Though the dust has settled on Week 5 and teams are turning their attention to Week 6, there's one play Philadelphia Eagles fans have continued to debate ad nauseam: Nick Sirianni's decision to kick the ball to Jacksonville Jaguars returner Ameer Abdullah with eight seconds left to play.
Yes, the Eagles could have planned out their final drive better, making sure Jake Elliott kicked the go-ahead field goal with only a second or two left on the clock, but allowing the Jaguars to return the ball against a unit down multiple players after they almost hit a home run on the first play of the game was a choice that fans will debate forever.
Discussing that very decision with reporters on Tuesday, special teams coordinator Michael Clay revealed what went wrong on that final kickoff and why the Birds decided to kick it in bounds in the first place.
“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,” Clay explained.
Article Continues Below“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.”
Had the Eagles tackled Ameer Abdullah a few seconds earlier, or a few seconds later, this play wouldn't have really been an issue, but because Philadelphia missed a few tackles and Jonathan Jones wasn't locked in on the game clock before bringing him down, Cam Little had the last laugh, and Michael Clay got plenty of teachable moments for his weekly meetings.