If the Seattle Seahawks go on to greatness (meaning, a Super Bowl victory), Week 16 will be one of the better remembered regular season games for a long time. Seattle trailed 30-14 in the fourth quarter, and then some minor miracles occurred. One included running back Zach Charbonnet.
With the Los Angeles Rams leading 30-28 after tight end AJ Barner caught a touchdown pass, Seattle had to attempt a 2-point conversion to tie the game midway through the fourth quarter. On the play, quarterback Sam Darnold dropped back, threw a pass to his left, the ball hit the helmet of a Rams player, and fell to the ground.
Anyone could have picked the ball up. Charbonnet did while standing in the end zone. While initially ruled an incomplete pass, upon further review, Darnold's pass had gone backward, and instead of being incomplete, it was ruled a fumble. Charbonnet simply recovered a fumble for the two points.
Seattle Seahawks running back Zach Charbonnet drops the truth about pivotal 2-point play in Week 16
Did he know fully what he was doing? Absolutely not, but he was doing something fundamentally that players are taught from a young age.
Charbonnet told the Seattle Times, "I had no idea, but I’m always taught to pick up the ball."
Exactly. Literally any player on either side could have done what Charbonnet did. The Rams were just as close, but didn't do what they had been taught for most of their lives. While Los Angeles coaches, players (and one wife of a player) have complained about the call, the fault for the Seahawks tying the game is ultimately completely on LA.
That the call was initially seen as an incomplete pass makes no difference. Players are reviewed quite a lot during the game. Someone in the NFL's New York offices was keen enough to know pass went backwards. No other play was run before the referees reviewed the conversion. Had the Rams been on offense in the same situation, the outcome should have been the same. It was correctly made.
Still, while Zach Charbonnet didn't know he was recovering a fumble, his instincts, created from years of making sure he understood the fundamentals of football, put him in a position to succeed. The Los Angeles Rams weren't as fundamentally sound as the Seattle Seahawks in one of the more important plays of the game, and LA lost. It's that simple.