SaltyDawg
Well-Known Member
God I hate agreeing with Conan. But the knee itself does not have to touch for him to be down, any part of the leg or arm except a foot or a hand touching and he is down. The player in your pic's calf is touching and he is down and has been down for a bit. He does not have the ball so it does not matter. Pretty much this pic is worthless to the argument.
I still agree the video is inconclusive as you can't see the ball carrier holding the ball when his knee touches. And the impartial refs agreed with that even after reviewing it.
Also this call was not the end all be all of the game. It definitely changes the dynamic at the finish but if BYU goes 3 and out or even a little longer Utah may score a TD with no time for BYU to even attempt that FG. The non call on the horse collar changed the dynamic of this game as well. If Utah gets that extra yardage they may get points. At this point it's all moot.
The point of the pic is, if you look at the position he is in, he is not supporting his body weight like that. So you can judge if you think he has been in that position longer than the ball started coming out or not. To me it's pretty clear the ball started coming out first. And worst case scenario (for the Utes) is it is not conclusively the fumble all the BYU homers say it is.