On Vernon Davis's first TD

it was damn close though

Have the game recorded, will see if there is one.

you are correct. I asked this on another thread but it is fitting here. On the Thomas muff, If the ref had said the re-play was inconclusive, could they have then penalized the Giants as the reply would have shown that Thomas had been pushed out of bounds and would have been the first player to touch the ball

He did not step out of bounds. At first it looked like it, but they showed a replay from the back, and his toes were clearly in, but his heel never touched out. It looked close.

he's talking about Davis' route before making the catch, not whether he stepped out at the 30 yd line.

He isn't asking whether Davis stepped out around the 35 while running with the ball. He is asking if anyone else saw Davis step out before making the catch. I admit I wasn't even looking at that.

...he would not have been the 1st person to touch the ball - Williams touched it and then it is fair game for anyone to recover (I think)

He wasn't even close to OB before the catch.

had the same discussion with my buds at the bar; one of them--a Giants fan--was arguing that DT was first to touch the ball when they looked under the hood. It was hilarious--Hochuli's looking at the replay to see whether it touched PR to see whether it's Giants' ball. He couldn't have been first to touch if it was to be ruled Giants' ball.

If that first faint line is out of bounds then he is out of bounds

And find it hard to believe that wasn't enough evidence for them. How is his toe not on the line there?

once KWilliams caught the ball, Thomas was free to do whatever. The first player to touch rule applies to the first player on any team to touch it. In any event, he was the 3rd player to touch, and 2nd on the Giants -- J Williams touched it before him, to cause the fumble.

more to his right, showed that his left toe was definitely inbounds. His left heel was over the white line, but didn't touch the ground. The right foot then came down inbounds. The call was correct.

The 49ers were just fortunate to get it their way. Maybe it is the right call, maybe not. Too close to tell

And if that was a giants player it would have went the other way.

My question was more of a hypothetical. At the time, no one mentioned the possiblity of an illegal touch (announcers or otherwise), and a flag wasn’t thrown before it was verified that the ball hit Williams knee. So I was wondering (given that TC challenged the call) had the ref not overturned the call on TC’s challenge, could he then have said not only didn’t he touch but it is a penalty (based on what he saw on the reply)

I think they would've been able to flag Thomas for illegal touching.

On this video it doesn't look like he stepped out "before" catching the ball. He did step out at least once afterwards (maybe twice)
USAToday - ( New Window )

that shot and also including that shot. We are talking fractions int hat picture but the strides before that shot might have ben more conclusive. That shot alone would not have been conclusive for an overturn. watch the actual play from the beginning so that you can isolate Davis' strides before that shot

The pic above isn't conclusive, which is why Hochuli let the play stand.

When the play happened, I kept saying to my friends "He definitely stepped out way back around the 30" but after seeing that replay you really can't conclusively say that he did. It actually looks like he stayed in by about a fraction of a millimeter. It's as close as you can get but it wouldn't have been fair to say he was out because you really can't definitively see that.

he stayed in bounds ..barely

I don't know what people are looking at but unless he's missing a fraction of the front of his left foot, he's out. I'm sorry but he is.