Chiefs punt returner Kadarius Toney set a Super Bowl record and set up a fourth-quarter touchdown with a 65-yard punt return, and three months later Eagles special teams coordinator Mike Clay still isn’t over it.
“It’s just one of those things where you see that play on and you know what’s going to happen,” Clay said, via the Kansas City Star. “And it runs through your mind when you’re laying in bed. It just happens that way. It’s unfortunate but looking forward to getting back on the field and trying to wash that away.”
Clay said he won’t just ignore the play and has studied it on film to see what his punt coverage unit could have done better.
“It’s one of those things where you’ve got to look at the film,” Clay said. “You can’t just say, ‘This play never happened.’ It’s one of those things where if you could go back and picture the perfect play, you obviously want to change the script, but you can’t change what happened three, four months ago, and it’s tough, you’ve got to face the man in the mirror and it all starts with me in terms of we’ve got to get that guy down regardless of the situation. Do we want something better to happen? Absolutely. If something does happen better, does it change the outcome of the game? Who knows? But it’s one of those things where in that heat of the moment, a football player made a play where we could have at least stopped him or minimized the gain but didn’t. . . . You kind of face the reality of it, and you live with it. I’m always going to live with that. With coaches, you don’t remember the good plays, you always remember the bad plays.”
Toney’s return was a play both teams will remember for a long time.