In-depth analysis - Giants "at" Jets (Preseason Week 3): Special Teams

Over the course of the next few days, we'll be breaking down the performance of every player that took the field in the Jets' preseason game against the Giants. We'll start today with a look at the special teams units.

Kicking - Sand in the Clowns

You kind of knew this was going to happen, but Jason Sanders - a few days after Chris Banjo confirmed that he had won the kicking competition and would be the Jets kicker this season - had a nightmare in his final game of preseason, throwing the Jets' plans up in the air.

He hooked an extra point wide of the upright and had a 54-yard field goal that fell way short. These were his only attempts of the game.

There was no pressure and no issues with the operation on the missed extra point, but there was a high snap by Thomas Hennessy on the missed field goal, although Austin McNamara seemed to get it down on time. Hennessy also had a couple of low snaps on punts.

Sanders also kicked off, but that went fine as one was fielded on the goal line and the other was a touchback.

The Jets made no effort to pressure any of the Giants' field goal or extra point attempts, but Jaden Keller got close to pressuring a punt.

As a punter, McNamara fared much better than Sanders with a 48.5 yard gross average and a net of over 45. Two of his six punts were returned for a total of 19 yards and another had a 12 yard return called back for a hold. The other three were fair caught.

That included 52, 56 and 57 yard punts and three inside the 20, although he did have one shorter than 40 yards from near his own end zone.

Return Game - Tre Brown stays down

It's difficult to find anything positive to say about the return game, although we can take some solace in the fact that most of the main contributors were not out there.

On kickoffs, they opted to give cornerback Tre Brown a shot, which is perhaps a sign that he was on the fringes of making the roster. Unfortunately, his second return saw him twist awkwardly on the turf to suffer a non-contact injury at about the 20.

Brown's first return saw him break a tackle to get out to the 33, as Jordan Clark got beaten but his man missed the tackle at about the 20. Braiden McGregor ended up on the floor as he also got beaten.

With Brown out of the action, the Jets turned to Quincy Skinner but he was stopped shy of the 25 on all three of his returns. While he failed to make anyone miss, Skinner didn't get any help from his blocking. Keller and Connor Hulstein got beaten multiple times and Clark, Chase Wilson, Cam Camper and Dominic Richardson all got beaten once.

It wasn't that much better on punts, which were handled by Junior Bergen. The first one was a deep kick and a short return but the Giants committed a penalty so it was re-kicked. This time, it was boomed over Bergen's head and almost downed at the one-yard line. Finally, he had an 18-yard return on another deep kick that saw him break a tackle, but Clark and Nate Lynn were both called for holding.

Kick Coverage - Wall standing tall

The Giants' first punt return was a sign of things to come as Qwan'tez Stiggers was called for fair catch interference, which he protested on the basis that the vice essentially dragged him into the path of the return man and he may have had a point there. However, he was protesting the flag while the ball was rolling around on the field. In real game action, he should try to recover that because if it hit the punt returner first - which appeared to be the case - then it could be a turnover if they pick up the flag. Argue the call after the fact!

The next punt was a 10-yard return on a deep kick, so it was covered well. Even so, Stiggers overpursued and Clark missed the tackle before Hennessy cleaned up. The official scorer did give Clark credit though.

There was then two fair catches on the next two punts. One of these was just before halftime so Braxton Berrios simply took a fair catch on his 10-yard line with no attempt to return even though nobody was anywhere near him. The second one was forced by Tanner Wall getting downfield well.

Clark drew a blatant hold on the next punt on which Wall, an up-back, again got downfield well and made a nice tackle after a 12-yard return.

The final punt was a missed tackle by Skinner, but Jarius Monroe was in on the stop with Wall again after a nine-yard return.

On the lone kickoff return of the day by the Giants, the return almost made it to the 40 as the first four guys downfield - Lynn, McGregor, (Jordan) Clark and Dean Clark were all well-blocked. Brown made the tackle.

Across the board this might be one of the worse special teams performances in recent memory from a Jets team in regular season or preseason action. Hopefully that's a blip attributable to guys playing who won't have the same roles in the regular season.

We'll be back to cover the offense and defense from tomorrow...