Michael Clay

Q. Michael, just from an execution standpoint, what went wrong on the last kickoff? (Cayden Steele)

Michael Clay: We didn’t execute. We had our number called. They had played well for 59 minutes, and in the last eight seconds, we didn’t do our job in terms of kickoff coverage. At times, we got too deep in our coverage, didn’t get off blocks and didn’t make tackles when we needed to. That’s more on myself than anything else. In terms of that scenario, you guys could cut it however way you wanted. [Head Coach] Nick [Sirianni] made that decision. We have to go out there and execute as a kickoff team and get that guy down. Obviously, we didn’t, and it was one of those things where coaches always say you always remember the bad stuff, and you probably will until you’re done coaching. At the end of the day, we’ve got to get off blocks. We’ve got to make sure we get everything funneled in, keep it on our inside shoulder, leverage it out and move on from there.

Q. Was that with OLB Arnold Ebiketie in LB Jeremiah Trotter Jr.’s spot? (Jeff McLane)

No, AK [Arnold Ebiketie] has been in there all year at that three. Obviously, Trotter wasn’t in there.

Q. Who was in his spot in that? (Jeff McLane)

Michael: Clay: You’re just trying to move around puzzle pieces. You try to put personnel in their best spots. I think if you saw, I moved [CB] Kelee [Ringo] from the one to the four to the five, tried to put our best players in some spots to make some plays. At times, it worked out, and in the one spot where it didn’t, it burned us. That’s on me as a coach. I didn’t get it coached up well enough prior to the kickoff, and you live with it, you learn from it and you move on from there.

Q. How involved are you in the decision, final decision? (Jeff Neiburg)

Michael Clay: I mean, I do what I’m coached to do, and we go through all these different scenarios, not just in the moment of the game. We do it during the week of the game, talk about who the kicker is and what his range is. Obviously, [Jacksonville Jaguars K] Cam Little’s got a big leg, so that goes into a deciding factor. Again, it’s not on one person or one decision. We’re all in this together, from the top down in this building. When our number’s called, there have been times when we’ve answered the bell, and that one time we didn’t, it cost us the game. Obviously, it’s not great for us, but you dwell on it for 12 hours. I had seven hours to think about it on the flight from London to here. Then you review it, see how we could coach it better, see how we could get the players to do better in terms of how I present it to them where they understand, all right, this is where we’re going to evolve and be better, and where do I evolve and be better as a coach in that scenario so that, if it does arise again, we overcome it and make the play.

Q. What was your reaction to Head Coach Nick Sirianni taking blame for the decision and saying he cost the team in the game? (Dave Zangaro)

Michael Clay: Obviously, you respect anybody that’s going out there to jump on the grenade, so to speak, but it’s not just him. I think he takes a lot of heat, which I respect, but obviously, I’m the special teams coordinator here, and we didn’t get the job done. I thought the players did really well for 59 minutes and 52 seconds of that game, and in the last eight seconds, we didn’t, and it cost us. I take it to heart that I felt like I let people down in this organization who worked so hard to give us that opportunity to go win that game in London. Again, you learn from all your mistakes. You learn with these scars that you’ll have, but you move on from it and get ready for the next opponent.

Q. How much was Jacksonville Jaguars K Cam Little stressed in the situational meetings on the field practice leading up to the game? (Brooks Kubena)

Michael Clay: In terms of?

Q. I mean Sirianni stresses those situational parts — (Brooks Kubena)

Michael Clay: Yeah, that the guy could kick a 70 yarder. Yeah, everyone knows that.

Q. How much that was factored into the week? (Brooks Kubena)

Michael Clay: You talk about the opponents we played, [Chicago Bears K] Cairo Santos and Cam Little, [they’re] two different beasts. Cairo doesn’t have as strong of a leg, so you feel good about that. Regardless of the scenario, when our number’s called, we have the opportunity to get that player down, leave two seconds, whatever it may be. We’ve got to get him down regardless of who that opponent is. I’m sure Jacksonville goes through the same scenarios with Jake: What’s his leg? Obviously, he’s got long field goals, but at the end of the day, we’ve got to get that thing down inside. Even if it’s at the 40, you’re not going to kick whatever long that is right there.

