NFL memo puts Colts new no-huddle plans on hold for now

INDIANAPOLIS -- Colts coach Tony Dungy put his revamped no-huddle plans on hold Thursday.\nBut if there's a repeat of what he saw Sunday against the New York Jets, Dungy says he won't hesitate to employ a new version of the Colts base offense by substituting players and snapping the ball before defenses can make comparable changes.\n"We were going to do it," Dungy said Thursday. "What we were going to do was put 13 on the field and as soon as they substituted, we were going to snap the ball."\nDungy thought he understood the rule regarding no-huddle offenses until he sought an explanation from league officials this week. It was then Dungy found out there had apparently been a change.\nDungy said he was told part of the wording -- giving the defense time to substitute -- had changed in the 1990s but that few knew of it.\nSo Dungy promised changes.\nWhat at first upset Dungy was an argument he had with the referees during the third quarter of Sunday's game. Dungy thought the Colts' defense should be given ample time to substitute after the Jets made a change on offense. Instead, the Colts had to burn a timeout.\nDungy said the Jets did that at least four times, something Dungy said most people around the league considered a violation of the rule.\n"We've run the no-huddle, as you know, for about eight years and we've always asked what we can do so that's what we've done," Dungy said. "Now they tell me Sunday that you can do this, and I was a little bit upset."\nThursday, the league's officiating office notified all 32 teams that the rule's original intent would be applied.\nA weekly officiating video sent out Tuesday also included an explanation from Mike Pereira, the NFL's vice president of officiating. Pereira said if the offense substituted and did not give the defense a chance to make changes, the play would be voided and the offense would be warned. A second infraction would result in a 15-yard unsmportsmanlike conduct penalty.\n"It's just good to remind ourselves if you substitute, the defense gets a chance to match up," Pereira said at the end of a 1:40 segment.\nDungy hopes that interpretation will be enforced the rest of the season. If not, he'll roll out a new version of the no-huddle offense.\n"The other 32 coaches and everyone else thought it was one way," he said. "No one I know of, outside the officiating office, knew any different. ... That's the spirit of the law."\nThe last thing the Tennessee Titans (0-4) need to worry about is the Colts (4-0) changing receivers near their sideline and having Peyton Manning snap the ball when the defense has more than 11 players on the field.\nThe Titans have already lost seven straight games overall, plus seven consecutive on the road and six straight to the Colts.\nCoach Jeff Fisher's roster is the second-youngest in football, and Tennessee will also be missing starting defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth, who is starting a five-game suspension for twice kicking Dallas center Andre Gurode in the head last week.\nSome Colts players acknowledged they had not discussed altering the offense this week, nor did they think it was necessary.\n"It would be chaos," said receiver Aaron Moorehead, who might have been in the rotation. "But our offense has worked so well, I don't think there's any real reason to make a change"