Last week, the Jets' offense spun its wheels on consecutive days. The second of those days produced a steaming pile of turnovers, penalties, and players unable to stay on their feet. And then came Saturday's intrasquad scrimmage, when the goal line played a starring role as an invisible fence the offense just couldn't get past.

From the team's training camp site in Cortland, N.Y., one could almost hear the panicked phone calls to New York City's sports-talk-radio stations: There were some upgrades made to the offense this offseason, those callers might have screeched, but 2014 is already promising to bring us the Same Old Jets.

But here's the thing about all those full-team drills that take place during training camp: They're not the same as game situations. There's no game-planning. There's no trying to attack the defense's weaknesses. There's none of the scheming that leads to the execution that brings success on Sundays.

Anyone with any serious interest in the Jets might be infatuated with how the offense is doing against the defense in Cortland. But that's not how the Jets' players and coaches are evaluating what's taking place.

“I think too much is made of it,” wide receiver David Nelson said of all the breathless offense-versus-defense reports coming out of camp.

Now why would that be? Why wouldn't the offense be trying to do nothing but beat the defense every time out? Because, on any given play at camp, the offense is preparing for a situation it might have to face during the season, regardless of what coverage or what blitz the defense is bringing. The offense wants to be sure it knows what it's doing, no matter the circumstance. And in trying to get things right, it's going to fail more often than not.

This may seem counterintuitive, but it isn't. Mike Tanier of Sports on Earth touched on it Wednesday with regard to preseason depth charts and how and why players get shuffled in and out of first-team and backup roles from one play to the next.

"August is the only time of year when teams can spare the time to make young players comfortable working with veterans and evaluate newcomers about their mastery of the basics," Tanier writes. "Ironclad depth charts and clever game plans would actually get in the way."

What matters, in other words, is execution. Are the receivers running the right routes and catching what's thrown at them? Are Geno Smith's and Mike Vick's passes accurate, and are they making the right reads? Are the linemen finishing their blocks? Etc.

“Obviously you want to win at everything," center Nick Mangold said. "But most of the time, and no offense to your profession [the media], but you don’t know what the situation is, what we’re trying to work on, what we’re trying to improve upon. There’s very specific things that we’re trying to work on and trying to get better at.

“We might be doing all third-and-longs. If you get 40 percent of those, you‘re doing well, if you look statistically through an NFL season. But when all you see [at practice] is an incomplete pass or [failure to get] a first down, well, we’re trying to work on third-and-longs, so it’s a tricky situation.”

Wide receivers coach Sanjay Lal got even more detailed.

"For example," Lal said, "we have a play that’s a Cover 2-beater. Well, [the defense] didn’t run Cover 2. But what it allows us to do is go to our third and fourth progression: If it’s a man concept, and it’s a Cover 2 play, well, here’s the outlet.”

Said running back Chris Johnson: “It’s kind of tough to understand from the outside looking in."

So, no matter what the defense might be doing, the offense is just trying to run its stuff for the sake of getting its stuff right.

Still, there are things that can be worrisome if the offense stinks it up against the defense. Nelson, for one, pointed to the penalties and turnovers—things that (mostly) can be controlled. And, for what's it's worth, the Jets' offense pretty much cleaned things up on that end after those disastrous two days last week.

The Jets open the preseason Thursday night against the Colts. Head coach Rex Ryan said this week he wants to see "some production" from the offense. But, again, there will be little-to-no game-planning involved. These preseason games are more about getting used to the rhythm of playing an opponent, not making self-inflicted mistakes, and evaluating the back end of the roster. Whether the Jets win or lose is completely irrelevant.

"We have that west-coast offense, so everything is timing," inside linebacker David Harris said, proving all of this talk isn't just the offense trying to save face. "That’s what training camp is for—to get your timing down, to get the routes and the receivers and the quarterback all on the same page.

“Right now, we’re just working out the kinks, and trying to put it all together.”

This goes for the defense, too, by the way. Ryan made it clear the defense also deliberately puts itself into situations at camp it may not try in a game. This is what Ryan said last Friday—which happened to be the same day the offense had just gotten done lighting up the defense with several big plays:

"The challenge is, sometimes I’ll put us in situations on the field that I know, if they throw the football, this is a run call, put us in a bad situation, make it tough. Maybe there are [some] mismatches, but make it tough, make our guys have to communicate, recognize the weakness of the defense, then try to play to it.

"So we always are doing that as well, then when you get in the game it’s easy."

Now let's close with this reminder: The first game in which the offense's and defense's overall performances actually matter is one month from Thursday.

Dom Cosentino may be reached at dcosenti@nj.com. Follow him on Twitter @domcosentino. Find NJ.com Jets on Facebook.