As soon as you heard Mike Carey-the Mike Pereira of CBS-say the ruling of a fumble and Denver recovery was a good call, you knew it was going to get reversed. Josh Cribbs got rocked fielding a punt midway through the third quarter because his own teammate blocked a Denver player into him and lost the ball when he hit the ground. He also looked pretty dazed in the immediate aftermath of the hit, laying on the ground barely moving. Then he got hit again. He was helped off the field.
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The ball clearly came loose, and Denver recovered it, but after a commercial break during the review we got a second look at the play and it appeared that Cribbs' knee hit the ground after the hit (you can see it in the top GIF) and he was therefore down by contact. The fumble was wiped away and the Colts had possession. This wasn't as controversial as the Dez Bryant catch and overruling, but it would have been a big play for the Broncos in a game that felt like was getting away from them. There's still time, though, and Andrew Luck promptly threw an interception to give the Broncos the ball back, though with not nearly the field position they would have had.[CBS]