Special Teams Review: Jets-Browns

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 - Jason Greatness

Once again, Jason Sanders continues to get the job done as he drove through a fourth quarter field goal from 54 yards, which it's a little surprising they even attempted given how badly he missed a field goal from a similar distance earlier in the season. Had he missed that, the Browns would have had the ball near midfield with a 7-6 scoreline.

On kickoffs, he had one touchback and landed the other three at the five-yard line, six-yard line and on the goal line. More importantly, all three were directed over near the sideline as the Jets clearly had a plan to fence the Browns in.

They also limited return yardage on punts, as only one of Austin McNamara's seven punts was returned (for 13 yards). Four were fair caught, one was downed and one went out of bounds.

That included three inside the 20, one of which was downed at the nine-yard line. His numbers weren't great though, as one was shanked and only one was longer than 50 yards.

The Browns had two crucial errors in their own kicking game that helped the Jets pull out the win. First, Andre Szmyt missed an extra point, then a snap went over the punter's head and was recovered by Trevin Wallace to set up the winning score.

Kick coverage - Trevin is a place on Earth

As noted, only one of the Jets' punts were returned, for 13 yards. The Browns also returned three kickoffs for an average of just 24 yards each.

A surprise contributor was Will McDonald, who was called into action on kick coverage with Braiden McGregor having been lost for the year. He had two tackles, one of which was extremely impressive as he drove his man back 10 yards into the return man.

Wallace was also impressive, as he made a good stop near the 25 and helped bottle up one return by driving his man back.

Isaiah Davis, Dane Belton and Andre Cisco each were also credited with a tackle on kickoffs and Malachi Moore made the tackle on the punt return, after Qwan'tez Stiggers got downfield well but whiffed badly on a diving tackle attempt.

Stiggers and Malik McClain both consistently got downfield well on punts otherwise, combining well to force the four fair catches, although McClain did have a penalty for a late hit. On that one, the return man signalled for the fair catch abnormally early, so McClain obviously didn't see it.

They also combined well to get downfield on the punt that went out of bounds and on the one downed inside the 10. McClain got down in front of the ball to prevent it from bouncing into the end zone and Stiggers downed it when it bounced straight up.

Return game - Clear Isaiah, Full Hearts, Can't Lose!

Isaiah Williams had probably his best game of the year as a return man with a nice kickoff return out to the 45, on which he broke a couple of tackles, and punt returns of 18, 20, 13 and 16 yards.

On the kickoff return, Davis, Wallace and Ruckert each made good blocks.

On the punts, the Jets had an interesting strategy this week, which seemed to pay off. They left D'Angelo Ponds in single coverage as a vice on Malachi Corley but used Moore and Stiggers in tandem against Daniel Thomas. Then they dropped Cisco deep into the middle for extra support.

Ponds got beaten once, leading to a fair catch, but otherwise did an excellent job of staying on top of his man and slowing him down. Troy Reeder, Moore and Stiggers each had a key block on three of the Williams returns, although in the latter three cases, it could have been an illegal block in the back.

Kene Nwangwu was less successful as he averaged under 23 yards on three returns. Andrew Beck got beaten by his man on one of those returns and Reeder got absolutely lit up on the opening kickoff, but Wallace made a good block.

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