forward progress question

Question
I looked over the rules on this site pertaining to forward progress, and although I get the jist, I still think there may be one seeming "paradox," for lack of a better term, I don't fully understand.

From the Vanderbilt/Army game last year, there's still one particular play being disputed by fans. This site says that forward progress is determined solely by what the ball is doing, ie if it's progress has been halted or not, not the player's body. On this play, the Army qb was seemingly stoop-up at the goal line, not moving forward, for conspicuous period of time, yet not grapsed by Vanderbilt defenders it seemed, just kind of running laterally behind his offensive lineman, so his forward progress, especially pertaining to the ball's forward progress has definitely been stopped, although the refs allowed him to "stand there and push," for lack of a better term again, until he finally found an avenue and squirted into the end zone.

So the paradox being the ball being completely stopped for a noticeable period, vs hi, still moving side to side as not yet being grasped by the defenders, seemingly not anyway. Was that play supposed to be blown dead, or should he be awarded the scorce?

Tanks for your time.

Answer
Dear Brad,
the rule for the "forward progress" only applies when the ball carrier is in the grasp of the defender, he is no longer able to move forward, and or is endanger of injury. In most cases the officials just let then play unless the danger part becomes an issue.

If you have anymore questions please let me, Your friend, Louis