Special Teams Review: Jets-Buffalo

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

Let's review the key contributions...

Kicking game - Thompass Morstead

Punter Thomas Morstead came up with a big play this week when he threw an accurate downfield pass on a fake punt from deep inside Jets' territory. With the offensive passing game going nowhere, Morstead's pass to Brandin Echols was tied for the longest Jets pass of the game at the end of the day. It could have gone for even more too, had Echols not stepped out of bounds. That reduced the gain from 44 to 18 on review.

On the play, Echols executed well as he bluffed an inside release from the gunner position but then broke to the outside to give Morstead an open target.

Morstead's actual punting was less impressive, although he did average nearly 50 yards per punt. He put another one in the end zone and four of his other punts were returned for positive yardage for a net that was barely over 40.

Adrian Amos allowed pressure off the edge as the Bills nearly blocked one of Morstead's punts.

Kicker Greg Zuerlein barely saw the field on Sunday. He didn't get to attempt an extra point or a field goal and he only kicked off twice with two touchbacks, one of which was via a fair catch.

Kick coverage - A Perfect Henn

In kick coverage, long snapper Thomas Hennessy had a good day as he was credited with two special teams tackles, including one on a short return on Morstead's shortest punt of the day and one on an eight-yard return on his longest.

CJ Uzomah was also credited with a special teams tackle on a punt that was fielded inside the five and returned to the 14. The return man probably should have left that one as it looked like another probable touchback. Ashtyn Davis missed a diving tackle attempt on that one.

Irv Charles was also credited with a tackle on the longest return of the day, a 15-yarder and forced a fair catch, but he also overpursued a few times. He also missed a tackle but that helped set up one of Hennessy's plays. Debutant Marcelino McCrary-Ball also got downfield well but overpursued a couple of times.

Another debutant, Jarrick Bernard-Converse, got downfield well on one punt but was then blocked off from making the play.

Return game - Xavier Grip's-Gone

Xavier Gipson fumbled the opening kickoff for a key turnover that set the tone for the entire game, even though the Bills were held to a field goal. While Gipson has worked himself into the mix on offense, he's really not achieved much at all since his opening day heroics and this was his fourth fumble.

Gipson wasn't the only one to blame on this play. Reggie Gilliam's big hit came after Charles missed his block and then compounded his error by giving up on the play as he failed to realize the ball was loose.

Gipson had one decent kickoff return, out to the 34, but was stopped at the 25 and the 16 on his other two. Buffalo's three punts were downed twice and fair caught once so he didn't get a chance to return another punt against the team he scored the winning touchdown against in that overtime win that seems so long ago.

The return that was blown up at the 16 was another mix-up involving Charles and also Uzomah, as they both moved to the right, leaving Siran Neal unblocked. Charles also let his man get off his block to make the play at the 25, as Davis also missed his block but saw his man miss the first tackle. On the one decent return, Uzomah sprung it with the key block. Jamien Sherwood, the Jets' leading special teams tackler this year had a good block on that one and pancaked his man on one of the other ones that got stuffed anyway.

Bernard-Converse, seeing action in the vice role, was beaten to force the fair catch.

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