Michael Clay

Q. What did you see on the blocked punt? What are the teaching points there? (John McMullen)

MICHAEL CLAY: Yeah, you never want to have a blocked punt, regardless of the situation. They crept in. We had communication that there was somebody in the box. But again, whenever something bad happens on special teams, we’re going to correct it within our room. But always falls on me to have the perfect technique, the perfect fundamentals for our guys to deter any punt fake. It was just something where we lacked our discipline and some of our techniques from the interior. Let a really good player in [Saints DB] J.T. Gray trim that edge, and he got down there and blocked the punt.

Can’t ever have that happen. Especially in a game like that, where the defense is playing so well. You pin him deep, maybe you get some field position right there. But ultimately, it falls on my shoulders to get it corrected, and we will.

Going forward, it’s a learning thing for [OLB] Nolan [Smith]. He’s been doing a good job for us the last couple years being on the punt team. But again, some little fundamental mistakes we had, not just him, but across the whole core, to hopefully widen that punt scheme where he can’t get there.

Q. What do you like about DB Cooper DeJean as a punt returner? (Jeff McLane)

MICHAEL CLAY: He did a job in his career at Iowa. Very fundamentally sound. He tracks the ball very well in terms of seeing it off the punter’s foot. Being thrust in there against a very good special teams unit, I don’t think he blinked. He did a really good job with the fair catch down to the left. And he also showed that he could make a couple people miss down there. Getting that ball from the 9 to the 15 helps out in that field position and takes the pressure a little bit off the offense. They don’t have to start backed up, a little bit more breathing room. We are going to get whoever we need ready to fill in that role. But again, [DB] Cooper [DeJean], we’re going to get him ready. Going to get the confidence up and hopefully, if he does have the opportunity, he’s able to show his skill.

Q. K Jake Elliott has hit it from 61 twice in his career – what do you think went into the 60 there? (Brooks Kubena)

MICHAEL CLAY: Yeah, we have supreme confidence in [K] Jake [Elliott] whenever his number is called. Thought the operation was clean. The big guys up front, they really don’t get the recognition they deserve. It was a clean pocket, good snap by [LS] Rick [Lovato], and it’s just one of those where he missed it. He just pushed it wide right. Not by much. It’s just one of those things. 60 yards is no gimme. 50 yards ain’t no gimme. Shoot, anywhere. They’ve got to be precise on everything, regardless of the distance.

Again, we have supreme confidence in 4 [K Jake Elliott] going out there and delivering. He’s done it time and time again. But it’s football. That’s life, sometimes it don’t go your way.

Q. How much discussion went into that decision to send him out there for 60, rather than punt it and play a field position game? (Ed Kracz)

MICHAEL CLAY: There’s always great dialogue between myself and [Head] Coach [Nick] Sirianni. Like I’ve told you guys before, whenever our number is called, we expect the best result. There was supreme confidence in Jake in that situation. No weather conditions were going to dictate it. You’re indoors and it just happened that he just pushed it wide right.

Q. With DB Cooper DeJean, since you’ve had him in the building as a punt returner, anything stand out that’s different than what you saw on tape? (Dave Zangaro)

MICHAEL CLAY: It’s always a little bit different when you get these cats from college to now in the NFL. College is a little bit wide open, a little bit more spread open with the rolling punts. Ball is usually on the ground a little bit more. Then here, you actually get to see the speed of the opposing team.

In terms of what we saw in Cooper in Iowa to now, is I think he’s learning the nuances. And he’s sitting next to [WR Britain] Covey in every meeting over there, and they talk during the punt return. Just different techniques. And Covey had a little bit of a learning curve as well coming out of Utah.

But him seeing it for the first time live, I think he’ll have more confidence going forward. Like, hey, these guys run a little bit quicker, I have to make a little bit of a quicker decision. But still have to have that same supreme confidence that he’s always had at Iowa. Catch the fall first. Obviously ball security is first.

