If you’re a frustrated Jets fan, you’ve heard this before, because it’s become a broken record, spinning over and over and over again.
“The turnovers are killing us.”
Those words have come from the mouth of Herman Edwards way too often in the aftermath of losses, because the Jets have been a leaky ship.
Entering last night’s game against the Saints at Giants Stadium, the Jets had committed 27 turnovers in 10 games, a ludicrous average of 2.7 per game. Only the Saints, with 28, had committed more through 10 games, which tells you it’s no accident New Orleans entered the game with the same putrid 2-8 record as the Jets.
In the last two games entering last night, a span in which the Jets were outscored 57-3, they turned the ball over 11 times.
Vinny Testaverde, who has likely seen his last NFL action barring more injury craziness at the quarterback position, has 12 turnovers alone – six INTs and six fumbles, three of which came on quarterback-center exchanges.
Incredibly, the Jets have lost four fumbles on the snap exchange this season – the single most basic function in the game.
“Turnovers get you,” Edwards said before last night’s kickoff. “We’ve been very, very good doing that. That’s how we built our team from the beginning five years ago, by not turning the ball over, taking it away, doing the little things you have to do to win games. We won doing that.
“Now, we’ve turned the ball over 27 times in 10 games. Since we’ve been here, in 16 games we’ve never done that. We’re minus-nine. We’ve never been minus-nine. We were plus-18 the first year, then we were plus four, even, and last year plus-17. Now we’re minus nine. We don’t function very well when we do that, no one does.”
Indeed, a look at the NFL take-away/giveaway statistics shows teams that have more takeaways than giveaways – teams in the “plus” category – have winning records.
Entering yesterday’s games, there were 16 teams with a “plus” turnover ratio and all but four of them had winning records. Of the four with losing records, three were 4-6 and one was 4-7.
And indeed, the Jets have been masters at leading the league in this area under Edwards’ leadership.
Yet, this season has been a messy yard sale from the start.
Even Curtis Martin, who’s like a bank vault in terms of ball security, has lost a fumble this season.
“If you’re a runner, if you handle the ball, once you get hit, you have to put it away; you’ve got to tuck it,” Edwards said. “The quarterback, when he’s in the pocket has to be aware that when he’s hit you have to put that thing away. Some quarterbacks have a better feel than other ones. They know when the clock is dwindling, in their mind, going, ‘I haven’t thrown this ball yet, something bad could happen.
“They feel that and feel the pressure and can go with the pressure and get the ball away. Sometimes a guy makes a great play and strips it out of your hand. We have to be more careful with the ball that way. The guys who have to be careful with it the most are the quarterbacks. They deal with it first. Between them and the center, they touch the ball the most on the football field.
“Once he gets it in his hand he has to realize he has to be very, very careful with it. When we throw the ball we have to pick our spots. We can’t force balls and we have to know when the guy’s covering and that you have to tuck it or throw it away. But we can’t throw it to the opponent, because that’s never good.”
mark.cannizzaro@nypost.com