NASHVILLE — No one is exempt from the Jets’ new practice policy of push-ups for penalties. Even special teams coordinator Mike Westhoff, 64, was on the ground Friday doing them after his punt team jumped offsides.
The program seems to be working. Since the Jets’ bye week, the team has emphasized reducing penalties. Part of that plan has been the push-ups at practice that include players, coaches and even the refs dropping to the ground when a flag is thrown.
It seems to be working. Going into yesterday, the Jets were the third-least penalized team in the league with 69, trailing only the Giants (63) and Falcons (47). Over the last three weeks, they had the fewest penalties.
They have dropped from an average of 6.4 per game before the bye to 3.6 since. Coach Rex Ryan said they have emphasized penalties in other ways, too.
“We post them up,” Ryan said. “We talk about them. We show how the penalties affect games. We do the same thing with turnovers or mistakes, whether it’s a communication error, technique error; we show that. I have a report each week. Each game we have that report.’’
I think the penalties are something that you drastically see [reduced] since that time. I’m proud of that because the guys have really taken ownership in it.”
* TE Dustin Keller (ankle), WR Stephen Hill (knee), OLB Bryan Thomas
, (chest) and CB Aaron Berry (hamstring) did not make the trip and are out for tonight’s game against the Titans.
* The Jets are very encouraged with how defensive linemen Muhammad Wilkerson and Quinton Coples are playing lately.
“I think the nice thing about it now, having those two guys rushing inside well, is that we can play some more four-man front against standard protections,” defensive coordinator Mike Pettine said. “Now one of those two guys, the center can only help one, so one of those two guys is going to have a one-on-one.
“I think that’s what we envisioned a long time ago when we had drafted them that we wanted to get to that point. And it’s taken some doing to get to that point, but I think we’re there. That we can line those two guys up over both guards and somebody’s going to get a one-on-one unless they’ve maxed the protection out.”
Wilkerson, in his second year, and Coples, in his first, have gotten better as the year has gone on. The Jets’ entire defensive line has improved through the year.
“That’s the old farmer mentality,” defensive line coach Karl Dunbar said. “You plant a crop in March, you don’t wake up April 1 and think it’s done. It takes some time and I think that’s the thing, especially when you have young guys.”