itself, which was a rather sleepy offensive struggle.
Quarterbacks Brock Purdy and Bryce Young combined for five interceptions, while Rico Dowdle led Carolina in both rushing yards (38) and receiving yards (36) in a rather pedestrian performance.
Christian McCaffrey was the best player on the field for extended stretches, though, and surely won some fantasy football matchups with 89 rushing yards, 53 receiving yards and a touchdown.
Jennings was also involved at times and caught Purdy’s one touchdown pass in the first quarter to open the scoring. It seemed like San Francisco was going to dominate offensively from there, but turnovers and an inability to finish some drives kept Carolina within relative striking distance.
Still, the end result was a victory for a 49ers team that improved to an impressive 8-4 on the season despite so many injuries across the roster. San Francisco is still chasing the 9-2 Los Angeles Rams and 8-3 Seattle Seahawks in the NFC West, but it is in playoff position.
The Panthers fell to 6-6 and a half-game behind the 6-5 Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the NFC South.
As for Jennings and Moehrig, there is a chance they could be hearing from the league office at some point during the upcoming week after the postgame scuffle.
