How bad did we get hosed?

[Pappy13]

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

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

[jtex316]

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.

[Phishfan]

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.

[jtex316]

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).

[Phishfan]

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?

[MikeO]

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.

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

[Pappy13]

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).

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.

[Dave Gray]

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.

[Spider-Dan]

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.

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.

[mecadonzilla]

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.

[hordman]

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