Monday night’s game between the Texans and Broncos included an unusual and, for the guy who authored it, embarrassing moment. Houston quarterback Brock Osweiler attempted to throw a pass, lost grip on the ball at some point between fully cocking his arm and beginning the throwing motion, and somehow generated a fumble that looked a lot like a forward pass, complete with a spiral.
Explaining the outcome of the play in his weekly media video, NFL senior V.P. of officiating Dean Blandino admitted that it was an “extremely close” call -- so close that Blandino said the available visual evidence would have precluded reversal regardless of the ruling on the field.
Although the ball was out of Osweiler’s palm as his hand moved forward, it lingered on his fingers long enough to be pushed forward, and to generate a spiral. Which raises an obvious question: Does the rule book acknowledge that a forward pass can be thrown if the ball slips out of the palm but nevertheless is pushed forward (with a spiral) by the fingers?
“When a player is in control of the ball and is attempting to pass it forward, any intentional forward movement of his hand starts a forward pass,” says the operative language at Rule 8, Item 1. Blandino’s explanation implies that the player who “is in control of the ball and is attempting to pass it forward” must maintain possession at all times, and he probably is right. But the rest of the rule -- “any intentional forward movement of his hand starts a forward pass” -- seems to suggest that a forward pass can happen regardless of whether the quarterback throws it with his palm or the tips of his fingers or any other configuration of his hand.
“When the hand starts to come forward, the ball is coming up off the fingertips,” Blandino said on the video, which underscore the idea that “control” must persist until the hand begins to come forward. In this specific case, there’s no clear visual evidence to show that Osweiler did or didn’t have control at the precise moment his hand began to move forward.
Even if it really wasn’t a fumble, the Texans still had a chance to get the ball back. Broncos cornerback Chris Harris Jr. recovered the fumble, starting to run with it toward the end zone (he would have easily scored), stopped, dropped the ball, and walked away. Because, as Blandino explained, no one else recovered the ball, the play ended and Denver maintained possession.