Michael Clay

MICHAEL CLAY: Good morning. I guess I’ll start off by saying we didn’t play well enough, special teams wise, especially in the coverage phase, primarily on kickoff coverage. We put our defense in terrible situations. One, starting off the game with a penalty. Not what our standard is and then coming back and letting them have a big return. So again, just for us, from a special teams standpoint, there had been some good instances in that game, but overall, wasn’t up to our standard. We put our defense in a bad spot. Kudos to [Eagles defensive coordinator] Vic [Fangio] and [the defense] for getting some turnovers right after those bad spots. But again, we got to be better, especially as we’re ending this regular season and getting into playoff football-time mode, especially going against Dallas. We all know [Cowboys KR/PR] KaVontae Turpin is a dangerous returner, but not up to our standards when we played against Washington. So now, happy holidays, everyone.

Q. Was it more on the depth of the kickoffs or with the actual coverage? (Bo Wulf)

MICHAEL CLAY: I think it was a mixture of both. Obviously we like a little bit more distance on our kickoffs. We can’t have a ball land at the 16, 15-yard line. But it’s never always on one person. There are 11 guys out there. And first of all, it starts with me at the top. I have to get these guys far more prepared in terms of getting off blocks. Again, kickoff coverage is very similar to defense. You can make up for a mistake by hustling to the ball and just playing with some fundamentals of block destruction. I don’t think we did a good enough job of getting off blocks. So again, it all encompasses, you know, the entirety of the kickoff coverage unit.

Q. How much did the elements play a factor in the landing spots of those kicks? And what can you do to manage it? The elements probably aren’t going to get any easier, correct? (E.J. Smith)

MICHAEL CLAY: Correct. Yeah, like I alluded to, playing in the Northeast you have to understand that the ball is not going to travel in 20 degrees on Sunday. We knew that going in. But again, what could help out, I think, on our third kickoff, was that the placement and make the returner go left and right, because it just adds an extra second or two for our coverage to get down there. When we did that, we strung it out down at the 22-yard line. So just better precision on our location on kickoffs to help out the coverage team. But again, it comes down to us getting off blocks and tacking well, and we just didn’t do that well enough. So again, as much as the weather changes, it’s not like it was an unknown or anything. We know we play in the Northeast. We know it’s cold. We have to make sure that we tighten things up as it goes on because we hope to have some more games up here in the Northeast.

Q. What has gone into the decision to have Eagles P Braden Mann handle kickoffs? (Jeff McLane)

MICHAEL CLAY: Yeah, I mean, he’s just done a great job all year. I think you could say the last game against Washington probably was his worst one of the year. But Braden’s done an unbelievable job for us, both on punts and kickoffs, to give us a chance to cover. We don’t want to make a rash decision because he has done a really good job for us going forward.

Q. Is it that he has a stronger leg or are you trying to preserve Eagles K Jake Elliott? (Jeff McLane)

Yeah, a lot of that has to do with, you know, can we preserve Jake going forward? And Braden does have a very strong leg. He’s always had that going from college, but it’s always a topic discussion week by week. So again, you know, we may switch it up. We may not. But again, what Braden’s done for us, kickoff coverage-wise has helped us a lot and gives us some opportunities to cover inside the 20 [yard line]. You know, some balls that you know would have gone past the landing zone that checked up at the nine [yard line] and given us an opportunity inside the 20 [yard line]. So Braden’s done a good job, just not his day in terms of the distance on kickoffs. But again, we’re ready to go, you know, getting ready for a really good returner on Dallas and Turpin.

Q. You guys have data for everything. Is Jake’s leg strength the same as it ever was? (Tim McManus)

MICHAEL CLAY: I think, just like anything else, you know, it may decline, it may improve, but I think it’s been pretty good leg strength regardless. You know, at times you have to deal with the elements, but I don’t think the leg strength declining or going anywhere with Jake has done anything in terms of affecting our decision.

