Special Teams Review: Jets-Texans

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

Let's review the key contributions...

Kicking game - Extra Gregroom

Kicker Greg Zuerlein had a great game on Sunday, as he made all six of his kicks, including field goals of 51 and 55 yards. The 55-yarder in particular was extremely impressive, as it likely would have been good from another 5-10 yards. He reportedly had made a 62-yarder in pre-game, despite the conditions. To top it all off, Zuerlein was seven-for-seven on touchbacks when kicking off.

One of those Zuerlein field goals came despite Billy Turner being knocked onto his back to allow pressure.

Houston's only kick of the day was a missed extra point, on which Brandin Echols got good pressure coming off the edge.

Punter Thomas Morstead had a busy day that started off poorly. His first punt, from the 37 after the Texans declined a delay of game penalty that would have given him some more room, landed in the end zone for a touchback. His next punt was a bit too deep (61 yards) and led to a long return (22 yards).

After that though, his last three punts were all landed inside the 10. One was fair caught at the nine, one was downed at the two and one was muffed inside the five.

Apart from the delay of game call, the Jets also had two other penalties on kicks. One was a Sam Eguavoen false start. The other was an illegal formation on a punt, which means that one of the inside linebackers (Eguavoen and Jamien Sherwood) was aligned within a yard of the line of scrimmage and shading the long snapper.

Kick coverage - Moving Heaven and Irv

Pro bowler Justin Hardee made some good contributions again as he was credited with a tackle, downed the punt at the two-yard line and beat his man to force the muffed punt. Both Hardee and Ashtyn Davis were close to making a recovery there.

Davis was also credited with a tackle on that same play, a 22-yard punt return by Desmond King. Irvin Charles had overpursued and Hardee was initially blocked out of the play by a double-team before hustling back to get in on the tackle.

Charles forced a fair catch on the only other punt and there were no kickoff returns because of Zuerlein's 100 percent touchdown record.

Return game - Un-X-ceptional

Xavier Gipson didn't get a chance to return any kickoffs this week, as both Texans kickoffs were touchbacks. However, he got a few opportunities on punts with the Texans punting eight times.

Gipson's best return was a 14-yarder where he made a couple of moves. That came on a 65-yard punt where he had loads of room though. His other two returns basically got blown up immediately, with one potentially putting him at risk of fumbling again.

He was also forced to take four fair catches, with one punt downed. Echols and Jarrick Bernard-Converse were both beaten multiple times by the opposing gunners, although Echols recovered well to make a block on Gipson's longest return.

Hardee, Davis and Sherwood were also guilty of missing blocks but Hardee did light up the opposing gunner with a big hit on one return.

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