THE MODERATOR: Questions.
MICHAEL CLAY: Morning, everyone. Any Penn State alums (smiling)? Hate to see it.
Q. Michael, how big an impact did Braden have on that game?
MICHAEL CLAY: It was outstanding. Braden did an unbelievable job. I know everyone kind of see five of six punt inside the 20, saw the one that got down at the one with Sydney, down at the four with Kelee. He did an unbelievable job.
You look at everything, he's just kind of a quiet year. He's been doing an amazing job for us when it comes to putting the ball in a place where we can cover, down the ball, help the team when we can.
One of those games that turned into a field position game, sparked a little bit with that defense with the three-and-out right there. The punt, the offense obviously scored on a short field. It was fantastic out of Braden to kind of give a little spark offer the special teams.
Q. Nick talked up Braden's ability to field those punts. How is that taught?
MICHAEL CLAY: Yeah, a lot of it just comes with natural feel. These punters are getting good hitting different type of balls, different flights and everything of that nature.
Having Covey, Coop, another testament to Braden. When we get our punts in, he's able to hit some of these weird balls from around the league. Kind of hones everybody in that we have to be on our Ps and Qs when it comes to fielding the ball.
I know the stat book may not seem like it's a huge return, but I know Coach Sirianni was talking about how many yards were possibly saved on the ball. When the field is slick like that and the ball can roll from 10 to 15 yards, put you in a bad spot, Braden coming up to make some plays.
There's one on the sideline where he got four yards, turned into a net of 39. You're feeling really good about that. The one that dove on him at the last 42 years, he caught it, you never know what that is going to happen. That ball could roll 15 extra yards, and now you're inside the 10. He gets a 10-yard return, turns that to a net of 32.
I think Covey doing an outstanding job, same with Coop when he has been in there of just fielding the ball, saving us some yards.
Q. The entire body of work from that day. Strange day.
MICHAEL CLAY: I think that encompasses special teams in a whole. I'm not very pleased with you get three straight penalties on punt, regardless if you agree with the call or not. Especially, I mean, the one that Kelee hit the guy, yeah, that's definitely a penalty. We can't have that happen. That would have been six for six for Braden inside the 20 right there.
I think it's also a testament to the guys to kind of put those bad plays behind them and excel in crucial moments. Kelee came back and had a forced fumble on a 51-yard punt for four yards. We almost got that one. Then Rick being able to come back, protect. Things of that nature.
It's almost like a roller coaster. We don't want those roller coasters. That's just life in general. Sometimes bad things happen. How do you respond to it? I thought the guys responded very well to it, kind of brought some energy back into the team.
Q. You watch every plus-50 punt from the NFL and college every week. What do you gain from that?
MICHAEL CLAY: A lot of it is technique-wise seeing from around the league. It's a lot of coaching stuff for our gunners, for our interior, our returners especially. Putting them in that situation, I do a lot of it on Saturday showing them what I see around the league.
These guys love seeing their peers, what's happening around the league and everything. It gets them more honed in, locked into what can happen, what we want, what we don't want, things of that nature.
One, you're just learning football, which is great in this profession. You just get to watch football, which is awesome. It's also a teaching moment for a lot of these guys.
For the most part they're pretty locked in on it. You get the oohs and aahs of good, bad, indifferent. It's nice to see from around the league what's happening.
Q. The way that Sydney and Kelee have embraced the role of gunners, how important they've been in your punter coverage.
MICHAEL CLAY: One, it starts with the protection. We can't cover anything unless the ball has been punted, obviously. Having those guys, their mindset has changed, especially Kelee from last year watching Sydney and Josh Jobe to now taking the reins.
Sydney wasn't able to be out there the first few games of the season. Going out there and still playing at a high level. You just see the confidence kind of ooze out of him and Sydney to go out there and say, All right, it's one on one, let's make a play there. Whether it's a fair catch or making a play, getting the ball out.
The confidence out of those two guys has been outstanding. A lot of behind the scenes goes to Tyler Brown giving them all the tools to get these guys to succeed.
Then the veteran guys, some guys that you don't see, whether that's Parry Nickerson, Avonte Maddox that have played in the league for a while pushing these young cats to be the best they possibly can. I think it's shown a lot, and those two have been doing a really good job in tandem.
Q. Oren Burks bring to teams?
MICHAEL CLAY: Oren, he brings that kind of old-school mindset. Seen a lot of ball, just how smart he is. You see Trotter making some plays out there, taking him under the wing. He's still playing at a high level for us.
Having a guy like that, you can move him multiple different spots without feeling anxious or worried about that. So Oren brings that older veteran knowledge, seeing a lot of ball, playing in some big games, bouncing ideas off of him, Zach. Just to see for these young guys what we expect on special teams and what you can expect on special teams.
Q. (Question about Ben.)
MICHAEL CLAY: It's hard to replace a guy like Ben. One, his tenacity, physicality, athleticism. You always feel bad for a guy you lose due to injury. You kind of take a step back both as a coach perspective and player perspective that it could go away just like that.
In terms of replacing, I think that's the beauty of special teams. You got to not just coach the guys that may be up on game day, but everyone else to get them ready.
