WE WERE ON A BREAAAK!!!!!!!!

Okay, so nothing like taking seven months off! (Or more for some of us!) I know that life sometimes gets in the way, but seven fucking months! REALLY?!?!?

Yes, we are totally ashamed of ourselves. But hey, we still live in a basement in our parents' houses. Do you think were more ashamed to have ignored our fans (all half dozen or so of you) for the past several months compared to living with our parents? HAH!

Not sure about the rest of the gang, but I guess we have let the fucktards of the sports world get away with too much and it is time for LomHenn.com to put its proverbial foot down!

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A lot has happened since our last post in February. The Butler Bulldogs went to the Championship game in the Final FourTM for the second straight year. (Well done!) Dan Wheldon won the Indy 500. Tiger Woods came back...sucked...left again...came back...still sucked...missed the PGA fall playoffs. Cardinals did a mid-summer "flan in the cupboard" impression. The NFL lockout came to end just in time. The NBA lockout will most likely not end in time...no real loss there, in my opinion. And Bob Kravitz is still writing for the Indy Star...sadly. At least he is still not on the radio!

And now the NFL regular season has finally started. WOOOHOOOO! And to make things real interesting for Colts fans, Peyton Manning will miss at least a majority of the season. Not the way I really wanted to liven up this season! It has been interesting to see and hear the various pundits call for the demise of the Colts without #18. True, the Colts are not as good offensively without Peyton, but they still have several Pro Bowl players on the team. One game does not a season make!

So no guarantees that we will not have another seven month gap in our posts, but with football season on the go, I'm pretty sure we can scratch up a few posts here and there.

Feel free to send us an email and tell us we suck!

A New OT?

Could the "No Fun League" actually be making a change for the better? Is it possible that the owners, who are turning the NFL from a bruising, crunching, battling game into protect the pansy QB, are actually improving the game?

Kind of...and no.

The NFL owners voted 28-4 to change the overtime rules to allow the teams losing the coin toss to have a possession in OT. Only if the team that won the toss kicks a field goal...and only during the postseason. Fuck the Heck!?!

Only during the postseason? I know that this happened in last season's playoff game between Minnesota and New Orleans when New Orleans won the toss and kicked a field goal to win the game without the Vikings offense having a chance. But you mean to tell me that if this had been the regular season finale with a playoff spot on the line that you'd be hosed? And the reasoning you give is that you are afraid the possibility of extend time could lead to more injuries?!?!?!?!

Fuck the fuck the heck?!?!?! Double fuck the heck! Whatever!!!!

Give me a GD fucking break!!!

If you were so concerned about injuries, then fucking drop two of the retarded preseason games that do nothing but gouge the pockets of season ticket holders. The game on the field is meaningless crap during most of the preseason yet you have to pay full price for the ticket. And how many season-ending or major injuries do we see every year in the preseason. Do you really think that adding a couple of additional series in overtime during the regular season is really going to result in that many more injuries than a meaningless preseason game?

I know some people think a change is not needed or that they should change the rules to mimic college rules. However, statistics do show that something needed to be done. Since 1994, teams that won the coin toss won the game 34.3% of the time without the other team ever having a possession in OT. You played for 60 minutes and forced overtime, but your offense never has a chance to get on the field? I've never liked that rule.

Personally, I prefer the rules from the Arena Football League in that each team is guaranteed one possession. If the game is still tied after each team has had a possession, then it becomes sudden death. It is a more equitable solution and prevents the game being decided essentially by the coin toss.

One caveat to this is that there is possibility for another vote in May during the next set of Owner's Meetings where the owners could vote to include the new rules for the regular season as well. With all of the fall out I've seen so far, I think there is a good chance to get this passed. The only question would be if it would start with the 2010 season or the 2011 season.

Change can be good, but to only change part of a whole that needs to be changed is both short-sighted and chicken shit. But, this is the "No Fun League" so chicken shit is becoming more of the norm any more it seems.

Hold on there!

Hold on.

There is a cry throughout the NFL, or at least here in Indy, that referees are not calling offensive holding like they used to.

Philip B. Wilson of the Indianapolis Newspaper Monopoly has actually done some research on the topic. [Phil, could you please teach Bob Kravitz about trying this research-thing out?] Based on the number of holds called through the first 71 games, the projected number of holds for the entire season will be the lowest in the last 20 years. This is after an all-time high of 880 penalties called in 2005.

Below is a year by year comparison of the number of offensive holding penalties and the type of play they were called on.

Year-Holds-On run-On pass-On kick
2007 - 602 - 227 - 194 - 181
2006 - 579 - 216 - 181 - 182
2005 - 880 - 356 - 260 - 264
2004 - 774 - 302 - 235 - 237
2003 - 805 - 314 - 224 - 267
2002 - 796 - 279 - 216 - 301
2001 - 628 - 246 - 172 - 210
2000 - 779 - 335 - 178 - 266
1999 - 801 - 311 - 215 - 275
1998 - 834 - 310 - 226 - 298

OK, and here are the current numbers through 71 games and the season projections:

So far - 71 games - 157 holds - 61 on runs - 57 on passes - 39 on kicks
Projections - 256 games - 543 holds - 211 on runs - 197 on passes - 135 on kicks

While the 543 calls would be a 20-year low, look at the numbers for calls on runs and on passes as compared to 2006 and 2007. Notice that the numbers are relatively close and that the numbers for on pass calls would be higher. The drop is due mainly to the lack of calls on kicks.

What does the article focus on? Dwight Freeney and how there is a lack of call on pass plays! No, the number of calls on pass plays would be the highest in three years. If the article had focused on the last three years of no calls, then this would be OK. However, Phil only seems to point to this year.

It is also speculated that the decrease in calls was to speed up the game. If there are 256 games per season and there were 880 calls in 2005 and 543 calls projected for 2008, that works out to be only 3.43 and 2.12 calls per game, respectively. A decrease of 1.31 calls per game does not really speed the game up that much.

Phil is correct is that Freeney does look like he gets held on many plays and it is even obvious to those sitting in the upper deck. I do not like the fact that we have moved away from the rules stating what a hold is to letting the referee have a subjective opinion of whether the hold impacted the play or not. Yes, we have those types of judgments on pass interference if the ball was uncatchable, but we can see the result of whether the pass was catchable or not. If a player is held, we don't know if he could have gotten to the QB or not.

I applaud Phil for doing some research for the article and your hypothesis that Freeney and the Indy D-line are being held and not getting calls seems to be correct. However, I believe that your data does not quite back up your theory since there looks to be more offensive holding calls than the previous two years.

As for O-linemen, remember, "hold on loosely, but don't let go."