The New York Jets dropped to 0-4 after an ugly outing against the Miami Dolphins with 13 penalties (9 on offense) and three lost fumbles. One of the penalties came in the third quarter with the Jets down 17-10, when cornerback Sauce Gardner was flagged for 10 yards while covering for Jaylen Waddle. The pass was incomplete, but the penalty stood. He again hit with a pass interference, his second in weeks. Believing he was being unfairly targeted, he later added that officials are picking on him because the Jets are a losing team.

But some instances that “missed” the officials’ eye were glaring. The Jets did find some leverage in the game. Remember that late hit of tight end Jeremy Ruckert that even drew Dan Orlovsky’s criticism on the broadcast? Then guard Joe Tippmann had his helmet ripped off mid-play by Dolphins lineman Zach Sieler. Also, Jets QB Justin Fields was dragged to the sideline at the end of a run. Each time, the Jets could not simply protest. The number also tells a story.

Nobody is suggesting that the Jets’ 15-year playoff drought is solely the result of poor officiation. But the stat sheet is itself a bit frustrating. New York was penalized 137 times last year and stumbled to a 5-12 record. That season was so bad that head coach Robert Saleh and general manager Joe Douglas were both fired midseason. In 2023, the Jets racked up 124 penalties, the highest in the league. Besides this, take a wider lens now.

The gaps between the Jets and the NFL become even more striking. Since 2022, the Jets have been penalized 384 times, the second most in the league. In the past 10 years, Jets’ opponents have gained 363 first downs via penalty, the most in the league. The Jets? Just 255 first downs earned that way, the third fewest in the NFL.

So, the Jets just can’t seem to catch a break when it comes to flags. Since Sauce Gardner’s rookie year in 2022, they’ve been slapped with 16 roughing the passer calls and 33 unnecessary roughness penalties, the most in the league. Yet when it comes to getting those calls in their favor, they’ve only seen five roughing the passer penalties, second-fewest in the NFL. Stretch it back over the last decade, and the pattern stings even more. 51 roughing the passer and 72 unnecessary roughness penalties, both league highs. For Jets fans, it feels like the whistle is always going the other way. And that frustration just keeps piling up year after year. The same has happened with Sauce Gardner.

Sauce Gardner lashes out at officials

Sauce Gardner voiced what most of the Jets fans were shouting after the team’s latest loss. Yes, New York has plenty of wounds to fix after going 0-4 under Aaron Glenn. But in Gardner’s eyes, the officiating seems just another opponent. “I’m personally frustrated,” Gardner said.”I feel like us not winning, — I watch football all the time and it just feels like, I don’t know if this is wrong to say, but I feel like I get called for more stuff just based on us not winning. I watch these winning programs and it be some egregious things that don’t get called, just letting the players play.“

After two seasons under Robert Saleh, plagued by sloppy penalties and missed tackles, Aaron Glenn made cleaning up those mistakes a top priority. He’s ramped up the intensity in practice with live tackling drills and hasn’t hesitated to punish players for penalties. While Glenn seems to press all the right buttons by vowing to fix discipline issues, the overall impact is not coming through.

“You have to earn the right to get a lot of these calls,” Glenn said. “There were a number of calls in that game that I felt didn’t go our way that I felt we should have gotten. I could easily go through those, but I’m not, but I do know this, we had a good amount of penalties on our end that we have to clean up, and again, we’re talking about a team that had two years of leading the league in penalties and we’re still trying to clean things up as we go.” 

Glenn made it clear the Jets planned to send a few plays to the league for review. However, he didn’t say which ones. Still, it’s not hard to guess. Sauce Gardner’s pass interference penalty stood out, and so did the offensive pass interference call on Garrett Wilson that wiped away what should’ve been a touchdown. Those are the kind of moments that leave a team demanding answers.