Miami Dolphins should blame themselves, not the officiating, for bitter defeat

By Dave George
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/sports/dolphins/
Updated: 9:30 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 24, 2010

Hines Ward stretches for the goal line as he dives past teammate Emmanual Sanders and Miami Dolphins Jason Allen for a touchdown during the first half of an NFL football game in Miami, Sunday, Oct. 24, 2010. (AP)

MIAMI GARDENS — The refs blew the call, on the ground and up in the box and wherever else zebras meet to mumble and flip coins, but let's be clear about this.

The Miami Dolphins are the ones who blew Sunday's game, a 23-22 loss to Pittsburgh that stings plenty now but will hurt even more at the end of the season, when one win is the difference between making the playoffs and missing out on a tie-breaking technicality.

Credit Tony Sparano with admitting as much, and with laying the hard truth on a locker room filled with players who felt victimized by cruel fate and clumsy officiating.

The game tapes will replay reality to the Dolphins on Monday, and in the end that's the only replay that matters.

Miami is 3-3, a mediocre team by definition. The Steelers are 5-1, even though little was done Sunday to demonstrate their clear superiority over the Dolphins, who were just as stubborn as Pittsburgh on run defense, more successful on the pass rush and a virtual match on both first downs and time of possession.

Them's the facts, like it or not, and here's another.

Even if the Dolphins had been granted a fumble recovery and a touchback on Ben Roethlisberger's disputed goal-line turnover, the game was still far from over. Miami's lead was 22-20 at the time, and there's no guarantee the Dolphins would have been able to kill the final 2:30 or prevent the Steelers from driving for another late, winning field goal.

Fumble or not, Big Ben moved the ball 47 yards in eight plays on the possession that the Steelers needed to get the winning score. In that same situation, the Dolphins moved 4 yards in four plays after getting the ball on their own 29-yard line with 2:19 to play.

All they needed was a field goal for a comeback win of their own, and all Dan Carpenter had been doing all day was kick field goals. Five of them, to be exact. Five consolation kicks to go with one Chad Henne-to-Davone Bess touchdown pass.

"It was a big play in the game," Sparano said of the lazy and illogical officiating compromise call that gave Big Ben's fumbled ball back to the Steelers, "but it shouldn't have come down to that. We had plenty of opportunities to win the football game and we didn't."

Larry Foote sacks Miami Dolphins quarterback Chad Henne during the second half of an NFL football game in Miami, Sunday, Oct. 24, 2010. (AP)

Let's run quickly through a few of those opportunities.

A third-and-1 Ronnie Brown dive at midfield that went nowhere, emblematic of Miami's sickly 25 percent success rate on third-down conversions.

A special-teams breakdown allowing Pittsburgh's Emmanuel Sanders to bring a kickoff all the way out to the Dolphins 48. That set up the winning drive.

A disaster of a Miami two-minute drill, featuring a 2-yard run on first down, a 2-yard pass to the fullback and two short incompletions. That cemented the final score.

Here's the kicker. All of those stinkers came in the fourth quarter alone.

There are three more periods to pick over, including the minimal yield of two field goals on a pair of Steeler fumbles that came before the game was even two minutes old.

"You know what, I'm going to say it like my grandma used to say it to me when something bad happened," Dolphins linebacker Cameron Wake said. "If you weren't there, or if you were doing what you were supposed to do, it wouldn't have happened anyway.

"So if we would have stopped them on the 50-yard line (on Pittsburgh's winning drive), like we were supposed to, it wouldn't have been a call. If you were home when you were supposed to be, you wouldn't have gotten in trouble."

Linebacker Karlos Dansby commanded a larger crowd at a nearby locker, declaring loudly that the Dolphins were robbed. It's easier to say it that way, and to think it, too, but it doesn't help a thing.

What would help is knowing that the Dolphins have been taught for the last time this season the difference between wanting and getting. There are games like this one splashed across every NFL Sunday, even games between even teams and all there is to separate them is one play or one coaching decision or one wacky bounce of the ball.

MIAMI - OCTOBER 24: Receiver Brian Hartline #82 fumbles after being hit by cornerback Bryant Mcfadden #20 of the Pittsburgh Steelers at Sun Life Stadium on October 24, 2010 in Miami, Florida. (Photo by Marc Serota/Getty Images)

Forget, then, that Miami's had it rough on the home schedule, with the Jets, Patriots and Steelers for opponents. Don't start looking ahead, either, to the end of the season, with lesser teams like the Raiders, Browns, Bills and Lions offered up as gifts on a late rush to the post-season.

Cleveland crushed the defending Super Bowl champions Sunday, in case you didn't notice, and Oakland blasted Denver, etc., etc.

There are no easy wins in this league, unless somebody hands one over over by playing sloppy or stupid or soft.

That's the NFL, as tight as a tick. Getting to 10-6, which probably is what it will take to make the playoffs, is going to take a long series of four-quarter efforts cleaner and tougher than this one.

Any chance Wake's grandma could join the Dolphins in Cincinnati next Sunday as a pre-game speaker?