In Rugby--the sport from which Am. football evolved--they call it a "rolling maul": Guys driving the ball carrier forward. (The rules are complex and fascinating.)
I have absolutely no problem with this sort of thing. Indeed, we gained some extra yards ourselves this way.
The problem lies with refs blowing the whistle. Lynch's progress stalled, then surged forward again. The play could easily have been blown dead. In a couple of our rolling mauls later, they blew the whistle, IMO, entirely too early. Hard to be consistent.
