re: Can we talk about the 1H fumble situation in LSU-Bama?

I understand the letter of the rule, but I agree that its "spirit" is unclear. If the purpose of the rule is to prevent someone who is partly out of bounds from possessing a live ball, then why not just have a rule that states a fumble cannot be recovered by a player whose body is partly out of bounds? But the idea that a player who is entirely in bounds cannot recover a fumble just because someone who is partly out of bounds touches the ball before it is definitively possessed makes no sense to me. Why penalize a team for recovering a fumble b/c the fumbler fell or rolled partly out of bounds and then happened to touch the ball when it was still in bounds? I don't get what the rule is trying to prevent, other than a good play by the defense.