The San Francisco 49ers opened up the scoring against the Baltimore Ravens in quite a bizarre way.

The 49ers were awarded a safety during the first quarter of the contest thanks to an intentional grounding penalty committed by Lamar Jackson in the end zone. San Francisco received a bit of unexpected help from referee Alex Moore on the play, as he accidentally tripped the sixth-year passer.

Jackson tracked back to the end zone in an attempt to evade pressure from a trio of 49ers defenders. As Jackson scrambled to his left, he ended up colliding with Moore, who lost his footing as he was backpedaling. 

NFL crew chief Bill Vinovich went on to issue an intentional grounding penalty to Jackson because his pass attempt on the play did not reach the line of scrimmage.

Lamar Jackson was called for intentional grounding and a safety on this play ?#BALvsSF pic.twitter.com/zJdeGfFURu

— ESPN (@espn) December 26, 2023

During his postgame press conference, Jackson took some time to share his standpoint of just what occurred on the safety.

"The ref fell," Jackson said. "He fell, but he came back and apologized. He was like, ‘My bad,’ but it’s all good. Those two points helped [the San Francisco 49ers] out a lot. I knew I was going to get away. I know Chase [Young] knows I was going to get away, too. Hats off to Chase. He did what he was supposed to do."

Jackson can now just look back at the play and breathe a sigh of relief at the fact that only two points went up on the scoreboard.

"It is what it is," Jackson said. "We live to fight another day, and we did. I just didn’t turn it over and give them [a] touchdown. I’d rather [give up] those two points and [let] our defense just hold on like they did for us."

Jackson threw two touchdown passes and also did not turn the ball over in the Ravens’ 33-19 win against the 49ers.

Ravens get screwed by refs in a way that’s never been seen

This play didn’t go as the Ravens expected it to go.