Eagles' Michael Clay Reveals Thoughts on Ill-Fated Kickoff in London

The Eagles weren't able to cover a kickoff with 8 seconds left and ended up losing a game they thought they had won.

Eagles special teams coordinator Michael Clay is finally addressing what went wrong overseas in Week 5. | USA TODAY Sports

PHILADELPHIA, P.A. — Leaks were springing up everywhere, and Michael Clay did his best to patch them anyway he could—chewing gum, an index finger, a thumb, personnel changes—yes, the last one.

The Eagles’ special teams coordinator was already without a couple of players on his unit, players who had been ruled out before kickoff against the Jaguars at London’s Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in Week 5. He then lost Jeremiah Trotter, Jr., when he was ejected on the opening kickoff; then Will Shipley and Michael Carter went out with injuries early in the game.

It’s not an excuse. It’s just the reality of the situation. It’s why head coach Nick Sirianni’s decision not to let Jake Elliott kick the ball out of the end zone right after the Eagles took a 17-16 lead with eight seconds left to play was so mystifying.

“You respect anybody that's going out there to jump on the grenade,” Clay said about what it meant to him that Sirianni turned himself into the fall guy. “But it's not just him. 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 take it to heart that I felt like I let people down in this organization that have worked so hard to give us that opportunity to go win that game in London. But 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.

Michael Clay, Eagles STC

Clay was juggling personnel throughout. He was on the sideline just before the ill-fated kickoff that led to the kickoff return that set up the Jags’ walk-off win on a 57-yard field goal by Cam Little.

“You're just trying to move around puzzle pieces,” Clay said. “You try to put personnel in your best spot. I think you saw I moved Kelee (Ringo) from the one to the four to the five, tried to put our best players in certain spots to make some plays. At times it worked out, and in the one spot that it didn't, it burned us, and that's on me as a coach.”

Rare special teams snaps for Jonathan Jones

Jonathan Jones played a lot of special teams during his 11-year career, but not so many special teams snaps since 2022. He was on the final kickoff return, which was just his fourth special teams snap of the game. The cornerback played just three snaps in last week’s loss to the Rams.

Eagles fans haven't seen much of Jonathan Jones on special teams this season. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

So, he may have been one of those break-glass-in-case-of-emergency players Clay ran out there for the final kickoff.

Jones made the tackle, but had to chase Ameer Abdullah from behind to make the play. The irony is that if he had taken one second longer to bring Abdullah to the ground, time would have expired and the Eagles would be 3-2, not 2-3.

That’s a tough ask for any player in that situation, however.

“When you're in the heat of the moment, you're in full trail mode (you’re just thinking), ‘Let me get this guy down,’” Clay said. “I don't think anybody's gonna look up at the clock simultaneously then get the guy down who's running full speed ahead. An extra second off at some point in the game—you're not talking about this—but it would have been a perfect storm to happen.

“You know, they played well for 59 minutes, and the last eight seconds we didn't; we didn't do our job in terms of the kickoff coverage. At times, we got too deep in our coverage, didn't get off blocks, didn't make tackles when we needed to, and that's more on myself than anything else.”

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