Special Teams Review: Jets-Bears

We've been breaking down this week's game. We conclude today's postgame analysis with a look at the special teams.

Let's review the key contributions...

Kicking game - Return to Sanders

As if everything else didn't go badly enough, freshly-rostered kicker Jason Sanders had another blip on Sunday as he missed another extra point. He did make 30 and 36-yard field goals though.

On kickoffs, Sanders had four kicks returned, three of which were fielded at the five-yard line, with one of those bouncing in the landing zone first. His other kickoff was returned from the one.

Punter Austin McNamara boomed his first punt downfield for 62 yards, only for a penalty to force him to kick it again. To his credit, he boomed the next one 60 yards albeit with an eight yard return so the Jets ended up 15 yards worse off after the penalty.

His next three punts were also good; a 59-yarder with an eight yard return, a 45-yarder that was fair caught and a 37-yarder downed inside the five. However, his final punt from inside the Jets' half was overhit and ended up as a touchback. Still, his final numbers were excellent in spite of this.

Kick coverage - Moore ... what is he good for?

Kickoff coverage was dramatically better this week, starting on the opening kickoff as Dane Belton and Andre Cisco forced the return man to cut across the field so Qwan'tez Stiggers could bring him down at the 10-yard line. Belton also drew a block in the back on the play.

Sanders' next two kickoffs were stopped at about the 30-yard line with Isaiah Davis and Cisco in on the tackles. Trevin Wallace did a good job of bottling up the first of those, and he helped force the other one wide, although Davis missed a chance to make the play at the 20 before Cisco pushed the return man out of bounds at the 30.

They again did an excellent job on the final kickoff of the day, on which Malachi Moore forced the return man out at the 12 after he again tried to cut across the field.

On this one, Cisco drew a hold and Jaden Keller got upfield well to force the returner to go sideways, even though he missed the tackle himself. Stiggers would have made the play but he got blocked in the back (this was called) and then the same thing happened to Malik McClain (this was not) before Moore prevented the return man from turning the corner.

Stiggers made a good play on McNamara's first punt to force the return man to let it drop but then he made the mistake of unnecessarily picking it up as it was rolling to a halt. As he'd been out of bounds, Stiggers was called for illegal touching and McNamara had to re-kick. To Stiggers' credit, he made the play on the re-kick too after Moore got downfield well and Stiggers cleaned up after a short return.

The next punt was another short return, on which Moore again got downfield well as both gunners were doubled. Keller and Andrew Beck were credited with the tackle on that one.

As noted in preseason, McClain has real potential as a gunner and he impressed on two punts, forcing a fair catch on one and locating the ball to down it inside the five on another.

On the whole, it was a return to form for these units, even though they didn't bother to use the returning Kene Nwangwu.

Return game - Nwangwu for being a friend

The Bears kicked off five times with two of them touchbacks and three returned out to about the 30.

Isaiah Williams and Nwangwu screwed up on the first kickoff as they let the ball bounce between them and into the end zone so New York got the ball at the 20.

Nwangwu's first return was stopped by Beck's man, while his second saw him break a couple of tackles after a missed block by Jelani Woods.

Williams had one return as he smartly came up the field a shorter kick on the run and ran behind an Davis block. Wallace perhaps got away with an illegal block in the back on that one.

Chicago didn't punt all day, so Williams didn't get a chance to contribute there.

We'll be back with the 3-on-D and 3-on-O over the next few days...