Clearly it was a fumble. LACK OF COACHING. I'm not saying Mullen but one of the scrub coaches that sits and looks for these types of things should have caught it. Then we give up a 1st down on the next play on 4th. WTF?!!!
Here's what would happen: they would rule it was a fumble, but are amazingly unable to determine possession. Then we're in the same spot, but are down a timeout (which we probably would have taken to the half anyway).