Q. What was your read on that 56-yard field goal? (Tim McManus)

MICHAEL CLAY: I thought he did the ball great. You know, going into that wind, it was kind of coming out this way. He even thought he hit a really good ball. And you can see it just kind of died on him on the last five yards right there. It was a great job by the offense to at least give us an opportunity to go trot out there for a 56-yarder. He struck the ball well, stayed online, but just didn’t have the distance right there. If we would have gotten an extra yard and a half, maybe it would have went in, or if it was five degrees warmer, it would’ve possibly gone in. But, you know, kudos to the offense working that little under two-minute drive to give us at least an opportunity to try and get three points on the board before the half.

Q. Does Eagles P Braden Mann have the leg to get the ball to the goal line or close to it on a cold day? (Reuben Frank)

MICHAEL CLAY: He showed a couple times that he could get to the goal line. I can’t predict – sometimes you do. It’s cold that day but you have a better wind at your back. Pretty stagnant day in terms of the wind. He does have a strong enough leg, like you said, to get to the goal line. A couple times he kind of undercut it. On the first one, he was trying to drive it through the wind and hit too fat and it dove on him at the 22 [yard line] so there is a fine line of just tweaking, you know, little things like that. But, you know, keeping the confidence of Braden up to get us down there, and then our coverage units to, you know, help nullify some of those big returns.

Q. On the field goal at the end of the half, you’re obviously communicating with Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni about how far you want to go. Was it about the line that you were hoping to get to? (Bo Wulf)

MICHAEL CLAY: Yeah, well, the communication has been awesome with Nick the entire time. And, you know, he gave us the parameters like, ‘Hey, if we get this on this fourth down right here and we get this many yards with the time being right there, let’s go out there and trot out the field goal unit. And we hit that kind of stipulation we wanted to and, you know, like I said, if it was five degrees warmer, hopefully that ball would have gone in. It was right online. And Jake had struck the ball all game very well.

Q. He did hit a 50-yard field goal late to put you back on top. I know you’ve been pretty consistent with his process and his confidence, but to finally get one from 50 this season, do you think that helps? (John McMullen)

MICHAEL CLAY: I think it’s always great, you know, especially the magnitude of that game, I think we got down one to put us up two right there, and a 50-yarder, in those weather conditions is outstanding. One, it starts with the operation. [Eagles LS] Rick [Lovato] threw a great ball. The field goal team kind of goes unsung. They’ve been really good in terms of protecting Jake, outside of probably Cleveland where [Browns DE] Myles Garrett cleared everyone. But outside of that, it’s been very, very good in terms of our protection. Those guys don’t get enough credit, those offensive linemen and [Eagles DT Jordan Davis] going out there, but the operation was outstanding. And you saw that ball traveled very well. He struck it very well. And, you know, put us up a score at least to give us an opportunity, then go back and forth and come back with that 40-yarder also to make it at least a touchdown-worth game right there. So always great to see when the ball goes through the uprights.

Q. When you have a kicker like Cowboys K Brandon Aubrey, how do you like when you try to defend him and rush those long field goals, do you find that you have to try and change your personnel in order to try and get a block? (Chris Franklin)

MICHAEL CLAY: If you really look at our field goal blocking [unit], they get great penetration. [Eagles DT Jordan Davis], [Eagles DT Jalen Carter], [Eagles DT Moro Ojomo], [Eagles DT Thomas Booker] – they all do an outstanding job of getting some penetration up through the middle. And you see [Eagles CB] Isaiah [Rodgers], he gets very close every time going on the outside. Our personnel has been outstanding in terms of field goal [coverage]. If it’s not broken, don’t fix it. It’s just an added thing. As you get into these later months, lower trajectory, we get our hands up just a little bit quicker with some penetration. And hopefully, you know, we tip one or block one, but Aubrey’s a great kicker, we all know that. So, it’s another challenge for us to make sure we keep three off the board.

Q. There was a kickoff that fell short of the landing zone. Is there anything specific that happened there? (Tim McManus)

MICHAEL CLAY: He just missed it. He hit it too fat on the ball and it just dove on him. It’s not like we were trying to do anything special there. Like I said, trying to cut the wind and just hit it too fat and it dove on him.