Colts get candid about NFL admission of incorrect calls during Browns game
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — The Indianapolis Colts didn’t mince words Wednesday when asked about a couple of controversial calls at the end of the Cleveland Browns game.
On the platform X Tuesday night, Colts owner Jim Irsay said the NFL admitted to not making the right calls on the Browns game-winning touchdown drive in the fourth quarter. A couple of defensive penalties against the Colts allowed the Browns multiple chances to get into the end zone — ultimately resulting in running back Kareem Hunt’s one-yard touchdown to make it 39-38.
The NFL owning the incorrect calls doesn’t mean much to the Colts, who are still 3-4 on the season.
“I mean, they don’t take the L away,” linebacker Zaire Franklin said. “They don’t give (E.J.) Speed the strip sack. So it don’t really matter. We just have to continue to move on and focus on New Orleans.”
Offensively, the Colts took ownership of putting the game in a position that could’ve been determined by the refs.
“You kind of get the benefit of the doubt afterward, but at the end of the day as players, you have to find a way to eliminate the refs from the game,” running back Jonathan Taylor said. “You just have to find a way where whatever call you make, it doesn’t affect the outcome of the game because we’ve been playing so well.”
“I think we could’ve won that game, and that’s on us,” quarterback Gardner Minshew said. “There were plays out there that could’ve been made, and we didn’t make them. It’s always convenient to make excuses, but I think we have to look at ourselves and figure out what we have to do to fix it.”
Irsay included a strong statement at the end of his post, urging the league to start using replay on everything, including penalties.
“I believe we need to institute Instant Replay for all calls, including Penalties, in the last two minutes of All Games,” Irsay said on X.
The Colts players agree.
“I think there should always be replays,” Taylor said. “I mean, we have the cameras. We have the technology. It may drag the game out a couple times, but I mean, if we have the technology to have a clean game and get all the correct calls, that’s what we want — clean football.”
“I thought (replays for penalties) already was (done), to be honest with you,” Franklin said. “I know at that certain point, you don’t want to have certain stoppages at the end of the game. At that point, timeouts are a factor, so you don’t really want to be pausing the game over and over… The way I look at it is, whether I like it or not, once a flag is thrown, me yelling at (the refs) isn’t going to necessarily change the call, so we’re just moving on.”
Head coach Shane Steichen reiterated that message in his weekly press conference, simply saying, “We have to move on from that.”
The Colts host the New Orleans Saints at 1 p.m. on Sunday in Lucas Oil Stadium.
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