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With the 49ers leading by three and just under 10 minutes left in the game, the Rams dialed up an ill-advised deep pass. San Francisco safety Jaquiski Tartt had the ball in his hands for an interception that wouldn’t have necessarily ended the game; however, a pick in that spot would have made it much harder for the Rams to tie it up or win in regulation.
Tartt inexplicably dropped what would have been his first interception of the season. After the game, Tartt faced the music regarding his mistake.
“I feel like I let me brothers down,” Tartt told reporters. “My play was a crucial one that I left on the field.”
He said that when he saw the ball in the air, “I thought, ‘He fucked up. We’re about to win this game.”
Tartt called the situation a “moment of truth,” and he acknowledged that he failed to deliver.
“I didn’t drop a ball in practice all week,” Tartt said. “Caught everything that came my way.
You only get that moment when you get it. . . . When it was in the air, I was like, I’m gonna be that guy. I just didn’t come up with it.”
It happens. And it happened to Tartt. He deserves a ton of credit for having the poise and courage to stand up and give candid answers in a very difficult spot.