I have the replay freeze framed when the ball first touched the Browns player. The Ravens players and the ball reached the Browns player almost simultaneously, so a play for the ball and not a block should have been the play to make.I watched the game and I know how they try to do onside kicks … no he not suppose to let it hit him … but NFL teams have the first row block (if the ball is kicked hard) and then let the designated player in the second row recover it … all NFL and most college teams do this … not really new technique.
watch around the 6 minute mark
The Browns player, was not coached to judge the type of kick because he never looked for the ball, only straight ahead, for someone to block!
There are 6 Raven players and 3 Browns players at the point of initial contact. The Browns player never looked for the ball, to make a play on it and was only looking to make a block (clearly cost the Browns the ball).
The next "row" (one Browns player is approx. 6 yards away).
Therefore, the ball should have been fielded by that player (you could see he would have to make a play on the ball and not block) because the ball had been touched and there were Ravens players around it.
The ball was kicked slow enough and cross field so the Ravens players were at the 10 yard mark (when the ball initially reached that point), to make a play on the ball as soon as it was live OR if it was touched, so they could recover it.
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