It seems pretty straight forward. You win a replay challenge, you get to keep your time out. But the situation that played out yesterday for the Vikings was anything but straight forward. In fact it was kinda confusing.
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In the first quarter, the Vikings’ Brian Robison appeared to force a Jay Cutler fumble and Captain Munnerlyn appeared to fall on the loose ball for the eventual recovery.
The officials ruled the play an incomplete pass instead of a fumble but Mike Zimmer threw the challenge flag, confident he could get it overturned. Here was where it got hazy.
The refs came back with a ruling of fumble, as Zimmer and the Vikings contended, but the Vikings did not get the ball and were forced to surrender a time out.
So, in essence, the Vikings won the challenge but were still forced to give up a time out. How could this be?
ESPN’s officiating watch dog Kevin Seifert has gotten an explanation. And it’s basically another variation on the old “completing the process” nonsense:
"Note 2 of Rule 15, Section 2, Article 4 of the NFL Rule Book says: “If the on-field ruling is a dead ball, any recovery must occur in the continuing action following the loss of possession.”What was the continuing action of this play? In this case, action appeared to stop — because of the whistle, perhaps — after the ball squirted away from Greenway.By definition, what happened afterwards — including Munnerlyn’s recovery — was not part of the play. Officially, Cutler’s fumble was not recovered by anyone, which meant that Torbert couldn’t overturn the original ruling. If the call isn’t overturned, it has to stand. If it stands, the challenging team loses a timeout, as the Vikings did."
So what it boils down to is this: had the Vikings immediately recovered the fumble, it would have been ruled their ball after the replay and they would have kept their time out.
Mike Zimmer can surely use this as a teaching moment. The lesson being, fall on the ball immediately any time you see it rolling around loose on the field.
As usual, the NFL is ridiculous with these subjective definitions like “completing the process” and “continuing action.” But that’s the situation replay has wrought. And everyone has to live with it.