Penalties happen. Every team has them every game. It’s part of the game. But for the struggling New York Jets, it is happening far too often, and the most critical times and it needs to get cleaned up.

The Jets have had 16 penalties called on them over the last two games and 12 of them are occurring on the offensive side of the ball. For an offense that has not scored a touchdown in 11 quarters, that is simply unacceptable.

Jets coaches believe the problem to be technique and not mental errors.

Offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett and offensive position coaches point out the mistakes on film and work to correct them in practice, but it hasn’t worked thus far.

“In the heat of the battle, that happens,” Hackett said. “They didn’t mean to. They weren’t trying to. But those things happen. So, for us as coaches, we just put our heads down and we just continually coach them on the details, the techniques so they can stay in great position and execute their block.”

“It’s not something we’re panicking about,” tight end Tyler Conklin said, “but obviously something that needs to be cleaned up and something that we’re detailing everyday.”

The Jets players might not be panicking, but their fans are. Let’s not sugar coat it, the offense is atrocious. When an offense hasn’t scored a red zone touchdown since the game versus the Eagles over a month ago, it might be time to panic a little. The Jets have eight total touchdowns in nine games.

You can blame that on the coaching. I do. You can blame that on the quarterback. I do. You can blame it on the offensive line. I do that, too. But the one thing that the Jets should be able to fix, is the penalties. The drive killing, stupid mistakes.

Every drive the Jets have seem to put together this season has either stalled in the red zone, or seen a penalty push them behind the sticks and force a punt or a field goal.

Things have gotten bad enough on the offense that the team held a players only meeting to try and right the ship. The meeting was lead by second-year receiver Garrett Wilson.

"The guys talked, and we had the floor," Jets wide receiver Garrett Wilson said on the "Bart & Hahn Show." "It was just us. We got to make sure we're all on the same page about where we're at and how the hell we get out of this funk, man. That was really the message. When it comes from one of your teammates, it always hits different. It always resonates a little bit more."

When asked about the offense’s players-only meeting Tuesday, Hackett called players holding other players accountable “powerful” and “something that we need” as the Jets try to snap their 11-game touchdown drought.

“We just need to get over that hump, we need to get that first touchdown in a long time,” Hackett said, “and I think that is really going to help us.”

The Jets travel to face the 5-5 Buffalo Bills for an AFC East matchup. Buffalo is dealing with their own turmoil as they fired their offensive coordinator this week. One of these teams will bounce back this week and put themselves back in contention for a playoff push. The other team, might be hitting the panic button.

Jets’ Sauce Gardner gets called out in more ways than one

It’s been a busy few days for Jets’ cornerback Sauce Gardner. After losing to the Las Vegas Raiders on Sunday Night football by a final score of 16-12, the Jets had a players only meeting which aired out a lot of the issues especially surrounding the offense. Sauce meanwhile, found himself getting it from all […]

Featured image via Robert Deutsch-USA TODAY Sports