Jets Q&A: Offensive line penalties prove costly

How much did the penalties against the offensive line hurt the Jets?

They had seven penalties from their offensive line, and they were killers.

Le’Veon Bell might have said it best: “It’s terrible. It’s bad play. We get big plays and they get called back — that’s just bad football.”

Alex Lewis was the only lineman not to be called for a penalty.

Kelvin Beachum was flagged for an illegal block in the back on a screen pass from Sam Darnold to Bilal Powell that went for 23 yards to the Bengals’ 17. Tom Compton was called for holding on a 23-yard run by Bell, his longest as a Jet. Both were wiped away.

“Two explosive plays get called back and they were big plays in the game,” Adam Gase said. “We had a screen and we’re finally down in the red zone. That killed us.”  

Beachum had a rough day. Did he think he committed those costly penalties?

Beachum also was called for holding in the end zone, which gave the Bengals a safety. He said he didn’t agree with the call that negated Powell’s big gain or the safety.

“It was a screen pass and the guy was dropping,” Beachum said. “I chased a guy down and I stayed in front of him the whole time. He went to the side, the running back made him miss. I thought it was a great block. We had a convoy that was in front of him.

“I can’t make the call. All I can do is go out and execute. At that point, you never want to hurt your team. I didn’t think I hurt my team at that time, but apparently they saw things differently.”

On the holding call in the end zone, Beachum said, “At the end of the day, I’m blocking the guy, doing what the refs in this league are asking for offensive linemen to do.’’  

How was Darnold feeling after the game? Is there any concern?

Darnold looked banged up toward the end of the game. There was a point when a couple of teammates signaled to the sideline to get the trainers out to look at him. But he stayed in the game despite an apparent foot issue.

Darnold said he thinks he got stepped on. He doesn’t think it’s anything serious.

“I honestly don’t know what happened,” he said. “No, I’m not concerned with it.”  

Did the Jets take the Bengals lightly?

The score, their performance, the lack of fire they showed . . . all of that pointed to the Jets looking like a team that did overlook its opponent. Of course, the players said they didn’t.

“Like I said at the beginning of the week, it doesn’t matter the record,” Jamal Adams said. “Any NFL team can be beat. We got to play better. We didn’t play well enough as a team. We got to get better from it.”  

What about the fact that the Jets looked flat all day?

“We didn’t come out flat,” Darnold said. “That wasn’t an issue for us. It was a matter of executing.”