Michael Clay

Q. How did WR Britain Covey look in his first action? (Dave Zangaro)

Michael Clay: Yeah, obviously a familiar face with Covey. I thought he had a good job, difficult with conditions out there with being windy. Only had really that one opportunity to return it. I thought he did a nice job. It was one of those punts that we call, it was so bad, it was good, in terms of it came off [Chicago Bears P] Tory Taylor’s foot kind of sideways and it was short then it just kept rolling and we didn’t know — if he[WR Britain Covey] didn’t pick that up, who knows where that ball would’ve rolled to, could have been to the 15 [yard-line], things of that nature. He did a go job of kind of corralling and getting square. Then he made two miss and got nine yards out of it and kind of vintage Covey making something out of nothing to get us that first down in terms of the return. So I thought he did a good job of battling against the conditions, the kickers, the punters right there. It was a good to have a familiar face there in Covey back.

Q. Is that the way that’s coached when a ball’s bouncing like that? (Dave Zangaro)

Michael Clay: Yeah, obviously we want to try and catch everything, but at times sometimes it’s just a miss hit and it’s short and everything of that nature and obviously you don’t want to put the team at risk if you can’t really corral it and it’s like, all right, let’s just salvage it and see the next play down. But it was [headed toward] our end zone at a pretty good pace there and he did a good job of just kind of corralling it and getting what he could.

Q. You mentioned a tough kicking day in general, the missed kicks by K Jake Elliott. Is it more chalked up to that or did you see anything from a technique standpoint or anything like that? (John McMullen)

Michael Clay: With the extra point, obviously we just can’t. We want to make sure when we have those closer range field goals, extra points, that we do our job and get points on the board and don’t put ourselves in the scenario that we did have to do at the end of the game. I thought he struck that 52-yarder pretty well. It was just in the tougher end of the stadium going into the wind. It was going straight then obviously the wind coming out the west was bouncing back off the stands and it took it at the end right there. But obviously I’m not too upset about the 52-yarder. He really did strike it pretty well. We just can’t put ourselves in those predicaments with those shorter field goals. Just going through our technique and just our fundamentals of getting it through right there.

Q. You’re facing that drastic a change in wind direction on one side of the field to the other. How much does that change how you would approach or I guess Head Coach Nick Sirianni from that point of what you do in those scenarios? (Brooks Kubena)

Michael Clay: It just goes through the communication from the pregame, how the guys feel, what direction. Maybe you could extend the line probably a little bit more going one way when you do have a little bit of wind, but it just goes throughout the communication throughout the entirety from Jake to Coach Sirianni to myself in terms of what we feel comfortable with and almost every quarter during [the] year is a different entity. The winds can obviously switch right there, so it just chalks it up to the communication and again, in that situation at end of the game, that was our best chance to put us in a winning situation, possibly attempt another onside to get it. Everything we go through is not when we second guess, we feel confident in going through throughout the communication from, it doesn’t just start in the game, it starts an hour 15 minutes before the game when they’re out there getting ready.

Q. Is the plan to go back to WR Xavier Gipson when he’s healthy or is this WR Britain Covey’s job going forward?

Michael Clay: Yeah, everything is so fluid. You just never know how the roster’s going to be dictated week in and week out. Obviously you get injuries, you get people banged up, scheme, things of that nature. We just take it day by day and get everybody ready to get their numbers called. Obviously there’s been guys that have been called up on the day of the game, so it’s just one of those things where we do here in the specialist room to make sure everybody’s ready to go.

Q. Do you have a preference? (Brooks Kubena)

Michael Clay: I think they’ve all shown that they could do it at a high level in terms of that. Xavier obviously had the one in Dallas where we’d love to have back, but he also showed some promise there. But then you get Covey who’s shown that he could be a very elite returner when he has the opportunity. So there’s really is no preference. I think it’s just the opportunity to have an abundance of guys that can do it.

Q. Was it an issue just waiting for WR Britain Covey to be fully healthy to kind of get him that chance or was it more WR Xavier Gipson getting hurt? (Martin Frank)

Michael Clay: Yeah, I think it’s just more of the influx of how the roster moves week in and week out. Whether it’s injuries, like you said with Xavier going having that shoulder injury, then if a different number on a different unit is low, you have to use that from an elevation standpoint. But it just happened to come up that it worked out naturally like that [and] organically where unfortunately Xavier got hurt and we’re hoping that he gets fully healthy and ready to roll. Then having Covey being able to be elevated then signed to the active right there is always a plus for us and it was just from the scouting department being able to give us those options when things do come up, obviously it’s a long season.

Q. Onside kicks have been pretty difficult to recover mathematically, statistically, how do you even go about trying to find new ways to recover kick and what’s that process? (Jeff Neiburg)

Michael Clay: Yeah, just kind of goes to what Jake likes, practicing kicks. We practice it throughout the week. A lot of it’s just chance whether it’s a fortuitous bounce that maybe it hits them and now it turns into a scrum more than anything else. I think this past week I think New Orleans-Miami [game] had one and it was by a sliver of a hair that he got it past the 10-yard mark. I thought Jake hit a good ball right there and you can see that that second bounce is always the bounce you’re looking for because that’s always the one that’s most mysterious and kudos to Chicago and [Bears WR] Rome Odunze right there to get it down right there. But it took the hop that we thought it would off the grass and we were just hoping he misplayed it or hit him and now it turns into a scrum.