Q. I guess the irony is that if he got five more yards, the game’s over. Is there any realistic way of players kind of having an eye on the clock and understanding that get them down five yards farther down, the game’s over? (Reuben Frank)

Michael Clay: No, I don’t think when you’re in the heat of the moment, you’re in full trail mode: Let me get this guy down. I don’t think anybody’s going to look up at the clock simultaneously and then get the guy down who’s running full speed ahead. I don’t think it’s one of those things where, if an extra second came off at some point in the game, you’re not talking about this, but it was a perfect storm to happen. We weren’t able to execute in that scenario, and it cost us a win.

Q. Out of all the returns they had, you had no holder. On the other kickoffs, you did have a holder. How’d you determine on that last kick, not to kick the dirty ball, so to speak? (Zach Berman)

Michael Clay: It’s one of those things, like, all right, you put a holder out there and you hit a bad ball, and the goal doesn’t go past the 20. Where’s that ball at? The 40? You’re in the same scenario yourself. In terms of that case, we have a game plan going in. We had been going to the right the majority of the time right in there, even on the one that got called back for the penalty that [DT] Ty Robinson created right there. We had been going right and tried to catch him off guard with the ball to the left right there. [Jacksonville Jaguars Associate Head Coach/Special Teams Coordinator] Heath Farwell’s a really good special teams coordinator. He’s been doing it a long time, and he caught me right there. I thought I’d get our best personnel to the left. At the end of the day, we didn’t execute at the highest level we could in that scenario. So regardless of the holders out there, no the holders out there, we’ve got to be able to get that thing down when it’s in play.

Q. Before K Jake Elliott’s field goal, the 48-yard field goal, what conversations were you having with Head Coach Nick Sirianni in terms of where you felt most comfortable for Jake to kick that distance from that? (Jeff McLane)

Michael Clay: We had that conversation after pregame warmups for the kickers: What is our end-game line? I won’t get too much into it. Obviously, Jake has a strong enough leg. It was a really nice evening, I guess you would say, in London, and we felt comfortable at a certain spot. To make percentages go up, everybody’s enamored by percentages, it’s easier to kick a 49-yard ball and in compared to a 50-yard ball and in. But again, we have full faith in Jake regardless. I mean, he’s shown it already this past year with a 58 and a 56-yarder. He’s hit a 61-yarder in his career to end a game. There’s always talk of that at the beginning of the drive in terms of where our max is and where we feel like we can get this ball between the uprights. We had those conversations, and the offense did a great job of moving it past some of the lines we felt comfortable with, making it a 48-yarder instead of 50-something. But we felt comfortable regardless when our number was called on that field goal unit to get three points on the board.

Q. Because the plan was to have Jeremiah Trotter Jr. play some on defense in this game, was he going to have a lesser role on teams? (Dave Zanagro)

Michael Clay: No, I don’t think so. I think you see it took everybody. When Trotter goes down and [RB] Will Shipley goes down, [DB Michael] Mike Carter goes down, you start having to rely on everybody on this team. [LB Arnold Ebikete] AK and [OLB] A.J. Epenesa did a good job coming in on punt, holding an All-Pro returner, [Jacksonville Jaguars WR] Parker Washington, to 3.7 yards. With [QB] Cole Payton as your personal protector, there’s a lot of things that everyone’s going to be enamored with in the end result, which they should be. That’s life. Nobody cares about what you did. They care about the result. I was proud of what they did for the majority of the game, going into some spots that they’ve never been in and executing at a high level. I can only tip my cap to the guys in here who were ready for that game.

Q. I was going to ask you about QB Cole Payton. Then K Jake Elliott was saying after the game, you were just coaching guys up on the sideline who never even played some of these spots before. Was that one of them or was the plan always to kind of go with Cole in that role? (Jeff McLane)

Michael Clay: When Ship [Will Shipley] went down, we had other injuries, and I think that’s what you do as a coach. You rely on your instincts as a coach, and you talk to the guys on the sideline and instill confidence that, regardless of what we’re doing, I’m going to give you the right call, and we’re going to be able to go out there and execute so you don’t have to think. Kudos to [Assistant Special Teams Coordinator/Director of Team Relationships] Joe P. [Pannunzio] and [Special Teams Assistant] Tyler Brown for helping me out in coaching some guys in different scenarios that they’ve never played in and never been in. But again, [RB] Carson Steele and [TE] E.J. Jenkins had to play different positions. A.J. Epenesa and [LB Arnold Ebikete] AK had to play different positions. They’ve never played in the NFL, and I thought they did a great job. But regardless of that, you take it upon yourself as a coach to get everybody lined up and ready. We executed some scenarios that were high level. We didn’t execute the one high-level thing we needed to. At the end of the day, I think that’s the beauty of coaching. You get in these scenarios, take the headset off and give a guy different cadences: This is what we’re going to do. I know I pulled the punt team at halftime and said, ‘This is what our blocking assignments are going to be, and we’re going to roll with it.’ They did a fantastic job, and [P] Braden [Mann] punted at an elite level, taking out Parker Washington for the entirety of the game.

