View attachment 268007
Refs: “obvious first down”
Yes, they did.
If you notice, the new trend for referees is to simply wave the sticks to be moved forward whenever it is fairly close on a first down. You RARELY see a measurement any longer, unless it is a 3rd/4th down short yardage situation.
Here's what a lot of people fail to understand.
"Forward progress" is not the farthest spot you attain. It all depends upon whether the ball carrier retreats in an effort to evade a tackle and/or pick up more yardage.
In this case, the receiver was CLOSE to a first down, but then tried not to be tackled. But was, in fact, tackled, after he chose to retreat a bit.
The reason for the rule is very simple. You can't "pick up a first down" and then gamble by running backwards in an attempt to gain more yardage, under the faulty assumption that "hey, it's not a gamble, I'll get forward progress for my earlier position which I abandoned in an effort to make even more yardage".
That's not how the rules of football work.
In this case, the runner is down where the tackle begins. Which is at least 1-2 yards short of the first down.