Colts coach Tony Dungy fired the first salvo at the idea of making offseason changes in instant replay. He won't be the last. Jaguars owner Wayne Weaver said television networks in non-featured games need more than seven cameras.

Dungy's complaint is one that has been quietly buzzing through the league for months. He believes that officials are becoming more indecisive on hard calls. He contends that more calls are made to promote replay challenges to make the ultimate decisions correct.

Officials consult after a play, discuss what they saw and come up with a decision knowing that a coach can buzz them or throw a red flag to challenge the call. Ultimately, the right call can be made because the referee can review the replays and make a final determination.

	“	They are letting the coaches officiate the game, and that's not good. I think we are getting to the point where we have to challenge everything. I'm a little concerned how we are officiating the game. ”
		— Tony Dungy, Colts coach

This isn't a conspiracy theory. Remember replay officiating calls for adjustments each season, and one of the things officials are trying to do is eliminate situations where plays are whistled dead meaning there is no chance of a replay. Coaches for years complained that quick whistles eliminated the opportunity to challenge a potential bad call, especially fumbles.

But now Dungy thinks officials are taking that too far.

"They are letting the coaches officiate the game, and that's not good," Dungy said. "I think we are getting to the point where we have to challenge everything. I'm a little concerned how we are officiating the game."

Understand, Dungy isn't a replay advocate. He is a non-voting member of the Competition Committee who has been a liaison for the rest of the coaches for the past three years. Given his choice, he'd rather go without replay, but he's in the minority and is trying to satisfy the majority.

"I don't like it, but everybody else seems to," Dungy said.

Instant replay is one of the more debatable issues in pro football, and once again, the whole system is under review. No system will ever be flawless, and everyone knew that the current system wouldn't satisfy everyone.

That's why the NFL accepted a three-year agreement starting in 2001 just to save the concept. Coaches were given two challenges per game, and during the final two minutes of each half a replay official in the booth decides which plays to challenge.

Dungy is right that challenges are up this season. Through 14 weeks, coaches' challenges have risen from 152 last year to 173 this season. Roughly one call is overturned out of every three, but that means that the coach loses a timeout for every lost challenge.

And the escalation in calls is putting more coaches in a situation in which they run out of challenges and can't use one late in games.

Longtime critics of replay say, "I told you so." Former Giants general manager George Young predicted that his problem with replay is that officials would eventually defer to the replay machines with hopes of getting the right call. That causes delays in the game.

The NFL needs replay. The technology gets better each year because of digital systems and computer images. What might be inclusive now might be easily seen if the technology continues to get better. But there will never be perfection. That shouldn't be expected.

Dungy has in mind what would be an acceptable compromise even though it probably won't pass. If a coach wins a challenge, he would be awarded another challenge in return. The problem is, that would require a painful concession by the coaches. They would have to eliminate the replay booth challenges in the final two minutes of each half.

The reason that the NFL returned to replay was that they didn't want to see a repeat of Dennis Erickson's fate in Seattle. While he was coaching the Seahawks Erickson lost a crucial late season game when an official thought Vinny Testaverde's helmet was the football on a play near the goal line and gave the Jets a game-wining touchdown. The Seahawks lost the game, and that one loss ended up being the final straw that led to Erickson's firing.

The coaches' fear in terms of having to make challenges in the final two minutes is that it puts them in a position that is ripe for criticism. Not only could they be criticized for their play calling, but now they would be on the hot seat for not saving time outs late in the game for a replay.

The NFL won't go for any changes that add time to games, but Dungy's thought has merit if it includes the elimination of replay challenges from the booth. Replay challenges from the booth are up 21 percent from 55 to 70 but the rate of plays overturned from booth challenges has dropped from 21 to 17. That means there are more unnecessary stoppages during the most exciting time of the game -- the last two minutes of each half.

On the whole, the NFL has the best officiating in sports, and officials are always in no-win situations. They've been asked to find ways to give replay a chance by eliminating the quick whistles, and they have done that, but the result has been more challenges.

Unfortunately, games such as last week's Minnesota-Green Bay game in which officials made nine mistakes in mostly critical situations against the Vikings make life tougher for officials. Those games are rare, but they happen. And the easiest thing to do is always to blame the officials.

Officials are human, so they will make mistakes. That's why replay should never been removed from the NFL. Going back to a non-replay system would be going backward. Replay has never been the problem. How it's administered has been the issue. Before, all the challenges were made from the booth and that increased the delays to get the right calls. Now they are made by the coaches and from the booth.

Don't overcomplicate this. If the number of challenges being called from the replay booth during the last two minutes of the half are increasing two times faster that the number of coaches challenges, then there is latitude to adopt Dungy's idea and give the coach an extra challenge if he is right. But coaches can't have it both ways, too. They have to be willing to get rid of the challenges from the replay booth and make them themselves in the final two minutes, regardless of the criticism that could occur.

If the coaches want to take on the extra challenge, they should get it.

Dungy has it right.

John Clayton is a senior NFL writer for ESPN.com.