Raiders' Josh McDaniels Post Win Over Green Bay

It wasn't pretty, but who cares! The Las Vegas Raiders (2-3) took out the Green Bay Packers (2-3)n 17-13, and we have all Coach Josh McDaniels' post-game comments for you.

You can watch the entire press conference below and read the transcript:

Raiders Head Coach Josh McDaniels Opening statement:

"It qwaa good to come in here after winning. It's a good football team over there that's well coached, they have a lot of good players and I really give our guys a lot of credit for hanging in there and just grinding it out. It was that kind of game for the whole entire four quarters. Nothing was easy. And I thought that our punter punted really well tonight and changed field positions and that kind of eventually made a difference. Obviously the three takeaways on defense. We were hoping we'd get a couple and they come in waves, so those always make life a little easier. So, plenty to work off of, but very proud of our group and happy to be 2-3."

Q: I want to take you to the goal-line stand after the long pass and the penalty at the three-yard line. Kind of the key to the game right there that you guys held them to a field goal and not a touchdown?

Coach McDaniels: "Yeah, I talked to [cornerback] Marcus [Peters]. It's the right penalty. That's a really smart play in a critical time in the game. If it's the first quarter in the middle of the field, you don't want to horse collar. But if you're saving a touchdown on a long play like that, you at least give yourself a chance to play a few more downs, which he did. And then the defense really rose up and played well. I thought they played well for the most part."

Q: Can you talk about the interception by [cornerback] Amik Robertson to end the game?

Coach McDaniels: "Yeah, I mean, Amik [Robertson] -- the ball finds Amik, or Amik finds the ball, one or the other. But he's such a tough, scrappy guy and plays multiple positions for us every single week. Ready to go at star inside, corner outside, plays on all the kicking units, plays gunner. He's in the right situation and right position at the right time, and then he makes a great play and ends the game for us. So, just really, really happy for Amik."

Q: It's a broken record talking about [defensive end] Maxx Crosby and the effort he gives on every play. What did you see in Maxx today as far as leading the team the whole way?

Coach McDaniels: "Consistency. Maxx [Crosby] does it every day with his effort, his work, how much he cares about every little detail relative to the football team, his teammates, his body, practice. And then he gives it everything he has, every single time he's out there. And he never comes off the field, as you know. So, tremendous leadership. I thought we had tremendous leadership from our captains all week long. JJ [Josh Jacobs] was tremendous, [safety Marcus] Epps was great, [linebacker Robert] Spillane with two big plays today with the interceptions and then Maxx just creating problems, tackles for losses, sacks and pressures all game. So, not only did they do it with their work during the week, but I thought they did it on the field tonight, which was really important."

Q: Your defense is resilient, and they just continue to scrap all year. Would you talk about that blue collar mentality of that side of the ball?

Coach McDaniels: "I think I've said it, but we've been playing better and better as the season has worn on, and sometimes that happens where one side of the ball is kind of playing well enough to win and the other side has got to kind of catch up. I think that's kind of where we've been. But our defense, I mean, at every level, we have guys who are playing their butts off. Great effort, incredible fight, good communication. We gave up the one big play, which we tried not to, but I thought they tackled and ran to the ball well. And that guy's a load to tackle, so we knew we needed to get bodies to him and try to stop him from just pushing the pile for six or seven yards. So, I thought they stood up and fought all night long. I'm really proud of our defense. They are making progress every week. It's a low scoring game and sometimes you might get frustrated or what have you, but they don't. They just go out and play, and I think that's a mark of a team that's got great leadership on defense."

Q: Did you sense [running back] Josh Jacobs was ready to break out and play like himself tonight?

Coach McDaniels: "I don't even know what the statistics are, but I mean, I don't think we rushed for 200 yards tonight. But I thought JJ [Josh Jacobs] is ready every day and he's got a great attitude and mindset, whether it's catching the ball out of the backfield which he made a couple other big catches today and running hard every quarter of the game trying to run the clock out there at the end just making hard yards and the blitz pick up. I've said this since I've met the kid, love the player, love the kid, and he does everything he can to help us win every single time out."

Q: We've talked a lot over the last few weeks about complimentary football. Are we edging closer to that with what you saw tonight?

Coach McDaniels: "Yeah, we're getting closer. It's an imperfect game, I wish we would have maybe capitalized on a couple of things that we had opportunities to capitalize on. But give them credit, that's a good team, they've been in a lot of close games, too. This is the way they play, it's the way we're playing right now. But I thought there were some definite big stretches for us of complimentary football. I mentioned [punter] AJ [Cole] earlier, I mean, we pinned them inside the 17-yard line I think four or five times today. That's good complimentary football and puts the defense on a long field. The defense did a good job there, and then created three turnovers which always is helpful. The offense, again, we had some really critical drives, critical plays that helped us win the game. So, I thought all three phases contributed. We've got to keep working, trying to find that perfect game, which is hard to do."

Q: Late in the first half you guys stopped them on third down. Did you think about taking a timeout?

Coach McDaniels: “I did. I thought we still were able to have either a minute or so and then be able to use the two timeouts. There's a lot of things going through your head there. If you get it back with too much time, and then you kind of leave time on the clock if you don't do exactly what you want to do. But I thought that our guys handled that situation the right way, and we used two timeouts after a big chunk play and at least gave ourselves an opportunity to score there and then get the ball back to start the third quarter. So, I did consider it, but I thought having the two timeouts was also going to be valuable for us. And if for some reason we didn't do what we wanted to do we would give them a lot less time if the ball ended up changing hands."

Q: Football is a game of emotion and when a team is struggling to get on track, how big can a win be just for a change of mental attitude?

Coach McDaniels: "I don't think it changes anything in our locker room. You want them to be rewarded for the work that they're putting in, and that's daily. So, I see it every day, they see it every day, our coaching staff does the same thing. I'm happy for our guys, happy for our team, our organization, and we've been working hard and sometimes you don't get the results you want right away. But it's a long season and we have a lot of games left, and the fight of our team, I mean, you've seen it in every game. It hasn't been perfect, and we fell behind some and had to scrap and claw, but we keep pressing on and playing hard, and I think that's the most important ingredient I take away here is the way that we play and compete. And when you do that, you're going to give yourself a chance, and then when you start to make progress and do some things better that you're not necessarily doing well at the moment, then all of a sudden the product becomes a lot more palatable."

The Silver and Black will stay home at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas next week to play the New England Patriots on Sunday, Oct. 15, at 4:05 p.m. EDT/1:05 p.m. PDT.

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