Many believed the Indianapolis Colts should have received another chance to beat the Houston Texans on Thursday night. On a 6-yard second-down run with 1:48 left in the Texans 20-17, quarterback Deshaun Watson coughed up the ball. Disaster.
However, Watson brought the ball back to his body, according to the officiating crew, who, despite the Colts possessing it at the bottom of the pile, gave it to Houston.
NFL Officiating said of the play, “There was no clear visual evidence of a recovery by the defense.”
In #INDvsHOU, officials on the field ruled a fumble recovered by the offense. There was no clear visual evidence of a recovery by the defense.
— NFL Officiating (@NFLOfficiating) November 22, 2019
Naturally, Twitter had different reactions, with many believing Indianapolis did not get a fair call on the play.
Charean Williams of Pro Football Talk explains why the NFL did not review the call.
No but we’re not sure the Colts did either. I think they should have reviewed it but don’t see how you determine who had it based on the replays we saw. https://t.co/KgFUM0hwfP
— Charean Williams (@NFLCharean) November 22, 2019
Then she criticizes Bill O’Brien’s questionable timeout call that followed.
What an absolute stupid timeout.
— Charean Williams (@NFLCharean) November 22, 2019
As for the rest of Twitter.
The Colts just got screwed by the NFL’s dumb officiating rules. That was a fumble by Watson.
— Jake Asman (@JakeAsman) November 22, 2019
It sure looked to me like the Texans just fumbled and Indy just recovered. But I'm happy for Deshaun, who made several big-time throws … and who survived a couple more near-interceptions.
— Skip Bayless (@RealSkipBayless) November 22, 2019
The Deshaun Watson fumble was weird. Refs didn't announce whether or not it was being reviewed. Then, Texans should have only been able to take clock down to 1:01 before next play, but took it down to 50 seconds. Colts probably wondering where those 11 seconds went #Colts #Texans pic.twitter.com/VKn3ViycrU
— John Breech (@johnbreech) November 22, 2019
So no time for a review of a potentially game-changing fumble tonight. But I'm sure on Sunday we'll get a six-minute stoppage in some game so they can review whether someone stepped out of bounds on a four-yard gain in the middle of the second quarter.
— Michael David Smith (@MichaelDavSmith) November 22, 2019
There is little doubt, in the minds of the public, that the NFL officiating left viewers wondering what had happened before their eyes.