Jets Media Bias, Slanted Stories

[Miamipuck]

I was bored and figured this would be a good spot to discuss stories by the so called beat writers that are slanted to one angle and don't show the big picture. For instance:

The New York Jets struggled with penalties in 2013. Did they ever.
 
They committed 108 penalties, their most since 1996 -- their 1-15 season under Rich Kotite. It's never a good thing when you land in the same sentence as Kotite. The low point came in Week 3, when they were guilty of a franchise-record 20 penalties, and somehow managed to win.
 
All told, the Jets racked up 837 penalty yards, which isn't half bad -- 17th in the league -- but the troubling part is they led the league in pre-snap penalties (54). That's just a lack of focus, plain and simple.
 
Rex Ryan oftens mentions that it's uncharacteristic for his teams to be highly penalized, but that's not entirely true. In his tenure, dating to 2009, the Jets are 18th in penalties and 21st in yardage, according to ESPN Stats.
 
Some of the particulars from 2013, courtesy of the NFL:
 
Most frequently penalized players: RG Willie Colon, 12 for 82 yards (one declined); DE Muhammad Wilkerson, 10 for 66 yards (two declined); CB Antonio Cromartie, 7 for 110 yards (one declined); LG Brian Winters, 7 for 61 yards; CB Kyle Wilson, 6 for 49 yards (two declined); LG Vladimir Ducasse, 6 for 40 yards (one declined); QB Geno Smith, 6 for 21 yards (one declined).
 
Most common penalties: Offensive holding, 19 for 141 yards (five declined); defensive offside, 17 for 68 yards (two declined); false starts, 16 for 78 yards. Seven of the false starts ended in stalled drives.
 
Avoided the penalty bug: S Dawan Landry, 0 penalties; C Nick Mangold, 1 for 15 yards; CB Dee Milliner, 1 for 15 yards; LB David Harris, 1 for 5 yards; DT Damon Harrison, 1 for 5 yards.

Now those #'s are completely true. However in the context of the season the Jets were an order of magnitude better as the season progressed and were in the top half of the league since the bye.


Week   # of Penalties  Rank in NFL

1- -----6----16th
2-------8----22nd Colon punched Ref
3-------20---32nd
4-------10---10th
5-------6---- 10th
6-------5---- 10th
7-------9-----23rd
8-------4------5th
9-------8------29th
10- bye week
11-------4------7th
12-------6-----16th
13-------4------7th
14-------4-----10th
15-------3------2nd
16-------6------17th
17-------5------17th

Now I do agree the pre snap penalties are atrocious but a lot of them were concentrated in 3-4 guys.

Also week 2-4 The Jets had 38 of their 108 penalities, 35% in 3 games for exactly 300 yards, 36% of the season yardage total of 837, that's crazy. I think you most definitely have to factor in the punch of the ref in week #2.

[reuben]

Do you have the stats regarding 12 men on the field? That's the one penalty that's driven me up the wall during Rex's tenure. I only remember one instance this season, but there might have been more. 

[Miamipuck]

Do you have the stats regarding 12 men on the field? That's the one penalty that's driven me up the wall during Rex's tenure. I only remember one instance this season, but there might have been more. 

Sure do the Jets had 3 defensive 12 men on the field penalties for a total of 15 yards. That was good for 29th in the league. They didn't have any on the Offensive side.

I can get a breakdown for literally any type of penalty.

[Badger]

Sure do the Jets had 3 defensive 12 men on the field penalties for a total of 15 yards. That was good for 29th in the league. They didn't have any on the Offensive side.

I can get a breakdown for literally any type of penalty.

How many times were we called for "giving him the business"?

[Miamipuck]

How many times were we called for "giving him the business"?

2 for 15 yards.

[ScotlandJet]

How many times were we called for "giving him the business"?

Great call, how about posting a link to that

How many times were we called for "giving him the business"?

