The Indianapolis Colts running back committed one of the cardinal sins of the NFL on Sunday.
For some reason, NFL players feels the need to drop the football as soon as they enter the end zone.
However, this desire to quickly drop the ball leaves many teams in sticky situations.
Jonathan Taylor demonstrated this on Sunday by celebrating before he even made it to the goal line.
Taylor dropped the ball before it crossed the line of the end zone, and the ball eventually rolled out of the end zone.
By rule, this gives the ball to the opposing team (in this case the Denver Broncos) at the 20-yard line.
The Colts had a 13-7 lead over the Broncos at that time, a lead that would have expanded to 20-7 if Taylor had held on to the ball.
Instead, the Broncos got the ball back and finished the game on a 24-0 scoring run.
The Colts did not score a single point after Taylor fumbled the ball out of the end zone.
NFL fans were furious over this mistake and ripped into Taylor on social media for his error.
“Why do players keep doing this, I feel like it’s not that hard to understand,” one fan said.
“Tough lesson learned. Hold the rock until the end line,” another fan said.
“I don’t get why a player would do that,” a third fan said.
“When will players learn to just hold onto the ball,” a fourth fan said.
“There’s no way to earn your respect back after that,” a fifth fan said.
Taylor took accountability for the blunder after the game but said he did it subconsciously.
“That can’t happen,” Taylor said.
“No, you’re never consciously aware you’re dropping the ball. Otherwise, you wouldn’t do it.”
Taylor’s head coach, Shane Steichen, had his back and reiterated his role as a leader on the team.
“That was a game changer, yeah, absolutely,” Steichen said.
“Obviously it hurt us, but he’s one of our leaders. Sometimes that happens in football, but he’s our guy, and that’s what you say to him.”
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