Why was my opponent just able to sit and not play

I played a online autumn event game this morning and I chose my defence and then my opponent was just able to sit there and he even messaged me saying it was frozen I couldn’t pause my game or anything I sat there for around 5-10 mins messaging him back and forth I finally closed my app and he says gg thanks for the win… how was he able to sit there for so long and now I have a free lose in the event where I need point….is this common knowledge in madden or just a bug??!