Special Teams Coordinator Thomas McGaughey
Q: How much is (kicker) Graham's (Gano) knee impacting him?
A: I'm not going to get into specifics about his knee. He's just working some things right now and hopefully it can get ironed out and keep rolling.
Q: What makes a less than 100 percent Graham better than another option?
A: You know, Graham's pretty good. And he's better than most even when he's at 80-85 percent, 70 percent. So, again, we are just going to work through it. If it's something that we've got to address later, we'll address it later, but right now he's just working through it.
Q: He tells you he's fine?
A: It has nothing to do with being fine. At this point in time, between kickers, punters, linemen, everybody is banged up a little bit during the course of the year. So, like I said he's just working through some tweaks. We'll figure it out.
Q: I'm not asking as far as like an injury update; I mean more like decisions about when to kick and when to not.
A: Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I think if he goes out on the field, he's got to be capable of doing the job, you know what I mean? It's just one of those deals, you sign up, you put a jersey on, here we go. It's time to go, they call your number, you've got to make the kick. That's part of the job.
Q: When he misses, it does seem to be most of the time left. Is there something you look at and say this is the reason?
A: Yeah, I mean you always go back and look at the tape and figure out why he's been doing X, Y and Z but that's kind of his miss, when he does miss.
Q: Did (Jets EDGE Will) McDonald jumping over the line on that last kick, did that affect anything?
A: It could have, it could have. Even though it was an illegal play, it was, but it very easily could affect the kick. You got a 6'6, 260-pound dude jump in front of you, that could affect the kick.
Q: Anything wrong with the operation on that field goal?
A: No, everything was fine. Obviously, you would like to have everything perfect, but obviously it wasn't, so it is what it is. We missed the kick, just got to move on and make the next one.
Q: What makes it illegal? Because you can do it in some instances, or can you jump over?
A: It's just your alignment. You can't cover the center and he was covering the center.
Q: But you can jump over the linemen it just can't be over the center, is that what you are saying?
A: No, you can't align – for example my shoulders, if you align inside the framework of the center, that's illegal formation, can't do that. So, you have to be completely outside of the framework of the center.
Q: So, it has nothing to do with the leaping?
A: You can jump over the line of scrimmage. Yeah, you can jump. You just can't use anybody to leverage or gain an advantage in height, but you can jump from one side of the line scrimmage and not touch anybody and land on the other side, that's perfectly legal. But if you line up within the framework of the shoulders of the center, it's an illegal formation by the defense.
Q: It's the person who is jumping who can't line up there right? Or you can't have anybody?
A: No one, no one can line up inside the frame of the center.
Q: Yeah, but he was.
A: Say it again?
Q: He was.
A: What do you mean?
Q: He was within the shoulder-to-shoulder box of the center.
A: No, he was inside the box.
Q: That's what I mean.
A: Yeah, he was inside. That's why I said it was illegal.
Q: What did you think of the job (wide receiver) Gunner (Olszewski) did?
A: He did a great job. Gunner did exactly what we thought he would do. He did a good job of fielding the ball in the elements, it was rainy and nasty. Gunner's being Gunner. Went to school at Bemidji State. It gets kind of nasty up there sometimes. I was messing with him last week, I said 'You passed a whole bunch of schools from Alvin, Texas, to go all the way to Bemidji State' but anyway, he did a good job.
Q: Back to that play for a second, though, is that a play you would ordinarily see flagged and it just wasn't?
A: Yeah, it wasn't.
Q: Is your punter tired?
A: You know what, that guy has been punting balls since he was three or four years old. So, I think his legs kind of have an endurance for punting.
Q: How does it change the blocking when you do the rugby punts? Obviously, he's holding the ball for a bit longer, how does that change things protection wise?
A: Obviously, we change our protection with that style of punt. So, it's just a couple different rules, it's nothing difficult. It's something that he feels really comfortable with and he's actually faster doing it that way than he is conventionally. We are just trying to put him in a really good position to be his best and use all of his skillsets and it kind of helps us on coverage, too.
Q: Is (cornerback Stantley) Thomas-Oliver going to play gunner for you?
A: Thomas just got here. He's doing a good job, he's trying to figure it out, but all those guys are working at it right now. We've got a bunch, three or four guys, that are working it. Just depends on how it shakes out on game day.
Q: He's done a lot of that though, right?
A: Yep.
Q: With (Jets punter Thomas) Morstead's punts, I mean you don't field it inside the five, does his punt just die right there?
A: Well, it's wet. And when the field gets wet, the ball is just going to hit and stick. It's not going to roll like it is when it's dry. Thomas had a great game, 15-year veteran punter who has been around. He's punted in this stadium, obviously, for the Jets before and coming back and just being in the business, he's done a great job and handling the elements. He had a hell of a game.
Sure, fella.