The rule doesn’t say if he goes 4.5 yds it is a catch. It states quite clearly that a receiver needs to maintain control AFTER hitting the ground. And he didn’t. It really is that simple.
You missed my point...Bryant did not, ‘just’, fall down...He carried the ball from the 5 to the half yard line...Unless you are going to acknowledge that a player can, ‘fall down’, in 4.5 yards, then it has to be acknowledged that he actually, ‘carried’, the ball those 4.5 yards...the origin of this rule was the sidelines and back of endzones plays where the player caught the ball and then immediately went out of bounds. It was not considered a catch unless the receiver maintained control the entire time. In this case he, ‘carried’, the ball 4.5 yards. There are guys in the football hall of fame who averaged 4.5 yards per carry. They over officiated the play...It really is that simple...