The Miami Herald
http://www.miamiherald.com
gcote@MiamiHerald.com
October 25, 2010
Ben Roethlisberger fumbles the ball in the fourth quarter of the game against the Miami Dolphins in Miami, Sunday, Oct. 24, 2010. The Steelers won 23-22. (AP)The Dolphins weren't short of ways to lose a football game Sunday afternoon. They were beaten by Ben Roethlisberger, beaten by themselves, and beaten by a guy in a white ball cap named Gene Steratore.
Roethlisberger, you know. He's the guy whose 302 yards passing and two touchdowns led the Pittsburgh Steelers' 23-22 defeat of Miami here.
Steratore? He's the referee who led the officiating crew that blew the most important call of the day and gave the Steelers a second chance at what proved the winning points late in the game.
The ref owns a Washington, Pa., company called Steratore Sanitary Supplies, by the way. That's appropriate.
Unfortunately, nothing can clean up the mess he made of this game.
"They took it from us, man,'' charged linebacker Karlos Dansby.
I am not prone to blame officiating or make it about the striped shirts. "We wuz robbed!'' is in all ways, including literally, the lament of losers. Indeed, in this case, there were plenty of other reasons we'll get to shortly why Miami's NFL season stands a blasé 3-3 today after yet another home loss.
But the bizarre, calamitous sequence of that one play bears examination. All it meant was just about everything.
Miami led 22-20, with Pittsburgh driving. It was 3rd-and-goal at the Miami 2 and Roethlisberger bulled in for what was ruled a touchdown with 2:30 left, even though the ball appeared jarred loose as it reached the goal line.
The ball squirted into the end zone, where it was fallen on by Miami's Ikaika Alama-Francis.
Dolphin coach Tony Sparano tossed the challenge flag. A review would determine that A) the ball had crossed the goal before being fumbled and thus was a Steelers touchdown, or B) it had not, was a fumble, and therefore a game-saving touchback for the Dolphins.
Right?
Well . . .
Sparano won the challenge. The play was ruled a fumble. "It was probably out before it crossed the goal line,'' admitted Roethlisberger. But -- get this -- Steratore announced his crew could not determine who had recovered, and so Pittsburgh was awarded possession at the 1-yard line. The winning short field goal quickly resulted.
The officials were egregiously negligent in failing to determine possession prior to the review -- possession that clearly was Miami's.
"The ball was out. I felt like we recovered it,'' Sparano said carefully.
Players weren't so politically correct.
"It's terrible,'' said linebacker Channing Crowder. "Seventy-thousand saw that Ike had the ball.''
Said Alama-Francis: "I got it. It was mine, no doubt. It's either a touchdown or a touchback. Having all this come down to that [decision], it's heartbreaking.''
Several Dolphins said officials told them they had recovered. But Steratore told a pool reporter afterward, "It's a pile of bodies in there and you don't have a clear recovery.''
Huh? Picking through that pile until you find the man at the bottom clutching the football -- isn't that sort of what officials do for a living?
Roethlisberger claimed he had a piece of the ball but let it go after he heard people shouting "touchdown,'' "because I didn't want my arm broken.''
The point is officials need to answer: Who has the ball? What a lame explanation by a referee who deserves a public upbraiding by the league office for malfeasance that very likely cost the Dolphins a victory.
Even Steelers coach Mike Tomlin, asked if he felt his team "stole'' a win, said, "That's what the scoreboard says. We will take it and exit stage left.''
Nevertheless, Miami, of course, must bear its considerable role in the defeat.
Five times the team settled for Dan Carpenter field goals, despite sequentially having first downs at the Pittsburgh 22, 13, 5, 27 and 28. That's a lot of fizzling in or near the red zone. A lot of settling.
"In this league you need touchdowns,'' Sparano put it right.
It was more than the offense settling for field goals.
The defense was youth serum for Steelers receiver Hines Ward, who caught seven passes for 131 yards, and Jason Allen was burned by Mike Wallace for a 53-yard TD.
On the Steelers possession embroiled in the controversial call, Miami's still too-shoddy special teams allowed a 48-yard kickoff return, then on a 3rd-and-5 from the Miami 43, the a defense allowed a 29-yard completion to Mewelde Moore.
The Dolphins also had a last possession that might have ended in a winning score, in storybook heroics by quarterback Chad Henne, but instead the series was: 2-yard Ronnie Brown run, incomplete pass, 2-yard pass to Lousaka Polite, incompletion.
After which the sight and sound in the emptying stadium was hundreds of Terrible Towels whipping in the wind, and Steelers fans crowing.
(Quick aside in the grand tradition of the Monday morning second-guess: With time expiring, your do-or-die third-down play is -- a pass to Lousaka Polite!?)
Something else Miami cannot pin on referee Gene Steratore's Sunday spasm of buffoonery:
The Dolphins' home-field advantage: Whatever happened to it?
Miami is now 0-3 at home this season -- and five consecutive home losses now dating to late last season.
Previous times in their 45-year history the Dolphins have lost five straight at home: Once. Not even the '60s expansion team did that. It only happened during the abysmal 1-15 aberration that was 2007.
Miami, in fact, has only a 26-33 home record since 2003. That's a lot of sustained mediocrity where the home advantage is supposed to be. The latest home game gone to L leaves fans to wonder if they should resort to the hollow moral victory of having lost by one point to a very good opponent.
The Dolphins continue good enough to sustain hope, but born to frustrate.
Last word to Channing Crowder on the reality that is 3-3:
"We're a regular old team right here in the middle of the pack.''
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