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 – Austin City Limits
Depressingly, punter Austin McNamara has probably been the Jets’ most consistent player this season. He was again right around 49 yards per punt, although the Jets gave up more return yardage than usual.
He had two punts downed inside the 10-yard line, one of which was from inside midfield, hurting his average.
Nick Folk made two field goals to remain perfect on the year, but he’ll be annoyed at himself for putting too much on a couple of kickoffs, leading to touchbacks. His one other kickoff was a bit too short and returned to midfield.
Return game – They Killed Kene
Kene Nwangwu was limited to one return this week, out to the 33 as he broke a tackle in space.
Nwangwu was playing an unprecedented second game in a row, but now has a concussion after he was lit up on a lead block. The Panthers, much like Denver did, deliberately kept the ball away from Nwangwu, but on this occasion, he was about to field it and Isaiah Williams stepped in front of him to field it instead.
The mental errors didn’t stop there from Williams, who also let one punt bounce that ended up as a 68-yarder to flip the field after a Broncos bounce.
On kickoffs, Williams fielded two outside the 10-yard line, taking one to the 45 and the other to the 33. He was stopped at the 26 on his other return though.
Mykal Walker had a good block on the longer of these, but Stone Smartt and Isaiah Davis had missed blocks on kickoffs.
On punts, Williams returned two, with one of those a short return that was negated by Jarvis Brownlee getting called for holding up the field for the second week in a row. His other return was a 14-yarder as the vices – Brownlee and Azareye’h Thomas – stayed in front of the gunners and Korie Black and Isaiah Oliver also made good blocks.
The other four punts were not returned (two fair catches, one downed and one out of bounds). Thomas was beaten by the gunner twice and Brownlee was once on these.
Kick coverage – Best Weston
Sunday marked the NFL debut for both Jackson Sirmon and Ja’Markis Weston and each had a tackle on special teams.
Weston, perhaps the biggest gunner in NFL history, showed both his strengths and limitations as he was outstanding at getting downfield and too powerful for the vices to keep sealed off, but also got juked in the open field on one return. His tackle came after a missed tackle by Nwangwu and he also downed a punt inside the 10.
The other punt inside the 10 was downed by Walker after Arian Smith got downfield well to spook the return man out of trying to catch it under pressure.
There was a negative this week, though, as the Jets allowed a kickoff return to midfield with Smartt, Tony Adams and Walker all being blocked out of the play. Smartt in particular allowed himself to be driven out of his lane on that one.
Sirmon also had a missed tackle on a punt that cost the Jets 10-15 yards after Nwangwu overpursued. Malachi Moore made the stop. Also credited with special teams tackle on punts were Andrew Beck and Jeremy Ruckert.
We’ll be back with the 3-on-D and 3-on-O over the next few days…