...jump on the ball - or taking his eyes off the ball for a second so that when he looks back to it he's accidentally kicked it because he took his eyes off of it.

If he had been in position to pick it up on the bounce and run with it - great. I would've loved that. But if he's too close to it already and looking back means risking someone closer pouncing on it or over-running it or simply kicking it so that he can't get on it - all bad outcomes.

It's funny that you say he needed to look and see in order to have situational awareness. What would we be saying if he had paused to look back and an offensive player had been closer than he thought and been able to dive on it? Situational awareness includes being aware that based on the situation he wasn't able to pick it up and run - because he didn't know who else was around him. That was the situation he was aware of.