Q. If I could go back to the last kickoff, what is the rationale between kicking out of the end zone or letting the guy return it? I know you guys kind of done both obviously in those situations. What is the thinking there? (Martin Frank)

Michael Clay: I think you can’t cut everything the same. Obviously, I think we may have been up a touchdown against Tennessee. That was obviously going to change some stuff in terms of the amount of time left. In this one, you’re only up one, and Cam Little’s hit a 70-yarder before. That goes into everything, thinking about how much time I can waste running with the ball right there. Hindsight’s 20/20. Do you want to do some stuff differently? Yeah, obviously. But you live with the decisions you make, and obviously, the decision we made was to have our kickoff coverage team go down there and try to get him down, and we failed that task. You learn from it. Everything’s not so black and white. There’s a lot of gray and communication. Nick does a great job of communicating with us in terms of that. It’s one of those things where I take it upon myself to get those 11 guys on the kickoff team to get that guy down and not put anybody in a risky situation like that.

Q. When you study the special teams around the league, were there end-of-game scenarios that you looked at that helped influence that decision? I know the one that gets talked about a lot is Dallas-Baltimore recently, but were there others that you looked at that helped influence that decision? (Tim McManus)

Michael Clay: We have a great analytics team here, and they do studies for us and give us some numbers on what happens in those situations. Nick does a good job of looking that over and talking to us about that. I don’t think there’s one outside of that Baltimore-Dallas game that happened this year. I think it’s over a year’s time that they’ve brought us those numbers. I’m not going to delve too much into it, but Nick’s on top of that, and we go through those conversations on those end-of-game situations.

Q. Can I ask what you thought about the execution on the game winning field goal by the block team? (Jeff McLane)

Michael Clay: In terms of?

Q. How the guys played it from the edges and up the middle. Obviously, you guys have blocked a bunch of kicks. Did you think, considering the distance, that maybe you guys could have done a better job of getting to him? (Jeff McLane)

Michael Clay: I mean, Jacksonville gets paid, too. Cam Little’s a darn good kicker. Their backup snapper did a heck of a job. I’m not going to take anything away from that guy, as well. His best snap was on that last one. [Jacksonville Jaguars P] Logan Cooke had a heck of a hold on one of the field goals right there, but you have to give kudos to Jacksonville as well. They have a big field goal team. We have a big field goal team where, on the outside, we’re trying to rush off the edge. Maybe there’s a high snap, and it deflects the operation time. But in that in-game situation, we’re trying to get as much penetration through the A and B gaps, then off the edge. But Cam Little, he’s a darn good kicker for a reason. He got great elevation off it on the 56-yarder, and he pierced it. It’s one of those things where we’re probably saying the same thing if we’re in that scenario. Jake had a 48-yarder, and they have a good rush team, and he pierced it as well, and there was no leakage on that. So, good on both field goal protection teams. Again, we’re trying to get that affected or blocked any way we can on that last one.

Q. If you could take us behind the scenes, it’s about a minute to a minute and a half in real time between when Jake kicks that field goal and then has the kickoff. What’s it like on the sideline? Obviously, it’s an emotional sideline celebrating the field goal, and then you have to get the special teams group ready for the kickoff. What’s it like in real time on the sideline? (Zach Berman)

Michael Clay: It’s a lot quicker than the minute and a half in real time. You’re obviously trying to get 11 out there. They’re winding the clock right there. There’s no TV timeout. You’re trying to make sure you have your 11 out there. You’re trying to give them little tidbits in there. At times, you have to slow your mind down so it doesn’t turn into a super chaotic time, and you can’t really celebrate a great kick from Jake. You have to go on to the next play in terms of that. It was more just trying to slow everybody down when adrenaline’s high and trying to get them to play the most fundamental football we can. But like I said prior, it’s never one player, two players or three players. At the end of the day, it falls on me to get those guys coached up the right way to make that play in that scenario. I didn’t do that in that aspect, and you’re going to learn from it. At the end of the day, you’re going to dwell on it, but you also have to move on from it, which we will, with a fantastic opponent in the Carolina Panthers coming in. You could say I dog it for the first seven hours or whatever, but then you have to move on with life and get ready for the next opportunity.