Jake Elliott had a weird game on Sunday in the snow.
He made three field goals — from 44, 23 and 37 yards — but missed two extra-points in a game that ended up being really close.
The second missed extra point happened late in the game after snow had been falling heavily but the first happened early in the game before the conditions got bad.
What happened?
“Yeah, the first one he was way too fast with it,” special teams coordinator Michael Clay said. “You know, for myself, to get these guys put in more game-like situation. Those two that he missed were all sudden change. Big plays, so you don’t get that same type of methodic drive where you’re going through your same process.
“It’s more just understanding for them like, you do see No. 26 (Saquon Barkley) back there. He could take it 80 yards in the blink of an eye. We just got to make sure we stay true to our process and not speed up with the adrenaline of the game. So nothing overbearing that I saw from him. Just got too quick on it. He pulled left.”
In fact, Elliott pulled both of his misses wide left, which has become a bit of a theme in his misses this season.
Despite missing those two PATs, Elliott nailed all three of his field goals and is now 22-for-22 on field goals in his postseason career. But he’s 25-for-30 on PATs in the playoffs.
His biggest make of the day was a 44-yarder late in the third quarter to break a 13-13 tie.
“Yeah, everyone saw the conditions right there — 44 yards in those conditions is extremely tough,” Clay said. “Again, comes back to his mindset. You know, whenever our numbers are called, try to the best of our abilities to put points on the board, and he did.”
“He hit a good ball. Started to leak a little bit to the right but it was a true ball. Any way we can get points on the board, and you saw those three field goals really came down and helped us out in the end of it.”
Elliott, who turned 30 on Tuesday, has had a great Eagles career. And he has been huge in both of the Eagles’ recent Super Bowl runs. But this has been a rough year for the former Pro Bowler.
During the regular season, Elliott made just 28 of 36 field goal attempts and was 1-for-7 from 50+. But even after an up-and-down game on Sunday, Clay said there’s still no concern about Elliott’s confidence.
“Yeah, I don’t think Jake really dwells on it,” Clay said. “That’s the great thing. Very fortunate to have. He’s the kind of guy that almost (has) like a golfer’s mindset. You will hit a bad shot here as a golfer, but how do you bounce back from it? It really showed when he missed that first extra point. He bounced back with some good kickoffs and those three field goals to help us put some points on the board. His mental is so strong. I’m never too worried about him. He’ll flush it after the first one.”