Jets looking to clean up sloppy mistakes
New York Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez (6) fumbles the snap against the Detroit Lions in in the first quarter of their NFL football game in Detroit Sunday, Nov. 7, 2010. Sanchez recovered the fumble. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya) Credit: AP Photo/Paul Sancya
CLEVELAND - Jason Taylor isn't an illusionist.
"You can't look at the results and say we won, so all is well, because it's not always that way," the Jets linebacker said. "We have not played our perfect game. Nobody ever does, but we haven't played that game that's pretty darn near perfect at all.
"If you look at it over the years, teams that have had success late in the year and have had the chance to go on and play for the Super Bowl are teams that have won some throughout the year when they shouldn't have, that they really didn't deserve to win."
That aptly sums up the Jets' situation in two of their past three games. Stunning fourth-quarter comebacks on the road against the Broncos and Lions masked sloppy miscues, temporarily covering up the frequent gaffes that nearly cost them.
The Jets head into today's Eric Mangini-Rex Ryan Bowl with the Browns in Cleveland knowing full well that they can't keep pulling off this David Blaine act of falling behind, then barely overcoming their errors for a heart-stopping victory.
"We haven't got off to a fast start since Buffalo [in Week 4]," linebacker Bart Scott said. "We've been able to squeak one or two by, going back to Denver, but we are nowhere near playing where we are capable of. It's time to start really tightening things down because November and December is a dash for the cash."
The Jets aren't going to get to that big payoff if they don't cut down on their rash of self-inflicted wounds. They've had eight turnovers in the last three games. Mark Sanchez has thrown five interceptions and they've fumbled nine times, although they've lost only three.
Penalties also are a major problem. They've been flagged 24 times for 228 yards in their last three contests, leading to the sudden push-up craze/frenzy engulfing everyone in the organization. Every time someone is penalized in practice, that means it's time to drop and count off 10.
Their 63 offensive penalties are fifth-most in the NFL.
"It's been a focus of ours to clean things up," running back LaDainian Tomlinson said. "The penalties, turnovers are definitely something we are harping on."
"That's one of the biggest things that coach Ryan talked about is cleaning up the penalties," wideout Santonio Holmes said. "The more penalties we have, the less opportunities we have to score touchdowns, to get off the field on defense and to be productive overall on special teams and on offense and defense."
That's why the Jets should consider themselves fortunate to be in their current position, though Ryan tends to view things from a different perspective.
"I think that is a championship-level team when you can win when maybe you're not at your best, you're not playing at your best," he said. "What separates the great ones or good ones, depending on how you want to say it, is those teams find ways to win. That's what we're doing.
"That's a mark of a good team. That's what we wanted to change about our team from last year is that we're able to close you out in the fourth quarter. We're able to come back on you in the fourth quarter, and we've proved that we can do that. So I look at it as a positive, not a negative."
