Jets must address their penalty issues before things get worse

Assuming that the New York Jets intended to cut down on last week’s 12 penalties, they certainly succeeded in their Week 5 win over the Cleveland Browns.

However, that only holds up if you consider that the Jets drew only ten flags on Sunday afternoon. Glenn’s club lost 102 yards on those penalties, far worse than the 76 penalty yards in last week’s loss to the Chicago Bears.

You don’t need to have aced every math quiz in college to understand that the Jets have been called for nearly 200 yards on 22 penalties over their last two games. Don’t let the positive energy from Sunday’s defensive dominance distract you from the fact that they have a massive penalty problem entering next week’s clash with the rival Patriots.

New York Jets penalties quickly becoming a massive problem

The Jets entered Sunday having allowed 37 penalties for 310 yards, with the latter ranking fifth-worst leaguewide. Their 47 penalties are guaranteed to rank within the top five regardless of how Week 5 ends, though Cleveland still holds a narrow “advantage” with 49 flags thrown against them. 

Some will argue the Jets’ issues aren’t solely tied to discipline or bad coaching; NBC reported Sunday morning that games averaged 15 penalties, the third-highest league-wide average through Week 4 since the 1970 merger. But that excuse only goes so far when you realize that Minkah Fitzpatrick drew facemask and unnecessary roughness penalties on the same drive. 

Undrafted rookie Malik McClain was called for fair catch interference in the second quarter, giving the Browns an additional 15 yards en route to a field goal. Facing 3rd-and-three from the Browns’ 21-yard line, Cleveland’s Deshaun Watson threw an incompletion midway through the fourth quarter.

However, officials called defensive pass interference on Jets cornerback Brandon Stephens, and the Browns drove downfield to take a 12-10 lead with 6:15 left.

As we pointed out following the Jets’ Week 4 loss, these aren’t subjective holding penalties. You don’t get called for facemask or fair catch interference by accident, and we’ll see whether the latter call impacts McClain’s roster status.

Frankly, the Jets are not good enough to survive that many penalties. Look no further than Sunday afternoon, when the Jets nearly wasted David Bailey’s breakout game with an aggressive pass rush. Green Bay and Seattle have continued to win despite giving up 350 yards in penalties because they have championship-caliber rosters.

As for the Jets, any hopes of upsetting the surging Patriots ride on playing uncharacteristically clean football. Good luck with that one. 

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