The highly anticipated special teams matchup between Leon Washington and Joshua Cribbs didn’t pan out the way most football fans may have wanted, but that was perfectly fine for a handful of Jets special teamers.

That’s because the Browns' Cribbs, with his NFL-leading 31.2 yards per kickoff return, was held in check this afternoon thanks in part to a clinic that Mike Westhoff’s coverage unit displayed for the rain-soaked Jets and Cleveland fans in the Meadowlands.

“Cribbs is so elusive and fast so we knew what we were up against and what we had to do. Containing him was a very important aspect for us to execute well today,” said Wallace Wright. “I think we did a job in that part of the game.”

By containing Cribbs on specials, the Jets forced the Browns’ offense to start with their backs to the wall. Of the Browns’ 11 drives, five began at or within their own 20-yard line.

“I think containing him was very important,” kicker Mike Nugent said. “Cribbs is an unbelievable returner. If you can shut a guy like him down or a guy like Leon or Devin Hester, that really gives your defense a good opportunity to get good field position, which in turn gives the offense good field position.”

Field position proved vital in this contest, as both teams entered the week with defenses ranking in the league's lower tier in regards to allowing points, meaning each squad needed all the help it could get from its specialists.

Even with Cribbs breaking loose for 31 yards on a kickoff following a Nugent field goal in the third quarter, the Browns were held to 15.0 yards on four kickoff returns. And Cleveland’s third-year specialist from Kent State didn’t have much luck returning punts, either.

“He’s a star, a great player, and he’s having a great year both on kickoff and punt returns, so he was a factor and containing him today was huge,” punter Ben Graham said. “He was a big factor and we subdued him today.”

Graham and the Jets punt coverage team held Cribbs to 7 yards on two returns, and it was Graham’s first punt of the afternoon that set the tone for the consistently stout Jets coverage. On fourth down from the Browns 41, Graham’s dangerous drop punt struck the Browns 2-yard line and Wright was able to sneak behind the coverage and down it.

“That’s just execution,” Wright said. “Ben is a great punter but that’s just us doing our job. I give Ben all the credit on that one — he had a great day.”

“We were due for a bit of luck so it was good to see the ball land around the 1 and bounce back for a change,” said Graham, who averaged 41.6 yards gross and 36.2 net per punt. “Luckily that gave us good field position and we knew during the week that it was going to be a battle of field position.”

Wright, who wrapped up Cribbs at the Browns’ 11 on Graham’s second punt of the game and again in the fourth quarter, knew what this game meant for his teammate, Leon Washington, and his individual accolades.

“We knew coming in that it was No. 1 and No. 2 between Leon and Joshua so we wanted to give Leon the best chance to go and that’s basically it. It’s probably going to be one of those guys to go to the Pro Bowl. We wanted to give Leon the best opportunity so we wanted to go out there and cover.”

The afternoon didn’t start off as smoothly as Washington would have wanted as he muffed and then fumbled the opening kickoff at his 22. Luckily for the Jets, teammate Eric Smith pounced on the loose ball, but the Washington slip-up put his offense at the 10-yard line to begin the day.

“For the most part neither team was unable to execute with that field position,” said Washington. “The return game on our part, we didn’t execute the way we wanted to and it started with me not catching the ball so I'm very, very disappointed in that.”

Leon made up for the early miscue by pounding out his best punt-return performance of the season. The second-year running back had returns of 33 and 20 yards for a 26.5 average, raising his season average to 10.5 yards per return.

“It was a good sign to see the punt returns improve," he said, "but our kickoff returns is what our strong suit has been all year long and we weren’t able to execute in that today.”