mvargus;841971729 said:
I do konw that the QB is supposed to notice when/if the RB doesn't take the ball and pull it back, so Maynard should have kept the ball when Bigelow didn't reach for it.
Actually, I don't think this is correct. In a "normal" (non-option) offense, a handoff vs. fake handoff is determined prior to the snap. Neither the QB nor the RB exercises any discretion once the ball is snapped.
If Maynard thought presnap that the play was a handoff, he is supposed to put the ball in BB's gut, let go of it, then carry out his fake bootleg without looking back (looking back ruins the fake). It's not really his job to "notice" if the RB thinks it is a fake and look back for a fumble.
By all accounts, it sounds like ZM just had the play wrong and if so the fumble is on him. Which is puzzling because often the run play and the play action pass off the run play have totally different names, e.g. "power" (a handoff) or "waggle" (a fake handoff off the power run action). It's hard to confuse the two play names if we use that type of play nomenclature. Of course, easy for me to say sitting in Row 34 with a Top Dog.