I thought two guys did an unbelievable job being on short notice. Parris Campbell, played a lot of offense, but he was out there on special teams. Then Ochaun Mathis. You never know when you're number's going to get called. He was ready to fill a void in that situation. Same with C.J. Uzomah going out there.
It takes a village to get us right. I think all these guys are locked in from Wednesday all the way up to game day. They played at a high level. We just got to keep repping it, keep getting everybody ready because you never know when your number's called.
Q. The physicality on all these units has stood out. What perspective can you give on what sort of goes into the team adapting that collective mindset?
MICHAEL CLAY: All starts with Coach Sirianni, what he preaches, everything about physicality. Then it goes into the practice field. On Wednesday we have that tackle circuit. Our punt drive, we have pads on.
The physicality, it has to become second nature for us because I think a lot of the times for football, the essence of football gets lost. It's a physical sport. You got to be able to have pads, got to be able to hit, tackle to be good at it.
I think our Wednesday practices, the intensity is fantastic. Not just from Coach Sirianni but all the coaches. It takes all of us to get these drills ready, bring the energy for them.
For us, from a coaching standpoint, from my standpoint you're only going to get the energy out of the players unless you bring the energy. You want to see six minutes of a coach getting beat up during a tackle circuit, I'll put the pad on, see if I can give them the best look I possibly can.
The players bring it. It shows on Sunday, Monday, Thursday, whenever we play. I think it's cool, the trickle-down effect from Wednesday all the way up to Sunday on game day.
Q. A couple weeks since the Commanders game, Jake Elliott's game. What did you see from him that allowed him to rebound over the last couple weeks?
MICHAEL CLAY: Jake just being the Jake he's been since I've been here for the past four years. Like I said, maybe it's just chalk it up to it's not your night.
He goes in, he's so disciplined on what his technique is, his process and everything of that nature. Going out there and just taking a step back, taking a breath, going out there understanding that he is a very, very good kicker in this league.
It's cool to see. He gets all the love in the world from the guys in this room, having his back and everything. For Jake, it's always nice to go back out there, put the cleats on, kick balls around. Hopefully we keep that up for him. Just staying the course, staying with this process.
Q. To see Justin Tucker have a rough game, a rough season, does that give you an appreciation of how Jake has been able to recover?
MICHAEL CLAY: Yeah, I mean, you always want to respect and appreciate everyone. We have obviously ties to Baltimore with Randy and Tyler. You never want to see a guy fail in that situation.
Within the game, obviously there's no rules in love and war, everything of that nature. I'm not saying that football is war. But it's always hard to see a peer go through that. It's also a testament to Jake being able to come back and be on the right track.
For us, we only have to worry about who we have in our building, be able to fix our issues, whether you want to call it an issue or not, a speed bump.
To go back to it, being able to stay the course, put your head down, be able to work out those little kinks you may feel. Talk about it with Tyler, Braden, Rick, have the whole core talk about what we need to get better after. The last couple weeks we've been able to do that.
He's been having some great foot-to-ball contact. Tomorrow, same thing. You never know when this game is going to come down to a last-second field goal or a huge field goal to put up a couple possession.
Q. How do you differentiate between a bad night and cause for concern?
MICHAEL CLAY: I think a lot of it, I kind of touched on it, all these kicks that Jake did miss, those three, they were in the same spot. Just wasn't his night at that point. You come back, be able to look the whole thing in the mirror and say, I can change this, whether it's the aim point, little technique thing, things of that nature.
Again, no different than seeing the ball go through the hoop as a basketball player. You start seeing it go through the uprights, your confidence builds. You feel great about it.
It also helps when the offense is moving the ball down the field. It gives you a shorter kick. Now you feel a little bit more confident going into it than you have to hit a longer kick.
Again, whenever our numbers are called, we expect nothing but putting points on the board. Have that same mindset.
Q. The holding penalty, looked like the Ravens brought pressure up the middle. Do you think maybe if Rick doesn't hold in that situation, maybe disaster strikes at that point?
MICHAEL CLAY: Yeah, you always want to say, I guess, most special teams coordinators would say you rather hold than have a blocked punt, rekick it. Just a little thing technique-wise for Rick.
He was in the right spot. Just get his feet a little bit quicker right there, push him a little bit wider to get away from the block point.
Again, we never want to have penalties out there. We want to make sure we're disciplined, get our blocks right. It is always tough for long snapper. He has his head between his legs, and he has to snap it and get back.
We can do a better job helping him out, whether it is the guards helping him out or him getting his feet back. Again, we don't want any more of those penalties going forward.
Q. When you mentioned Braden kicking those weird punts, is that scouted week to week?
MICHAEL CLAY: Yeah, I mean, you watch all the film, especially coming up this week with Johnny Hekker. He also brought the banana ball back when he was in L.A., everything of that nature. To scout it out and give these guys different looks so they're able to feel comfortable going forward, whether that is Britain, Ainias, Jahan, Coop. The more reps they get, the more comfortable they're going to get seeing these different ball flights.
Tomorrow they will get a few of those. Thursday, they'll get some more. Again, it's all week to week. At times there's a lefty punter, you have to bring one in to make them see the spin.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports