It sure looked like a fumble.
That's the instinctual reaction to the play Michael Penix Jr. made in the fourth quarter of the Atlanta Falcons' clash with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday as part of Week 1 of the NFL regular season.
If you were watching on TV, you may have immediately yelled, "Ball!"
Because there it was, out of Penix's grasp.
There was no contact, so Penix didn't seem to visually be down.
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But the referees ruled Penix down, and he proceeded to dive in for a go-ahead touchdown to cap the drive.
If it had been a fumble, it was touched in the end zone by a defender whose foot was out of bounds, which would've made it a touchback and Tampa Bay ball.
Why wasn't that a Michael Penix Jr. fumble?
The explanation for why it wasn't a fumble by Michael Penix Jr. is a bit complicated.
Here's how Fox rules analyst Mike Pereira explained it:
"As he dives forward, he is down when anything other than the hand or foot hits the ground. He's actually down, no fumble. It's actually the spot... When he first hits the ground, the ball has reached the first down."
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The key here ends up being that Penix, as a quarterback, dove forward.
It's a bit of an odd rule. It applies in the field of play, too. A QB is determined to have given himself up even if a foot-first slide is instead a headfirst dive.
It might not feel logical, but it is the rule book. There's a bit of the classic adage, "The ground can't cause a fumble," in play here, at least in the reality of how it played out.
The Falcons caught a huge break.
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