Good Cole Article

After reviewing two controversial calls from Sunday's Dolphins-Raiders game, the NFL reportedly said officials made errors.

BY JASON COLE

jcole@herald.com

Three Dolphins players said Wednesday the NFL told coach Nick Saban there were errors on two penalties against the secondary in Sunday's victory at Oakland.

In addition, NFL spokesman Steve Alic said Saban was not fined by the league for his outburst at officials during the game or for comments made after the game.

As for the mistakes by officials, Alic had no comment.

''Any discussion of calls is between the league and the club only,'' he said.

Saban on Wednesday seemed to imply the league apologized, although the coach didn't confirm it.

'When these things continually come back as, `It probably shouldn't have been called, it really was an interception, it wasn't pass interference,' it gets a little frustrating,'' the coach said. ``Now, I have a tremendous amount of respect for officials and the job that they have to do. One of the most difficult ones is consistency in pass interference, the jam rules and all the things that we have right now. When you look at what is happening to your guys, relative to what we are doing, sometimes it doesn't always balance out, which is a little frustrating. But I am sure through the course of the season it will all balance out.''

Asked if that meant the league apologized, Saban said: ``No, it is not fair to say anything. I am not trying to create controversy with the league. I'm not trying to create controversy with specifics about calls or whatever got sent back to us. I am just saying, in general, [it] gets a little frustrating when some of the things you question turn out to be questionable.''

The first controversial play was a pass-interference call against safety Yeremiah Bell on third-and-28 with 1:03 remaining in the third quarter. Bell hit wide receiver Jerry Porter on the play, but it was on a pass that appeared to be uncatchable.

That penalty spurred a Saban tirade on the sideline. The Raiders took advantage of the call to later score a touchdown that put the score at 23-21.

On Oakland's next drive, still trailing by two, the Raiders were facing second-and-20. Dolphins cornerback Sam Madison came up with an interception, which would have been his first since the 2003 season. But the play was negated by an illegal-contact call against cornerback Travis Daniels on the other side of the field.

That marked the third game in a row in which Daniels had been called for a contact or pass-interference penalty that resulted in a huge play for the offense or nullified one for the defense.

This time, however, the Dolphins stopped the Raiders, then scored on their ensuing drive to take control of the game.

'We just said, `[Forget] it, go play the next play,' '' defensive end Kevin Carter said, referring to the team's reaction after the two calls. ``I don't know what our reaction was when that kind of stuff has happened earlier, but obviously it has been bad because we haven't come back and made the plays.''

Said Bell: ``It's frustrating because it [bad calls] keeps happening. We've had a few bad calls go against us recently. It's also frustrating when you feel like you didn't do anything wrong.''

Daniels, who took issue with the pass-interference calls in the previous two games, shrugged off the news that the league apologized.

''It doesn't make me feel any different,'' he said. ``I'm going to keep going out there, being aggressive and doing exactly what I'm doing. If they're going to keep on making those calls, they're going to keep on apologizing.

``They call some crazy stuff, but I guess if you're a rookie, they're going to get you.''

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