The Dolphins Make Me Cry.com - Forums

Really did the refs blow the call on the recovery in the endzone I had to listen to it on the radio no tv in Orlando. The guys on the radio said we clearly rcovered it.

Whatever

We had plenty of time to go downfield and Dan Henning ****s the bed.

Can I say the S-word? Because that's what that was at the end.

apparently you can't use replay to verify that a miami dolphins player recovered the fooball in which he is running to the sideline with the fumbled football in hand.

There looked to be at least a 4 to 1 Dolphin:Steeler ratio in the pile.  And 3 of the Dolphins were at the bottom of the pile.  

I comprehend the ref's ruling, but at some point, when the team comes out of the pile with the ball, I do not understand the call.  The head ref never even said the whistles were blown ending the play.

Yes.  We got hosed.

More like we got bent over the goal post and raped.

Bet your ass if the was the Pats instead of the Dolphins they get that call.

Rapelisberger gets away with another crime...film at 11.

Bullshit...nothing else to say but bullshit.

I don't even know what to say.  I was at the Mizzou/Colorado 5th down game 20 years ago, but this may be even worse.

i still don't get how an obvious 4 dolphin players around a official fumble, and dolphin player running to sideline with said fumble in hand, is not dolphins ball touchback at the 20?

BTW, that 5th down complaint has never made sense to me.

If the Refs had counted the first spike, the Buffs would not have spiked the ball the second time, because they would have known it was fourth down.  So they just would have run a play.  They didn't get an extra chance to score because of the second spike.  What was the ref supposed to do, say, "Oh by the way, that was actually fourth down" after the spike?  That would not have been fair to Colorado.   

Here's what the Pittsburgh post gazette says:

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10297/1097797-66.stm


I call shenanigans .. even the pittsburgh freaking newspaper sees shenanigans here .. highway robbery

It is odd the paper twice pointed out the ref's Pennsylvania residency.

I'm still at a loss of words about the call.

Apparently I was wrong when I said earlier that in the NFL you haven't shown posession until you hand the ball to the ref, well apparently even that doesn't show posession anymore.  Miami came out of the pile with the ball and handed it to the refs and still the refs said they couldn't tell who had posession.  Amazing.

That's the part I'm still scratching my head about.  What's more clear than that?

You are going to fucking argue about this 20 years later?  Were you even alive then?

I was, I'm just curious to know how that was a screw job for Missouri.   

Colorado had 5 downs and they still did not get the ball into the end zone.   That's how.

Just amazing. Two Fins players jump on the ball before any Steeler even gets there. One of those Fins players happens to come out of the pile with the ball, and its still ruled that they couldn't determine who had possession.
Such a BS call.
Shame on the Fins for not taking better advantage of opportunities they did have (only turning the two turnovers into FG's instead of TD's and not being able to move the ball on the last possession), but it sucks when the ref's idiocy factors into the outcome of a game.

(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v693/lordthundergod/crazyguyjk8.gif)

REAL BAD...  Merry fuckin' christmas Pittsburgh!

(http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/4146/36070447904216582171775.jpg) (http://img21.imageshack.us/i/36070447904216582171775.jpg/)

The same guy who came out of the pile with the ball and the refs couldn't tell who recovered it.

C'mon StL, that's not clear at all!   :D  I still can't tell...

uhh player #59 clearly doesn't have his hands on the ball, the ball is in FRONT of him.

The arm on the ball belongs to the arm of the dolphins player whose head is hidden behind the #7-something's thigh

Taking into consideration he came out of the pile with the ball, I think it's pretty clear he got it and hung onto it.

My question is since the refs didn't know WHO recovered the ball, IF the ball was staying with Pittsbugh it should have been a touchback and they should have had the ball on the 20, needing 80 yards to go! Why put it on the 1? Clearly the fumbled ball was in the endzone. So eitehr Miami's ball on their own 20. OR...Pitt's ball on their own 20!

What the refs did made no friggin sense

I don't think there is a rule that would prove your point.  It should have either been a TD for PITT or MIA has the ball on their 20.  I think those are the only two options for this play.  The refs were clearly making an excuse for their own incompetence and pretty much made up a rule that, yes Ben did fumble, but we don't know who came up with it, so we'll call it a wash and give it to PITT at the half yard line where he fumbled.  The ball never went out of bounds....the player wasn't down...it should have been a touchback for MIA or a TD for PITT...and the right answer was a touchback for MIA...the refs REALLY shit the bed on that one.

florio just talked about it after the sunday night game... he makes the best point, when do you ever need to go to replay for visual evidence on a fumble recovery when there is a pile up? the refs just sort out on the field who comes up with the football.

never felt so stolen of a game than this one. let the play play out, refs on the field determine who comes up with the football then go back to replay to sort out whether or not it was a fumble in the first place.

No, it's not.

First - my opinion is that Miami got screwed.

That said, watch the replay.  The refs are signalling touch down and every Steeler in the endzone jumped up.  There were two Steeler players in the pile that started to get to their feet.

