Wallace on the non-call: 'That's not the thing that made us lose the game'

The game was scoreless and the outcome was still very much in doubt in the second quarter last night when Vikings quarterback Teddy Bridgewater uncorked a deep ball into the end zone to new wide receiver Mike Wallace.

Wallace couldn’t come up with the catch, perhaps because 49ers safety Antoine Bethea appeared to grab Wallace’s arm at the last minute.

The officials didn’t call a pass interference penalty on Bethea, though. And soon the game would spiral out of control for the Vikings, who lost, 20-3.

So, Mr. Wallace, did you think there was pass interference on that play?

“Yeah, but that’s not the thing that made us lose the game,” Wallace said in the locker room. “It could have went either way. It was just one play.”

Would the result have been different had it been called? Probably not if the Vikings still got outmuscled in the trenches. But hey, you never know.

Wallace, though, refused to make any excuses for the play or for the loss.

“He made a good play. I don’t cry about it. The refs didn’t call it, they didn’t call it,” said Wallace, who led the Vikings with six catches for 63 yards. “You’ve just got to make the play. He made a good play and that’s it.”