PODCAST: Complete Recap of Raiders vs. Broncos

DENVER, Colo.--The Las Vegas Raiders opened the 2023 NFL fegular season here tonight at Empower Field at Mile High Stadium by taking out their AFC West rival the Denver Broncos.

Here is our complete recap podcast to let you know what I thought and saw and plenty of information from the game.

You can watch the entire podcast below:

On getting the win

“I am just proud of our team. Coming in on the road in the division right off the bat," Coach Josh McDaniels said. "We talked about this all week; it is not going to be perfect. That was not a masterpiece out there. I liked our mental toughness and I liked how we handled adversity. We had some things that we have to clean up and we want to fix and make better. The fight of our team was great. I thought we hung together. I thought our leadership was great on the sideline. I thought we were determined to play our best football at the end of the game. That is what you have to do in these types of environments and these types of games on the road. If you cannot do that, you are going to lose a lot of close games. I am really proud of the way they responded. We only had to make one more play than they did, and that is what we did."

On second half defense

“I thought [Defensive Coordinator] Pat [Graham] and his staff did a great job at halftime," McDaniels said. "I thought the players did a really good job of executing. They dinked and dunked us really good. [Broncos QB] Russell [Wilson] was really efficient. We let him out of the pocket too many times in the first half, but he was very efficient in the passing game. They kind of got a running game going there. We tightened it down a little bit and tried to get on them so there were not as many simple completions. We tried to make them work for everything that they got. We tried not to give up big plays which I do not think we did a whole lot today. We made them have to convert third downs in the scoring zone. I thought the defense played better as the day went on.”

On referee communication after QB Jimmy Garopplo got hit

“He told me what happened, but I did not get into that conversation,” McDaniels said.

On offensive line rotation

“[T] Thayer [Munford Jr.] played quite a bit today whether it be as a jumbo tight end or a tackle," McDaniels said. "There are certain things we are going to have to do better. I did like the way we stood in there and pass protected. We fell behind 16-10 there and went right down the field and were able to capitalize on some good plays in the passing game. The protection was good. I even thought the protection was really good on plays where [QB] Jimmy [Garoppolo] scrambled and made a few first down with his legs too. We have a bunch of fighters up there. They are connected as a unit and a group. I like the way they play. We are going to see this film and learn a lot from it. That was a good defense. I am just telling you right now that is a good football team with a good defense. They are well coached. Our guys fought hard all day. They have a good front. It was tough.”

On quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo

“That is [QB] Jimmy [Garoppolo]," McDaniels said. "He has great mental toughness. He is a competitor. You have to have a short memory if you are going to play quarterback in this league and win games in the fourth quarter. There is just no other way around it. We do not lose our poise on the sideline as a coaching staff. We did not as a group. He was probably trying to make something that was not quite there. We would love to take the three points and tie the game at that point. But the game was not over. Far from it. We have to go out the next time, take us down the field and put some points on the board again. I thought he was really good in the drive to close the game out with five and a half left. I love his grit. I love his toughness, scrambling for the first down and then making the smart play to slide in bounds. It was a good situational play there. There are some things to clean up like we talked about, but I am proud of the way we played.”

On learning from the game

“I could have told you what the speech tomorrow was going to be regardless of the outcome," McDaniels said. "Here are some things we did OK, some things we did well and then the load of things that we are going to have to clean up and we have to do better. Now we have tape. Now you have a full game. This football team had not played a full game together ever. Every team in the National Football League will be in the same boat after tomorrow night. We will have played one game and will have learned a lot from it. We will all have a lot of progress that hopefully we can make through hard work.”

On wide receiver Jakobi Meyers

“He is a football player," McDaniels said. "He is tough. He does a lot of dirty work. He blocks in our running game. He can go inside and make plays inside. He has good size and can make some things happen on third down or the red zone. That is why he is here. Dave [Ziegler] was able to get that taken care of so we could have a guy on the other side of [WR] Davante [Adams] in two receiver sets that does some of those things the way he does them. He always comes up big in big games. Today was no different.”

On wide receiver Jakobi Meyers status

“I do not. I have not talked to any of the doctors yet.”

On Meyers’ two touchdowns

“The first one was [QB] Jimmy [Garoppolo] and him (Jakobi Meyers) communicating at the line of scrimmage," McDaniels said. "It was a fade. I think it was [Broncos CB Damarri] Mathis if I am not mistaken. He was kind of tight on him. But Jakobi has incredible hands. He has good size and length. Jimmy put it in a great spot and Jakobi went up, got it and shielded it with his body. The second one was just a slant. I thought Jimmy read it good. It was going to be a bang-bang play because I thought [Broncos S Justin] Simmons was right there. I thought Jakobi did a good job of flattening his route down and really being able to give him the only shot to complete that ball. Jimmy put it right on the money.”

On what quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo said about the interception he threw

“He acknowledged that at the end of the day, hindsight is 20/20," McDaniels said. "He would have rather done something different with the football. We’ll learn from that hopefully and get better because of it.”

On how Garoppolo’s leadership has affected the team

“He’s a good leader," McDaniels said. "He’s won a lot of games in this league. The guys in the locker room know who they have and what this guy can do -- how competitive he is. He’s a very good leader -- a great communicator. He does what it takes to win. He doesn’t care about his statistics or anything like that. Just ‘Whatever I have to do in my position to try to help the team win, I’m going to try and do it’. Again, super happy that he’s a Raider.”

