Texans' Keke Coutee scores TD, narrowly avoids triggering Worst Rule in Football

As if the first playoff game of the 2018-season slate wasn’t going bad enough for the Houston Texans, the team nearly triggered The Worst Rule in Football.

Early in the fourth quarter of Houston’s game against the Indianapolis Colts, quarterback Deshaun Watson found wide receiver Keke Coutee for a short dash into the end zone. Coutee, racing down the left sideline, extended toward the goal line and just … barely … got in before fumbling.

Or did he? The call on the field was “touchdown,” but it immediately went to review.

If Coutee had fumbled the ball forward into the end zone, he would have lost possession of it in what we’ve come to know as The Worst Rule in Football. The defense would have done nothing but watch, and would have been gifted the ball and, effectively, the game.

We’ve been through all this before, but here’s why the fumble-touchback is such a terrible rule: it’s a penalty totally out of balance with the infraction. The defense has allowed the offense literally into its kitchen, and then gets the benefit of a fumble that just happened to go 1 yard further than the out-of-bounds line? Nah. It’s a garbage rule, and it’s around only because traditionalists say “that’s the way it’s always been done.” If the offense fumbles into the end zone, they get the ball back at the 20, lose the down and play on. Either that, or make every fumble out of bounds a turnover.

Anyway, rant over. Coutee scored — or, at least, he was determined to have scored — and so The Worst Rule in Football will wait for another play.

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Jay Busbee is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact him at jay.busbee@yahoo.com or find him on Twitter or on Facebook.

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