Jets at Ravens: Special Teams Review

We've been breaking down this week's game against Baltimore. We wrap up today's analysis with a look at the special teams.

Let's review the key contributions...

Kicking game - You had me at Bello

The Jets special teams made some excellent contributions this week with the one negative being placekicker Sam Ficken, who followed up his game-winner against Miami by missing two of his three kicks. He had a 49-yarder fall short after Patrick Ricard penetrated against Nathan Shepherd to get a finger on it, then hooked an extra point wide.

The punt rush unit came up big though, with Tarell Basham's block leading to BJ Bello's touchdown return. That had been coming, as Jordan Willis and Daniel Brown each also had good rushes and Basham drew a hold on another good interior rush.

Baltimore also had a rare missed kick, with Darryl Roberts providing some pressure off the edge.

Punter Lachlan Edwards bounced back after some rocky performances with a 49-yard net average on his four punts. All four were landed at or inside the 20, with one inside the five.

On kick-offs, Ficken had two touchbacks, one failed onside kick and one shorter kick that was well covered but ended up in a Jets penalty.

Return game - Berrios Braxs up good yardage

Baltimore had only given up 60 punt return yards all season, but Braxton Berrios had an effective game with 48 yards on three returns, including 21 and 19-yarders.

He has extended his lead at the top of the NFL with an 11.1 yards per return average, while nobody else with enough returns to qualify has 10 yards per return. It's impressive that he's done this without needing long returns to skew his numbers. The 21-yarder last night was only his second 20+ yard return of the year, underlining his consistency.

Smith and Ty Montgomery also racked up some good yardage on kick-off returns. They got out past the 25 on six of Justin Tucker's seven kick-offs. The only one where they didn't was a short kick that Montgomery fielded at the 20 and only got to the 22 as Smith, Brown and Paul Worrilow all missed their blocks.

Smith averaged almost 29 yards on his three returns and Montgomery's 34-yard runback was a season high. Basham had a pancake block on the opening kick-off and you can also credit Harvey Langi, Matthias Farley and Bennett Jackson with some good blocking. Brown struggled, though.

Kick coverage - A Jeff of fresh air

The newest addition to the Jets' roster, wide receiver Jeff Smith, showed some serious potential as a gunner, as he was constantly getting downfield first. Smith forced two fair catches and downed an Edwards punt inside the five that probably should have been ruled a muff and Jets' football.

There wasn't much else to report in terms of kick coverage. Brandon Copeland chased the return man out of bounds for a short return on one punt after the other Smith had slowed up the return man.

Otherwise, the only Jet credited with a tackle was Jackson, who made a nice play on a short kick-off to make the stop inside the 25, but was called for a face mask penalty on the play.

That's it for today's analysis. Don't forget to leave your suggestions for which players to look at in more detail in this week's 3-on-D and 3-on-O.