Our No. 1 rule is give the ball to the offense. Defense did their job. Let’s get there, secure the ball, then get what we can going forward, and just have his athletic ability take over. We want to go north and south with him. Bigger body. Does have enough movement skills to make somebody miss.

Again, as we get this game plan ready for Tampa Bay, it’s just to instill the confidence in him. And then instill the confidence in the ten guys blocking for him that, hey, we protect 33 [DB Cooper DeJean] back there, and he’ll give us the ball back.

Q. Did that happen organically, that those two sat next to each other? Or was that a directive? (Zach Berman)

MICHAEL CLAY: No, I think it was organically. Just guys getting used to sitting in the room right there. The vets always have the first pick of the seats, but I think organically they just sat back there.

Q. You don’t get many 60-plus opportunities in a game. Does that affect how much weight you put on one opportunity in terms of evaluating whether you can do it again? (Brooks Kubena)

MICHAEL CLAY: No, I don’t think so. I think it’s just the ebbs and flows of the game. When your number’s called, we always want to go out there and get the best results. But 60-plus usually happens in the half-type situations. But when you have a kicker of that caliber in Jake, you have supreme confidence in him to pull out the best results we possibly can.

Q. We saw the Cowboys make an onside kick successfully. It’s a weird dynamic, I think, when you have to declare that you’re going to do it. How much more challenging is that, and how much do you guys work on that onside kick in practice? (Ed Kracz)

MICHAEL CLAY: We still work on the onside kick. It’s a nuance in the game. Granted, you take away the element of surprise of a surprise onside kick with them declaring it: ‘Hey, they are going to onside kick it.’

So we have to make sure our hands team is prepared, and that goes into our preparation throughout the week. We get a few shots at it going forward before we get out there for game time.

Again, it’s not something we just gloss over. We make sure that we dig up any film of the kicker that is kicking it, what they have in their bag, what the coordinator does, and be able to show the person that’s on that hands team, ‘Hey, they have this opportunity. They have this type of kick.’ So when we go out there on our hands team, we want to make it secure that we are going to win the game for our team and secure that ball.

Q. Three weeks into the new kickoff rules. Is there still some cat-and-mouse game going on with teams showing what they are showing? (Dave Zangaro)

MICHAEL CLAY: Yeah, there’s always going to be a cat-and-mouse game until the weather changes and the ball doesn’t go out all the time. I still think guys are kicking out the back of the end zone at a pretty good clip.

You’re still playing the cat-and-mouse game, who is the safety, what type of twist game are they running, and vice versa on the return game. I’m sure guys haven’t shown everything they have been working on.

So again, it goes in week-by-week, personnel-based, who is the returner. There’s going to be cat-and-mouse regardless. But it is interesting to see what’s going around the league, and you just start to see what is happening, what kind of schemes are being ran out there.

So I still think it will be a cat-and-mouse game as the season progresses.

Q. You mentioned tendencies of guys, what they have in their bag. Where do you start with Tampa Bay when it comes to special teams? (John McMullen)

MICHAEL CLAY: It’s very fortunate for us, game plan-wise. We are going against [Buccaneers Special Teams Coordinator Thomas McGaughey] T-Mac being the coordinator. He was with the Giants for the past few years, so you go back to those films and going against him many a years. Then you look at their personnel, how is he going to use his personnel.

And again, they have a good special teams. They play like their defense. They are fast. They are physical. So again, it goes into seeing what the tendencies are, what T-Mac has been doing since his time with the Giants, then how is he going to utilize his personnel.

They have good returners back there. You see [Buccaneers RB] Bucky Irving, he has good shiftiness as a returner. [Buccaneers WR] Trey Palmer has speed to burn. We have to make that we take care of our in-house stuff with our techniques and implement our game plan going forward against Tampa Bay. NFC opponent, every win counts in this league. So we have to be ready to come in here tomorrow with the players and get to it.