Special Teams Review: Jets at Miami
Special teams didn't make any kind of positive impact for the Jets and ended up costing them in the fourth quarter.
Let's review the key contributions...
Kicking Game - Winters doesn't come early
Kicker JASON MYERS had his first costly miss of the season, as his 50-yarder that would have tied the score with under 13 minutes to go sailed wide.
It can't have helped that the Jets initially lined up with just 10 players as BRIAN WINTERS ran on late to fill in at left tackle. The Jets couldn't afford to waste another timeout and a five-yard penalty would've made the kick a lot more difficult (although Myers did later make a kick from that distance), so they rushed to get the snap off and that probably affected Myers' preparation.
Myers had made another field goal earlier, late in the first half. He also booted two touchbacks on his three kickoffs.
Punter LACHLAN EDWARDS had a pretty solid game statistically as he had a 40 yards per punt net average. He landed a 35-yarder inside the 10 and his other five punts were all at least 40 yards, although he arguably out-kicked his coverage a couple of times.
Kick Coverage - Neville meant to hurt you
The Jets gave up 19 and 12 yard punt returns on their two longest punts as they were basically unable to flip the field all day. The first saw TRENTON CANNON - who has been so effective recently - badly overpursue in the slippery conditions. On the second, CHARONE PEAKE's missed tackle let the return man slip up the sideline for some extra yardage.
NEVILLE HEWITT had another solid game in coverage with a couple of tackles though. THOMAS HENNESSY and the returning RONTEZ MILES also got in on tackles, as did Peake, who also got downfield well on one punt to force a fair catch.
A couple of starters contributed on special teams this week too as the Jets left most of their starting defense in on a couple of punts. DARRON LEE and JORDAN JENKINS were in on tackles.
Return game - Haack Eye
The Jets' return game was rendered pretty much irrelevant by Miami punter Matt Haack, who put seven of his nine punts inside the 20 and limited any return yardage. All four kickoffs were touchbacks too. On one of the two punts that was fielded outside the 20, the Jets ended up starting from their 14-yard line anyway after an illegal block in the back call on MIKE PENNEL who must have been 50 yards away from the ball at the time.
Peake was badly beaten by the gunner on one play, although RASHARD ROBINSON did a good job of slowing the gunner down on one rare return.
ANDRE ROBERTS only tried to return two punts and had returns of eight and nine yards but didn't get past the 20.