Although the Browns appeared to be the victims of a bad call on a Duke Johnson fumble on Sunday, coach Hue Jackson isn’t complaining.
Asked about the call today, Jackson said that even though Johnson came out of the pile with the ball, he can’t say for sure that the call was wrong.
“It doesn’t matter what I think. Obviously we’ll turn that in the and league will make their determination,” Jackson said. “It looked very close but I couldn’t challenge.”
Johnson fumbled going into a pile, and in a couple of seconds came out of the pile with the ball. But the officials ruled that Washington linebacker Will Compton recovered it first, and Johnson took it away from him only after Compton was on the ground with the ball in his possession. That seems unlikely, but there’s no definitive replay angle that shows exactly where the ball was at all times between Johnson fumbling and Johnson coming out of the pile with the ball, so there was no way for instant replay to overturn the call on the field.
If Jackson wanted to complain about that, it would be understandable. But he’s choosing not to.