The Pittsburgh Steelers came away with a 23-22 win over the Miami Dolphins on Sunday but the game would not end
without controversy.
With time winding down in the final quarter, Pittsburgh down in the game, drove the ball inside the red zone. At the end of the drive the Steelers were in a 3rd and 2 situation from the three yard line. Roethlisberger took a snap and headed for the end zone but appeared to be stopped short on a hard hit that jarred the ball loose.
While the play was ruled a touchdown, the ball clearly squirted out and after both teams piled on, a Miami defender appeared to come out of the pile with the ball. The officials explained that Big Ben did indeed fumble just shy of breaking the plane, but that they were unable to clearly determine who recovered the fumble so Pittsburgh maintained possession allowing Reed to kick the game winner with less than two minutes left.
The Steelers dominating defense got off to a strong start. In the first quarter they held the Miami Dolphins to just seven yards of total offense but still found themselves down by a 6-3 margin due to two early turnovers.
The first when Emmanuel Sanders fumbled the opening kickoff giving Miami the ball inside the 30-yard line. Three plays later Dan Carpenter kicked a 39-yard field goal. On the Steelers’ next possession, quarterback Ben Roethlisberger fumbled the ball under heavy pressure at the 13-yard line and Carpenter again connected, this time from 23 yards out for a 6-0 lead. It was nice to convert the turnovers to points but not getting the ball in the endzone with that kind of field position would come back and haunt the ‘Fins.
Ben and the Steelers offense settled down with a sustained drive that led to a 22-yard Jeff Reed field goal that cut the lead to 6-3; the key play of the drive being a 43-yard reception by Hines Ward.
Later, the Steelers defense forced a Brian Hartline fumble and James Farrior grabbed the ball in mid air, returning it to the 34-yard line setting up a Ben to Ward pass to the house and a 10-6 lead.
Miami responded by getting inside the red zone and setting up Carpenter for his third FG to narrow the gap to 10-9. That narrow lead wouldn’t last long as Emmanuel Sanders returned the ensuing kickoff 37 yards and on the next snap Roethlisberger hit a streaking Mike Wallace for a 53-yard touchdown and a 17-9 lead.
Miami seemed unfazed by the big play and after a Chad Henne led drive, found the end zone and sent the teams into the half with Pittsburgh sitting on a 17-16 lead. The teams traded a pair of field goals in the second half before the controversial play that led to that final kick by Reed.
In his second game back after a four game suspension, Roethlisberger finished 19-of-27 for 302 yards with two TD’S, hitting Ward with 7 balls for 131 yards. The win was a big one for the Steelers who are in the midst of a three-game road trip and play the defending Super Bowl champs Halloween night in the Big Easy.
BOX SCORE on NFL.com
Used with permission of the author.
Drew Bastian is a Florida-based contributor to Sports Climax.
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