It wasn’t just an awful call: It was a wrong call that should have been easily overturned on review.
The ruling on the field was that it was not a fumble because the player was down by contact. That was what was announced by the officials. Therefore, the only ruling for the review crew should have been whether the player was down when he fumbled, and it was blatantly obvious (at least on the TV and the replays) that the fumble occurred when the runner was still standing straight up as stated by SpiderRick. So it was a fumble.
I don't get how the officials could have waived off a fumble and not known who had recovered it. They were standing right there. The field officials made a mistake in missing the call as to whether the player was down, which I can understand, that’s the reason we have review, but I think the review crew blew it because they apparently reviewed an issue other the one announced on the field or made a determination that the play on the field stood because they couldn’t tell who had the ball which is not an issue for them to review.
Coach Rocco commented on it briefly on TV. It will be interesting to hear a fuller explanation from him on Tuesday.
BTW, the TV coverage was great. It was the CAA game of the week, I think, and there were good camera angles for the game and the replays. I caught a little of the JMU/UNH game earlier and this broadcast was a league above.
