The Falcons are facing a Jets team that has drawn the second-highest number of penalties in the NFL

The Jets have played some solid football this year, but there’s one weakness to their game that has flown under the radar a bit, at least as we’ve prepared for this matchup. That’s their utter lack of discipline as a team, which makes the Falcons look

The 2017 Jets have 57 penalties through seven games, the second-highest total in the NFL behind the putrid 49ers and Browns. They’re tied with (of all teams) Kansas City for that, and at 546 penalty yards, they’ve lost/surrendered more penalty yardage than any other team in the league. That leaves them with a net of 138 yards lost through penalties, which is a couple of pretty substantial drives. The Chiefs, incidentally, are second with 536.

How big of an advantage is this? It could be huge if the Jets can’t play disciplined and avoid costly penalties, because New York simply isn’t a good enough team to overcome repeated mistakes like that. Picking up some free yardage could be a wonderful thing for this Falcons offense, which certainly has had enough trouble getting that yardage on their own in recent weeks.

In case you’re curious, the Falcons are the third-least penalized team in the NFL, albeit through only six games, but they’re also among the 15 or so teams who have benefited least from opponent penalties. It’s very annoying to realize the Falcons haven’t been penalized at a high clip, but have still managed some of the most costly, drive-killing penalties you can image. Hopefully that ends this week.