Special Teams Review: Jets-Dolphins

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

Let's review the key contributions...

Kicking game - I'd buy that for Ammendollar

With two costly misses on Sunday we've now reached a point where Matt Ammendola has failed to establish himself as a long-term option for the Jets and they may start to look for replacements. Even before this game, he hadn't been great but he's now just 2-for-7 from 40 yards and beyond.

Overall, he's 11-for-16 which places him 29th among NFL kickers with attempts in the double digits for field goal percentage this season.

His kickoffs were fine though as he had two touchbacks and another one returned from the goal line and stopped inside the 20.

Braden Mann seems to be doing well now that he's back as the punter. Two of his punts landed inside the five and bounced backwards so they got downed at about the 10. Another was fair caught at the 14. Obviously all these punts were from near midfield so that hurts his gross numbers.

The one time he kicked from deeper, he undercooked it and his kick from the end zone bounced short of the return man at midfield. However, Mann's directional kicking was usually landing the ball at about the 15 in the past, so there's a definite improvement there and the Dolphins had zero yards in returns. Mann also attempted the late onside kick but this was poor.

Bryce Hall got good pressure on one successful extra point attempt by the Dolphins.

Kick coverage - Pinning down the return men

The punt coverage was pretty good this week. Justin Hardee got downfield well on one punt to force a fair catch and on another where he was in position to down the ball at the goal line but it bounced back and was downed by Ryan Griffin instead.

The other gunner, Jeff Smith, got downfield well on another punt but he completely lost the flight of the ball which easily could have bounced past him for a touchback. Fortunately, the kick bounced backwards and he did eventually find and down it.

On the lone kickoff return, the Jets did an excellent job with Hardee making the tackle to move into first place on the team with seven on the season. The key to this play, however, was that Jason Pinnock beat his blocker and then Hamsah Nasirildeen and Sharrod Neasman helped bottle the return man up.

Pinnock would later get credit for a cheap special teams tackle himself after Albert Wilson fielded Mann's onside kick.

Return game - Braxton Butterfingers

Punt returner Braxton Berrios had a couple of rough plays as he was blown up on one punt and then lost a muff on another. However, in each case it didn't count because of a penalty. Berrios had one really nice play as he burst through a gap to take a punt return 20 yards to midfield and one other shorter return as he had plenty of room to cut upfield. He also had a 31-yard kickoff return from the end zone.

Deuce Carter and Javelin Guidry each got beaten once while trying to block the gunner.

Also on kickoffs, Tevin Coleman had once decent runback where it looked like he might break it into the clear after good blocks by Berrios and Ryan Griffin. However, he was tripped at the 25, as Del'Shawn Phillips allowed his man to get off his block.

Coleman's other return attempt was blown up at the 20 as this time it was Griffin who failed to sustain his block.

Finally, Griffin also fielded one kickoff on a short squib kick and made a good play to turn it upfield and out to the 44. Unfortunately that was called back due to a Nick Bawden block in the back penalty.

That wraps up today's analysis from the game, but we'll be back with more over the next few days...