The crowd cheered loudly. Public-address announcer Larry Richert exhorted the fans at Acrisure Stadium. Staff waved large flags in the end zone.

A Pittsburgh Steelers touchdown?

The players and coaches on both teams knew better Sunday.

Though the Steelers’ Brandin Echols ran into the end zone after corralling a punted ball that Indianapolis Colts return man Josh Downs had left go through his hands, Echols surely understood the rule that governs football at all levels differentiating between a “fumble” and a “muff.”

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Because Downs never had control of Corliss Waitman’s first-quarter punt that came after the Steelers’ second possession of the game Sunday, the play was a muffed catch and not — as some watching might have thought — a fumble.

The NFL rulebook defines a “muff” as “the touching of a loose ball by a player in an unsuccessful attempt to obtain possession of it.” On kickoffs and punts, if the receiving team “muffs” the kicked ball the kicking team can gain possession — but it cannot advance the ball after doing so.

Despite the hysteria from the excitable crowd at Acrisure Stadium on Sunday, the Steelers’ offense was walking onto the field to prepare to run a play from the Indianapolis 11 yard-line — the spot where Echols recovered Downs’ muff.

The Steelers, incidentally, ran four subsequent plays and did not gain a first down. They turned the ball over on downs, keeping the score, 7-0, Colts at the time.

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