Hmmm. Weird. That sounds like people trying to engage in "growth hacking". I wonder if someone's bonus was tied to it.
If they were really serious about "velocity" (for whatever reason; some are legit), they'd divide by man-hours, not weeks, anyway, and have actuals going back 3+ months (6+ is better) to baseline their sitrep before they started knob-twiddling.
This was just "work long hours to get the project back on track" being communicated as "improve velocity" with about as much success as you'd expect and less understanding than you're projecting.
If they were really serious about "velocity" (for whatever reason; some are legit), they'd divide by man-hours, not weeks, anyway, and have actuals going back 3+ months (6+ is better) to baseline their sitrep before they started knob-twiddling.