Do you have a link for that call? Haven't seen it ages but still brilliant

[AlioTheFool]

Rex Ryan oftens mentions that it's uncharacteristic for his teams to be highly penalized, but that's not entirely true. In his tenure, dating to 2009, the Jets are 18th in penalties and 21st in yardage, according to ESPN Stats.

Actually, Rich*, I'd argue Rex's statement is true. "Highly penalized" would mean they were somewhere in at least the top half if not top-10 in penalties. "Below average" is not at all "highly."




* I'm assuming this came from Cimini today? I saw him tweet about his latest "article" but didn't bother to click the link.

[Johnny English]

Great call, how about posting a link to that
Do you have a link for that call? Haven't seen it ages but still brilliant

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eslz06J9hFw

[Badger]

* I'm assuming this came from Cimini today? I saw him tweet about his latest "article" but didn't bother to click the link.

I did the same thing. Not really interested.

[Miamipuck]

Actually, Rich*, I'd argue Rex's statement is true. "Highly penalized" would mean they were somewhere in at least the top half if not top-10 in penalties. "Below average" is not at all "highly."

* I'm assuming this came from Cimini today? I saw him tweet about his latest "article" but didn't bother to click the link.

It was Cimini and I didn't bother to link it. I really wanted to highlight how easy it is to slant #'s to an agenda. That's not to say the Jets were disciplined or I am pleased with the dumb penalties the team takes, I am not. I just wanted to refute Cimini's hypothesis which is borderline ridiculous.

[AlioTheFool]

It was Cimini and I didn't bother to link it. I really wanted to highlight how easy it is to slant #'s to an agenda. That's not to say the Jets were disciplined or I am pleased with the dumb penalties the team takes, I am not. I just wanted to refute Cimini's hypothesis which is borderline ridiculous.

Absolutely, which is why I posted that to support your point. He's trying to skew perception even though the numbers clearly dispute his argument.

[MexJetinBcn]

I don't think that's a biased piece, just lazy journalism. He didn't bother to check the big picture and produced a story to get some clicks in the low season. If it were actually biased the title would be something like "The Jets bottom of the league again in penalties in 2013". It's just a waste of 2 minutes of our lives, or not even so because at least it gave us some talking points.

[AlioTheFool]

I don't think that's a biased piece, just lazy journalism. He didn't bother to check the big picture and produced a story to get some clicks in the low season. If it were actually biased the title would be something like "The Jets bottom of the league again in penalties in 2013". It's just a waste of 2 minutes of our lives, or not even so because at least it gave us some talking points.

slant/slænt, slɑnt/ Show Spelled [slant, slahnt]
verb (used without object)
1. to veer or angle away from a given level or line, especially from a horizontal; slope.
2. to have or be influenced by a subjective point of view, bias, personal feeling or inclination, etc. (usually followed by toward  ).
verb (used with object)
3. to cause to slope.
4. to distort (information) by rendering it unfaithfully or incompletely, especially in order to reflect a particular viewpoint

I think the title was meant to be the beginning of a dumping point for all sorts of articles written by our local beat crew. This story certainly fits into the "slant" group as defined above.
 
I won't argue against your point that it's lazy journalism though.

[Miamipuck]

Do you have the stats regarding 12 men on the field? That's the one penalty that's driven me up the wall during Rex's tenure. I only remember one instance this season, but there might have been more. 

BTW during Rex's tenure:
 
Year----#-----Rank

2009----6-------32nd
2010----3-------32nd
2011----1-------17th
2012----2-------26th
2013----3-------30th

Here is the site it's pretty cool:

http://www.nflpenalties.com/

[Miamipuck]

I think the title was meant to be the beginning of a dumping point for all sorts of articles written by our local beat crew. This story certainly fits into the "slant" group as defined above.
 
I won't argue against your point that it's lazy journalism though.

Yes, I made this thread to put the normal NY beat writer nonsense here. A lot of the beat writers have such a negative agenda I figured we should have a place to debunk some of what they say.