**Special teams coordinator Michael Clay: Improving the return game on tap**
Michael Clay has full confidence in his kickoff and punt return teams. Six games have provided a snapshot similar to the entire team: Some good moments and some not as good. The goal is to be a whole lot better on Sunday and in the weeks to follow.
On kickoffs, a clean catch has been one of the areas to work on. Clay says the actual basics are what need to improve there.
"I think just a little bit just has to do with just our catch mechanics," he said. "If the ball falls on your side you don't have that opportunity to use more of your body surface and I think that's, as we look at it, been our biggest issue, is just corralling the ball, whether that's the L.A. Rams game or last Thursday against the Giants, when we don't corral the ball, that gives us issues and it puts the team in a terrible situation with field position with the offense and that falls on me more than anything else. But we've proven that when we do have an opportunity to catch it correctly, get going north and south, we have some opportunities to get it past the 30, the Tampa Bay game, Denver game. We've gotten past there.
"So for us it's really honing back in and let's do the elementary things correctly first before getting downhill in terms of our returns. So a lot of it's just our catch mechanics and that's the great thing about the NFL. The first six weeks weren't up to our standard in terms of kickoff return and helping the team, but there's 11 more weeks left to mend that and it's going to start tomorrow in practice, and we don't want to try and take the big chunk on the first time. It's all about the steps to mend those things."