I understand the Miami Dolphins feel like they were robbed of a win yesterday, and the whole incident has made for great fodder on sports radio and websites today (especially the report that Gene Steratore was somehow in on the fix). Let's take a closer look at the situation though. On the play in question Ben Roethlisberger fumbles into the endzone with 2:30 left in the game. For the sake of argument let's say the play is called a fumble, Miami recovers in the endzone and gets the ball on their own 20 yard line after the resulting touchback. What happens after that is anyone's guess. If you look at the game though, Pittsburgh still had all of their timeouts left, plus the 2 minute warning, meaning the Dolphins would have had to get at least 1 first down to win the game, possibly 2. The Dolphins would've most likely been running the ball in that situation to try and force the Steelers to use their timeouts. Neither team was running the ball particularly well yesterday, meaning the probability of the Steelers getting the ball back in relatively good field position was high. From there all the Steelers would need to take the lead would be a field goal, but how likely is it that Ben Roethlisberger would lead a 4th quarter comeback? Maybe all the Dolphins fans crying foul would like to take the time to ask the Arizona Cardinals about that.
