Referee Jeff Triplette explains his forward progress calls Saturday night

There were two questionable forward progress calls that made up what I’m seeing termed as the “Forward Progress Game” on Saturday evening.

The first came late in the second quarter on third-and-4 when Derrick Johnson sacked Titans quarterback Marcus Mariota. I am someone who is generally not in favor of calling out referees, but this one was bad.

Mariota clearly fumbled the football, and Justin Houston picked it up and would have been off to the races.

But referee Jeff Triplette blew the play down for a stoppage of forward progress. Andy Reid couldn’t challenge because of that ruling.

“The ruling was forward progress,” Triplette said after the game, “therefore it is not reviewable in that…