In-depth Analysis: Jets-Giants (Part 3

Over the course of today, we'll be breaking down the performance of every player that took the field in the Jets' preseason game against the Giants. We'll wrap up now with the special teams.

Kicking Game

Greg Zuerlein ended preseason with just one miss, as he hit on a field goal and three extra points in this game. On kickoffs, he also had five touchbacks with the lone kick return not even making it to the 20.

Punter Thomas Morstead has had a solid preseason too. Three of his punts were fair caught and the other two were a short return and a return that was blown up immediately. Three were inside the 20 too, although one was a bit of a short kick laid up at the 19.

He was under pressure on one of the kicks with the pressure coming up the middle and off the wing protected by Jeremy Ruckert.

On the final onside kick, Irvin Charles was in position to make a play on the ball and took a bit of a risk letting it go out of bounds because a Giants player almost made a play on it. The kick didn't actually go 10 yards but it was close, so he was taking a bit of a chance.

Return Game

Xavier Gipson had a 20-yard return in this game, albeit mainly due to the Giants' punter outkicking his coverage. Adrian Amos and Trey Dean were in position to make key blocks on the return and Justin Hardee and Nick Bawden looked like they were in position to potentially Gipson for a bigger return if he didn't step out before cutting back.

Otherwise, Gipson had a couple of fair catches. He looked like he had room on one of them but Nehemiah Shelton allowed himself to get pushed back into Gipson. Brandin Echols got beaten by the gunner on the other.

Alex Erickson made a mistake on a short punt that ended up rolling past him and into Jets territory and then was stopped for a short gain on his only return with Zack Kuntz and Derrick Langford failing to make blocks.

There were no kickoff returns with both Gipson and Erickson getting no chance due to touchbacks.

Kick Coverage

On kickoffs, the Jets mostly kicked touchbacks but on the one return, Chazz Surratt ran down and tripped the return man short of the 20. Surratt also got downfield well on one punt.

The Giants tried to return two punts with Hardee making an immediate tackle to blow one up. On the other, Craig James overran it but Jamien Sherwood got credit as the return man ran out of bounds after a short runback.

Part of the reason they didn't get any other returns on Morstead's other punts was good work by the gunners. Charles got down there twice to force a fair catch and Jason Brownlee did the same. It's a good time for Brownlee to show he could contribute on special teams if he wants a chance to be active on gamedays.