Miami ? Go ahead. Blame the refs, if it soothes the pain. They blew it. They didn’t make the right call at the end.

They didn’t make a call at all on who recovered Ben Roethlisberger’s fumble near the goal line Sunday and so returned the football to Pittsburgh at the one-yard line. With that, they gift-wrapped Pittsburgh’s 23-22 win.

“Damn right, I had the ball,” Dolphins linebacker Ikaika Alama-Francis said.

“No, I had it,” Roethlisberger said.

“The refs were yelling, ‘White ball, white ball,” Alama-Francis said for the Dolphins’ white jerseys.

“The ref tapped me on the head and said, ‘Touchdown,’ so I let go,” Roethlisberger said.

On that play went in the postgame like few in Dolphins history. And on. Dolphins general manager Jeff Ireland spent 10 minutes in the referees’ chambers after the game, no doubt spewing until he ran out of words.

Referee Gene Sterarore said his crew didn’t determine who recovered the fumble because the ruling on the field (overturned by replay) was a touchdown, and, thus, the play stopped. And the video replay was inconclusive.

Sure, the refs blew it by not considering the situation, ignoring the big book of officiating and finding who actually recovered that fumble. If it feels good, keep repeating that thought.

Because the other truth of Sunday stings a little more: The Dolphins blew it, too. They didn’t blow one play, either.

They blew a defining game in every way imaginable after taking a 22-20 lead with 5:23 left. This is the more troubling thought for a team trying to take The Next Step into the AFC’s upper class. Look what happened:

1. Special teams blew it. Pittsburgh’s Mike Wallace returned the kickoff to the Dolphins’ 48-yard line. That was the third time the Steelers ripped off a long return in the game.
2. The Dolphins defense blew it. On third and five, Pittsburgh’s Mewelde Moore broke wide open on a blown coverage by safety Chris Clemons for 21 yards to the Dolphins 14. An easy, winning field goal was in sight.

3.The Dolphins offense blew it. There were a couple of pressure points in the game this offense could have taken control. The first came in the opening two minutes when two Pittsburgh fumbles gave the Dolphins the ball at the Steeler 20- and 19-yard lines.

The Dolphins got the bare-minimum two field goals those possessions. They got less in the final drive. There’s room to wonder about play-calling that, on one of those early possessions, simply ran the ball three times before kicking a field goal.

That’s not really trusting quarterback Chad Henne to make a play.

The Dolphins’ longest touchdown pass is 28 yards to running back Ricky Williams. They don’t have speed at receiver. That makes every job more difficult, from play calling to Henne’s throwing.

Henne couldn’t find an open receiver on third or fourth downs. He’d been effective much of this game, completing 23 of 36 passes for 257 yards and a touchdown. Nor did he make the kind of big mistake Roethlisberger did with two crucial fumbles.

But this was a time for the offense to decide a day, for Henne to create a good ending. It was four plays and out instead. All credit goes to a great Pittsburgh defense in those final minutes, as well as its offense and special teams.

“Sometimes you need luck, and it was on our side today,” Wallace said. “But we won the game outright. We outplayed them. No disrespect to them, but we did what we needed to do to get the ‘W.'”

That sums up the Dolphins’ loss better than any crying about a referee. And it’s true. Pittsburgh was better when the day was there to be won.