The refs basically blew the play dead by calling a touch down so players stopped fighting for the ball and refs stopped caring who had it.

What I don't understand is this:  If a player fumbles a ball OUT of the end zone, and it's not definitive as to WHICH ONE was the last to touch the ball on the way out, the defending team is awarded the ball at the 20 yard line.  The ruling isn't "we can't see it, nor are we competent to do our job, so let's do it over again."

The "do-over" is inexcusible.  It's either a Pittsburgh touchdown or a Dolpins touchback. 

I may be a bit biased since this happened to Miami, but this will probably be the worst call I have seen all year.

I also wanted to add that in my 38 years I have never watched a football game where a referee said we don't know who recovered the fumble. Every fumble in every football game I have seen, except this one, has always had someone recovering the ball.

Um, he came out of the pile with the ball and handed it to the ref.  What more do you want?

On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the highest level of hose-ability (e.g. not hearing a player call "Heads" in a coin-flip), this is about a 3 for the Dolphins.

The challenged call was overturned, so instead of being down 27-22, the Dolphins found themselves down 23-22, needing an FG instead of a TD to win the game. It sucks for the Dolphins that it could not be determined indisputably if they gained possession in the end-zone - but it's up to the coaching staff to calm the players down and try to move forward - something that clearly did not happen yesterday.

That is the stupidest argument ever. Granted the call put the Dolphins down by less points but the correct call keeps the Dolphins in the lead.

Technically, the refs did make the correct call after reviewing the play. The ruling on the field was a touchdown. The Dolphins challenged the ruling and as it turned out, it wasn't a touchdown.

Once that criteria was met, the refs then had the impossible task of determining who in that pile of players had possession of the football. Did it look like the Dolphins had possession? Yes, it did. Can it be proven indisputably that they did have possession? No, it couldn't - and that goes for most likely any pile-up type of situation.

I think that your guys' anger is misdirected. You can't be mad at the ref for a lucid explanation of the rules - if anything, you should be mad at the rule itself (and that's a whole other argument).

Seriously, if you want to believe that there is no evidence go ahead. After seeing the video and seeing the still photos, I believe there is clear evidence Miami recovered the call. We had the first player to the ball. The same player came out of the pile with the ball. How is that not evidence he recovered the ball?

Well late in the KC-Houston game 2 weeks ago there was a pass interference call on a guy from KC late in teh 4th quarter where the KC defender literally didn't lay a finger on the Houston WR. He ran side by side with him for 30 yards, with about a 5 ft gap inbetween him and the WR, wasn't even close to the guy. And the ref flagged him for PI. Gave Houston a 1st down near the 20 yard line. And Houston scores the winning TD a couple plays later. THAT WAS THE WORST CALL OF THE YEAR! lol

Actually the refs DID get it wrong.  They called it initially a TD which is wasn't.  Had he not called the play a TD in the first place and just let the play run it's course, Miami would have ended up with the ball at the 20.  It was the fact that he called it a TD initially which caused it to have to be reviewed in the first place.

Then they made a mess of the review.  The instant replay was originally only supposed to correct calls that were CLEARLY incorrect.  If a challenge is made, they review the play and if the play was incorrect, they overrule the call on the field, if the call is not CLEARLY wrong than whatever is ruled on the field stands.  Well the fumble recovery was ruled on the field as recovered by the Dolphins.  The Dolphins came out of the pile with the ball and gave it to the officials who said that Miami recovered, but when the play was reviewed that ruling went out the window even though it wasn't clearly incorrect.  If you can't determine who recovered the fumble on replay, then you should go with the call on the field which was that Miami had recovered.  So essentially the got it wrong not once, but twice.

Which is EXACTLY what happened last week on Ronnie Brown's 4th and 1 play.  That's 2 weeks in a row the refs blew the call and then blew the replay as well.  Yeah, we should really defend the refs because they are near flawless.

Of course the refs got the call wrong.  Their final judgment was essentially "Yes, we know we got the call wrong, but we didn't follow through enough to be able to overturn it."

Had the refs either:

made the correct call initially
OR
sorted through the pile like they should've and determined that the Dolphins had possession

...then we would've likely won that game.

And yet, amazingly, in practically any other pile-up situation, the officials don't just throw up their hands and say, "Oh well, we can't determine For Certain who really recovered the fumble, so I guess we have to act as if the player was downed instead!"

The refs solve this supposedly unsolvable dilemma on a regular basis; it's practically every fumble that occurs near the line.  They copped out.

Here's an interesting tidbit of info:

The Steelers claimed that 3 different people recovered the ball.  (Rapistberger, OT Jonathan Scott, OG Doug Legursky)

Every Dolphin player named one man:  Alama-Francis.  The Steelers having 3 different answers tells it all.  They can't even get their stories straight.

Big Ben also claims that the one in the middle is the hottest.........more evidence that Big Ben tells tall tales

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