Emerging from their 17-10 victory over the Jaguars this past Sunday with consecutive wins for the first time since Dec. 11, 2011, the Jets are a different team than earlier this season. A big reason is they are getting whistled for penalties less and less.
The Jets are third in the league in the fewest number of penalties per game, getting called just 5.3 times per game. They are averaging just three whistles per game over their last three games. It shouldn’t be a surprise that the 6-7 Jets have been lifted by this recent cleaning up of their game as they are 2-1 over this recent stretch.
The Jets were No. 15 in the league in penalties before the bye week,
averaging 6.4 per game. In their last three games they’ve cut that
number in half.
“A thing I think where you can really see the improvement is
penalties. When you look at the penalties, we’re third in the league now
in least penalized teams.,” Ryan said. “When we started in the bye
week, we really studied on it, really focused on it and we’ve seen that
number come way down.”
The point of emphasis began in earnest during their recent bye week. Following a Week 8 blowout home loss to the Dolphins when the Jets were penalized four times for 31 yards, the coaching staff set about to minimize penalties.
“One thing I know about our group is that we’re going to compete like
crazy, hopefully a good ending, bitter end [or] whatever. That’s what
this group does. We try to get better, we try to do things right, we try
to get better on the practice field [and] in the classroom — try to get
better,” head coach Rex Ryan said.
Follow Jets beat writer Kristian Dyer on Twitter @KristianRDyer.