Q. How much do you guys miss S Sydney Brown when he’s not fully with the special teams group? (Dave Zangaro)

Michael Clay: In terms of you miss someone, yes, obviously, but that’s nothing we hold ourselves on like hey we’re missing a guy, we can’t play at this level. We got to play at every level we possibly can at the highest. I thought they battled throughout the entirety of the whole thing and the one that got out, we made a little bit of a fundamental mistake on the kickoff of kind of diving inside instead of outside. But when you lose a guy that has that caliber of Sydney, obviously it’s going to be the entirety of the group to rise to that challenge and I thought we did some good things. I think the punt coverage did a really good job and [CB] Kelee’s [Ringo] done a really good job over the last couple of weeks on the outside of Mann, whether it’s in the punt return game or as a gunner, then he made a big tackle for us on kickoff. So it’s just one of those things where again, the greatest sport of all time, it’s not just one player, it’s all 11 in terms of giving us the best chance to win.

Q. How do you think WR Darius Cooper performed playing, filling in for S Sydney Brown on the outside? (Andrew DiCecco)

Michael Clay: Yeah, I thought Darius did a good job, especially against [Chicago Bears WR] Devin Duvernay who back in the day in Baltimore, he was a very dangerous returner but going out there running, keeping it boxed in that return that was going to our left, he did a good job of sending him back, him and [TE] Cam Latu obviously we kind of missed a tackle right there. We would’ve loved to have inside the 20. But he kind of kicked it back into Kelee and it goes back to the team game where you’re able to flip the field position with a 48-yard net. Now they have to go into the wind. Hopefully you’re able to flip the field in that case. But I thought Darius did a good job of having his first real taste of being a four core special teams player and he’s only going to get better the more times he’s going to be out there.

Q. What stands out about the Chargers special teams unit? (Tim McManus)

Michael Clay: They’re a very physical unit, very similar to how [Los Angeles Chargers Head Coach] Coach [Jim] Harbaugh likes his teams. Obviously [saw] firsthand when he was the head coach at Stanford and I was at Oregon, it was always the physical unit, same as now. They have two linebackers in [Los Angeles Chargers LB Marlowe] Wax and [Los Angeles Chargers LB] Del’Shawn Phillips that are doing a really good job. You see [Los Angeles Chargers OLB] Tuli [Tuipulotu] out there, you see [Los Angeles Chargers OLB] Bud Dupree, a guy that was a first-round draft pick almost a decade ago now, playing special teams and going hard right there. It’s a physical unit. I respect what [Los Angeles Chargers Special Teams Coordinator Ryan Ficken] has done as a coordinator there. We have our hands full and obviously they have a dangerous returner in [Los Angeles Chargers WR] Derius Davis who’s had a couple touchdowns, a couple touchdowns called back. He had one this year I think called back. We have to be really good discipline wise in terms of fanning the field right there, getting our lane integrity in tip-top shape and just being as physical as they are.

Q. LB Jihaad Campbell who’s playing defense pretty much the entire game earlier in the season. What is kind of his learning curve as far as playing special teams and what have you seen from him so far? (Martin Frank)

Michael Clay: Yeah, obviously going through it, it’s just the roller coaster of the season for a rookie, but he’s done a good job for us. He got a little bit more involved over this last week playing punt and punt return, but he is done a good job for us. He brings some physicality, brings athleticism obviously to the table, so it’s just the more times he sees it, the more familiar he is, the faster he is going to play and I think he’s going to keep getting better in terms of that. But he sits in those seats right there and it’s great. He’s got a [LB] Smael [Mondon], he’s got [LB] Nakobe [Dean], he could lean on [LB] Zack Baun who played predominantly a lot of special teams early on in his career. Just questions in terms of that, but he is always engaged and wanting to go forward to help this team win in any way he possibly can.

Q. I assume that’s probably something LB Jihaad Campbell didn’t do much of at Alabama? (Martin Frank)

Michael Clay: You always look back and see how much they did play and obviously with [Former Alabama Head Coach] Coach [Nick] Saban, a lot of those guys did play on the special teams units out there, so it’s not foreign to him, but he knows here in the NFL, that third phase is a big priority and he’s done a really good job for us.

Q. In OLB Patrick Johnson’s case, you called him up, but if he can’t be elevated anymore, how’s OLB Josh Uche in that role because it’s a little different than the way you started the season? (Zach Berman)

Michael Clay: The roster fluctuates going up and down. Josh has done a really good job. He’s made some big tackles for us on kickoff coverage, played some good reps for us on punt return, so we’re always going to piece these guys into the spots that they can excel at and I’m not going to ask them to do something that they’re not comfortable with or they’re not going to truly excel at. I’ll find somewhere else to put them in a place where they can.