People keep saying, ‘well, you should expect a high number of flags when he’s your ref!’… okay, but the Chargers only got 3, below their season average. In the Green Bay game, the Colts got way above their season average and the Packers got way below their season average.

So, what I’m supposed to believe is, that in games where Ron Winters officiates, Colts opponents suddenly find God and Colts players wet themselves with nerves?

Obviously, BBS’s theory has some credence. They have been trying to shorten games in both the college and pro games for years. Think about this. If you are a football fan, and you are watching a game as good as this one was (until Winters took over), are you going to look at the clock and say this game is going to long, and turn it off. Are you not going to watch an NFL playoff game because it takes 3 hours and 20 minutes as opposed to 3 hours. In my mind, if the game is good, you don’t care how long it goes. The way this game ended is a black eye for the NFL.

Real football fans relish the game and are not concerned how long it lasts. They are concerned about a fair result (a game decided on the field). They have been trying to shorten the games for years to fit into TV time. It should be of great concern to ALL sports fans that they are now attempting to shorten games with referee calls. Making holding a judgement call was a vehicle to allow the league to control how long games last. The end result of this was the Colts got screwed in this game. Who’s team will be next???

By the way, this whole idea or shortening games was started years ago because the networks complained the games were to long.

if you could prove any of this (which seems true, circumstantially) it would be a pretty good RICO ACT case, since having officials that pick and choose how a game, a game that happens to be a billion dollar betting business, is called directly affects money changing hands. Look at the Steelers v Chargers game for a pretty easy sample. But you’d have to be able to prove something more than incompetence in order for anything to come of it. Although the fact that Ron Winters, whose crew called a number of penatlies far above the mean was deemed top 8 and put in the playoffs might be proof enough that he isn’t incompetent. Dunno. Anyhow, Ive been howling at the moon about officiating so long my face is blue.

All week long we have had to listen to trolls on some sites and idiots in the media talking about Colts fans and Freeney whining about the officials, when rational fans kept their mouths shut. And now, five days after the fact, you print this tripe. It’s bad enough that you’re whining nearly a week later, but to call it some kind of conspiracy theory with the TV networks is the height of stupidity. It makes us all look bad.

They had the flag happiest crew in the NFL and knew this going in. Yes, they should’ve called more penalties in regulation against the Chargers, and yes, they were inconsistent. They’re also on record as being the most home team-favoring crew in the league. They also knew this going in. Everyone in the entire organization knew that they’d be called for minor penalties, so there’s no excuse to have committed those infractions.

The Colts did not play well enough to win, plain and simple. If they had executed on 2nd and 3rd down at the end of the game, they would’ve won, but they didn’t. The team that did execute won. And they would’ve won with or without those penalties. Do you really think that they were going to win a field position battle in OT with Scifres punting from the 40 if the Jennings flag wasn’t thrown? That game was over as soon as they crossed midfield.

What the hell kind of logic is that? If a call is legit, it’s always appropriate, because the PENALTY IS BEING COMMMITED. Maybe Winters got “flag happy” because the Colts commited blatantly obvious penalties.

Refs aren’t perfect, they’re human. They miss calls, it happens. The Colts deserved to lose that game because they were outplayed by San Diego.

“I think it is pretty safe to say the Colts were screwed by the refs this year.”

Yes, because the REFS were the ones that did an EMPTY BACKFIELD PASS when you should be running the clock. The REFS were the ones that couldn’t make a tackle. The REFS were the ones who couldn’t run all season. All the refs fault.

The Colts didn’t deserve to keep going on, they got outplayed. I’m as upset of any of you, but they got beat, plain and simple.

So for all of you arguing this point, let’s play an 11 on 11 game. We’ll make a small wager on the game, lets say, 5.2 billion dollars. Every time my team has the ball, no penalties will be called, unless my team fails to pick up a first down, then your defense will be flagged for something that gives my team an automatic first down. Every time your team has the ball, you’ll be flagged every time you have a successful play. So the wager is, my team will win, yours will lose. I’ll even make this: You can have pro caliber players on your team and I’ll use children that just learned to walk 2 days ago. And if you score any points, you automatically win. OK? We have a deal? Since officiating has no bearing on the outcome of games this should be no problem for you, right? Free money? Sign up and lets go, ok?

I agree the officiating has been awful this year. That being said, how were colts fans feeling after the win in San Diego earlier in the year. If you recall there was a Pass Interference on Antonio Cromartie on a 3rd down on a ball thrown out of bounds not 1 foot away from the receiver. There was a PI call on Stephen Cooper on the following 3rd down when he wasnt even in pass coverage. On the following play Anthony Gonzalez fumbled the ball and the chargers recovered only for the refs to rule incomplete.

Then of course there was the 4th and 1 spot play where the line judge marks the ball short only for the head official to mark it as a first down. This prompted the buzz from upstairs to review the spot and gave Manning and Dungy 5 minutes to devise a crucial 4th and 1 play without burning their final timeout. Then on the 4th and 1 play Jammer gets picked by an official leaving marvin harrison wide open, they then huddle up and do a run play to get 3 yards closer and then burn their final timeout. Did colts fans feel that win was cheapened in any way?

yeah 5 minutes. and the 2 PI calls? the ref pick?

With some SNL Celebrity Jeopardy!

I think you will find charger fans on here defending their victory for obvious reasons. I know earlier one of you said that the league or the media or whoever felt bad because we kept whining about the hochuli call. But i have seen the exact opposite. Ive heard over and over that “we still had a chance to stop them” “it was only week 2” “they shouldnt have given up 31 first half points” “hochuli didnt make you lose the other 7 games.” “stop whining”

Now we are finally on a winning streak and the media and fans of other teams are saying things like “the pats should be there and not the chargers, its not fair”,
  “the colts never should have had to go to San Diego because they have a better record”
“Its not fair that the MVP didnt get a chance in overtime, they need to change the rules. and finally, the charger fan mantra "the refs screwed us.”

weve been screwed all year and told to shut up about it. to stop whining, our QB is a jackass and our RB is a wuss. Im not gonna say that to colts fans, i just want you to know where we are coming from.

We both hate the pats so we should be friends. F the pats. Good luck next year. Dwight Freeney is a beast.

When you call Defensive Holding, the ball does not have to be catchable.

That’s only if its a Defensive Pass Interference