Mike Pereira, who was a big wig at some point with NFL Refs and is now retired, has an article on FOX Sports about the big plays from around the league over the weekend. He talks of course about the play with the Steelers and Dolphins, and this is what he had to say.
THE SITUATION: Pittsburgh had the ball, third-and-goal from the Miami 2-yard line with 2:30 left in the fourth quarter, trailing the Dolphins, 22-20.
THE PLAY: Pittsburgh quarterback Ben Roethlisberger carried the ball two yards and fumbled as he crossed the goal line. It was ruled a touchdown on the field, but the call was challenged by Miami. The play was reversed, however, because during the review, the officials were unable to determine who recovered the ball in the end zone before the players ended up in a scrum. The play, therefore, was ruled dead at the Miami one-yard line, making fourth-and-goal. Pittsburgh kicked a field goal to take a 23-22 lead.
MY TAKE: This was a very unusual play. The ruling differs in the field of play if the ruling was down by contact vs. a play in the end zone, when the ruling is a touchdown. In the field of play, had this play happened, Miami would have lost the challenge since there wasn’t indisputable visual evidence to determine who recovered the ball. The down by contact ruling would have stood in that case.
In this case, the officials ruled touchdown and since the ball was loose before it broke the plane, the touchdown ruling was reversed and the ball is returned to the spot of the fumble. Since the ruling changed from a touchdown to the ball being returned to the spot of the fumble, an aspect of the play was changed and therefore, Miami won the challenge.
An interesting footnote: With just over a minute to play on Miami’s next possession, on fourth-and-6 from its 33, Dolphins quarterback Chad Henne threw a pass that was ruled on the field as an interception by Pittsburgh’s James Harrison. Well, it wasn’t an interception, as the ball clearly hit the ground. But it wasn’t an incomplete pass, either.
It was actually a fumble, and the fumble was recovered by Harrison. It wasn’t reviewed and probably should have been. Regardless, no matter what the ruling ended up, the result of the play would have been the same. I can’t say I’ve ever seen that before. No matter whether it was an incompletion, an interception or a fumble, Pittsburgh would have gotten the ball at the same spot.
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geno
October 25, 2010 at 4:10 pm
Two dolphins had the ball and one of them got up with it and handed it to the referee, whih is all you need absent some other evidence that pitt possessed it after the fumble. sorry but that’s always been the rule on any “scrum.” fumble equals loss of possession by Steelers. NO evidence at all that Pitt recovered possession. Followed by dolphins possession. The video IS indisputable proof of a dolphins recovery.
second, after he determind the fumble, pitt’s ref did not go back to the officials on the field and have them make the possession call. Two officials said they saw miami come out with it. If your pitt’s ref had done that, then pitts would have had to overturn that call with indisputable proof.
Alex
October 25, 2010 at 5:09 pm
Geno, if you know more than a man that was the head of officiating in the nfl until this year you should quit your job as wal-marts greeter anf become an nfl referee. Your terrible explanation shows your lack of knowledge regarding nfl rules. It was ruled a dead ball after it was ruled a touchdown therefor who comes up with the ball means nothing. Pittsburgh players quit fighting for the football after it was ruled a touchdown so your miami player coming up with the ball means nothing. Score touchdowns when your given the ball in the redzone next time and maybe you won’t have to blame refs for your loss. And let’s not even get into the fact that you still had 2:30 on the clock with solid field position and failed to get a first down, let alone field goal range. Your team lost and they have a lot of people to blame before the ref who made the right albeit unfortunate call.
Ben Dover
October 25, 2010 at 11:52 pm
Boo hoo, if the Dolphins had scored a touch down on either of the two turnovers in the first quarter of that game this wouldn’t even be a topic of conversation.
Plus they got the ball back with about 2:15 seconds left, they had plenty of time to move the ball into field goal range and win the game.
The Dolphins didn’t deserve to win in the first place, any team that are so weak that they can’t wear their Aqua-Marine home uniforms because of the heat doesn’t belong on the field with a real group of men like the Steelers. Common, your team wears Aqua-Marine, that’s not a football team’s colors, that’s a girls soccer team’s colors.