Here's the latest evidence that God hates the Browns: During Sunday's game against the Redskins, running back Duke Johnson fumbled, but came out of the pile seconds later with the ball clearly in his possession. The officials ruled that Washington recovered.
No, really.
Look, Duke fumbled but then clearly recovered it. There is obviously no ball beneath that pile. Because Duke grabbed it and stood up with it pic.twitter.com/Ay4i3u5sEo
— 😎 (@TenCentBeers) October 2, 2016
And here's the saddest recounting of events you'll ever see.
But don't worry, the NFL can explain.
"The on-field ruling was a fumble, recovered by Washington," the league said, via Cleveland.com's Mary Kay Cabot. "It was confirmed as a fumble in instant replay without the need to stop the game. As to the recovery, several different angles were looked at, but with nothing definitive shown, there was no need to stop the game because the on-field ruling that awarded possession to Washington would have stood."
Not that it matters now, but Johnson thought he had the ball, probably because, you know, he had the ball.
"I thought I recovered it,'' he said after the game. "But at the end of the day, I can't fumble.''
And that was the point reiterated by first-year coach Hue Jackson.
"Yeah, he did,'' Jackson said of Johnson coming up with the ball. "And (line judge Sarah Thomas), she goes 'They had already looked upstairs and confirmed it was a fumble and their ball.' I mean, it was a huge play in the game, but, hey, they called it and we can't let the ball die. You know, we just can't turn it over so, at some point, you know, we put the officials even in that spot, we should be holding onto the ball."
Jackson, who is now 0-4, added: "Oh it's frustration, but when the official tells you it's already been reviewed and it's their ball, there's nothing I can do. I can yell and scream and do whatever, but it's not going to change the call.''
Meanwhile, Johnson said the officials never talked to him before making their ruling.
"No, they actually didn't,'' he said. "I had the ball and I was under the assumption we were going 'Browns ball.' They had a conversation among themselves and made the call."
So, to to be clear, there's no way the Redskins recovered, right?
"Is there any way? Not to my knowledge,'' Johnson said. "[But] I won't say we can't catch a break because we had a break today. The defense did their job, caused turnovers and we just can't turn the ball over."
And you also can't catch a break. It's OK to say it.
