Flags on Cromartie, Wilson backed Jets into corner

The football world laughed along with the Jets through their "Hard Knocks" preseason.

Last night, with 14 penalties and a slew of mental mistakes, the world was laughing at the Jets, not with them.

"Today was a joke," Rex Ryan said of his team's overall lack of discipline, especially in the secondary. "[The Ravens] just threw it up there, and I don't blame them. It was either a completion or a penalty every time."

"The more disciplined, more prepared team won," Ravens linebacker Terrell Suggs said.

Six of the 14 flags were thrown on cornerbacks Antonio Cromartie and Kyle Wilson, who each made their Jets debut one to forget. Wilson was flagged for the most crucial penalty, a 22-yard pass interference call on third down when he tugged at T.J. Houshmandzadeh's arm on a post route in the final minute of the first half.

That gave the Ravens a first down at the Jets 1, and they plunged in for the only touchdown of the game three plays later.

"You can't have all those silly penalties," Bart Scott said. "You can't have that against good teams. You have those against good teams, that's the result."

In addition to third-down pass interference calls against Cromartie and Wilson and a third-and-28 holding call on Wilson, the Jets had one unsportsmanlike conduct flag, two false starts and two killer penalties on Braylon Edwards.

The first was an illegal shift that negated a 33-yard completion from Mark Sanchez to Dustin Keller that would have given the Jets first-and-goal at the Baltimore 4 in the second quarter.

Later in the second, Edwards was called for running into Ravens kicker Billy Cundiff on a 46-yard field goal; Edwards fell underneath Cundiff's feet, not allowing the kicker to plant his kicking leg. The Ravens took the three points off the board and, with the help of Wilson's pass interference penalty, scored the go-ahead touchdown.

"You understand that you play the preseason, but you don't play high-intensity, four-quarter football against a quality team like this," LaDainian Tomlinson said. "You have a tendency to try and do too much and get out of character a little bit."

That was Ryan's feeling as well. "That was not us," he said of the penalties, the crucial pass drops and the overall stagnant offense.

"It looked terrible, that's no secret. We looked awful," Edwards said. "I don't believe the offensive intensity matched what the defense did."

Was it a matter of being too cocky, too loose after a summer alongside "Entourage" on cable?

"Not at all," Tomlinson said. "We have a lot of fun around here, but we do our work too. You've got to have fun."