On what he would like to clean up for next week

“I don’t know," McDaniels said. "I thought some of the penalties -- we could avoid that. I didn’t think we were as productive in the running game as I wished we were. We’re going to have to do better than what we did today in the running game. There are so many things. That mistake on the punt rush. Turnover in the red zone. Defensively, we allowed the quarterback to be too efficient in the first half. We lost contain in the pass rush. I’m just rattling off six or eight things right now that are on my head but I’m sure we’re going to find more than fifteen on the plane ride home.”

On running back Josh Jacobs workload and the other running backs’ performance

“I thought those guys went in there and did a few things," McDaniels said. "It was a very strange game. Very strange. Seven total possessions and five in the first three quarters. It was very strange -- a lot of long drives and there weren’t a lot of quick changes back and forth. I thought that alone kept the playtime down in the first half. I think we had 12 runs and 12 passes at halftime and then play it from there as you will. The play count never really got that high. [Josh Jacobs] was ready to go and we’ll only get better.”

On how proud he is of the team

“I’m really proud," McDaniels said. "I thought a lot of guys stepped up today. Like you said, it wasn't pretty, and it wasn't perfect by any means but it’s a divisional game. We know it's going to be tough, and the guys just stuck with it for 60 minutes. We knew it was going to be one of those games. It was cool.”

On getting looked at after a big hit

“I was pretty upset just because we were driving," Garoppolo said. "We were off to a good start, and I didn't feel like I needed to come out, but that's an NFL rule so it is what it is I guess.”

On the run that ended the game

“It was awesome, just everything came together," McDaniels said. "I thought guys really stepped up in those big moments today. Jakobi [Meyers] making a huge first down for us, getting the penalty, the O-line blocked great today. It was all of those little things coming together.”

On his chemistry with wide receiver Jakobi Meyers

“Jakobi has been very consistent, honestly," McDaniels said. "He's the same guy every day, comes out, puts in the work, and as a quarterback when you have guy like that, it makes it easy, you can trust them. But I thought a lot of guys stepped up. [WR] Davante [Adams] had some big plays for us, really got that touchdown drive at the end started for us, deep out route, so it was a lot of people stepped up in different ways. ‘Hoop’ (TE Austin Hooper) had a big catch on that drive, I mean, Josh Jacobs blocked his ass off. It was a lot of good stuff today.”

On recovering from his interception

“Terrible, stupid decision," Garoppolo said. "Just got to take the points there and throw it away when nothing's there, but I thought the mental toughness kicked in and guys stuck with it. They believed in me, so I appreciate them.”

On how his decision to run changed throughout the game and his discussion with the offensive line

“I talked to them all game," Garoppolo said. "Those guys did a great job. They kept me clean, no sacks, and that’s a quarterback’s dream, so those guys balled out. The running kind of just happened. I didn’t plan for it. They rushed past game, the opportunities there so I saw the first mark, had to go get it.”

On watching his defense play

“The defense was awesome," Garoppolo said. "That's good offense with Coach [Sean] Payton over there, so tough schemed to go against but they stepped up, they made some big plays, D-line had some cool sacks. That’s the team part of this game that I love, everyone coming together, pulling the same dirt, you can feel on the sidelines in the fourth quarter, it was good stuff.”

On connecting a touchdown pass to new teammate Meyers

“It was pretty satisfying, not going to lie," Garoppolo said. "We've been working on that one, got the look we wanted, and we were both on the same page, so we just made it work. He made a hell of a catch, a hell of a route, he had a good celebration I heard. I haven't seen it yet.”

On admitting to his mistakes

“I think that's what makes good teammates, when you could all admit when who was in the wrong and just be real with each other," Garoppolo said. "It takes you a long way because we spend so much time with each other. Seventeen games we're here all the time with each other so whenever you keep that relationship like that, it's always a good thing.”

On how it feels when your team is cheering for you

“It means a lot," Garoppolo said. "I mean, that's what makes for a good team. I’ve been on some good teams and every one of them has had that. We're just getting started here, but you could feel we're off to a good start, 1-0 feels good, but we’ll regroup this week, lick our wounds, and we're moving on to Buffalo.”

On getting over the hump of losing close games

“It's been a big emphasis," McDaniels said. "Even when you get up, you’ve got to step on their throat type of mindset, today a little different falling behind but guys stuck together. That was a big part of it and if we keep doing that, we'll be in a good spot.”

On his familiarity with Broncos Defensive Coordinator Vance Joseph’s defense

“There was some familiarity," McDaniels said. "I haven't gone against him in Arizona and things like that, but he's a good coordinator. He keeps it moving, keeps you guessing, keeps you on your toes, so that's a good defensive unit right there. It wasn't easy for us today, but we found a way.”

On feeling energized after getting hit and rallying his team

“It's just football, the hits are going to happen, you’ve just got to roll with them and keep it moving," Garoppolo said. "As far as the energy, I thought we had some energy on the sideline, guys were feeling it, pulling for each other and always makes for a good day.”

On stepping up in the second half

“It’s a testament to all the guys in this locker room," Garoppolo said. "We’ve been doing it all OTAs and all camp. We have to go out there and show the world that we’re improving, and we still have a lot of room to grow, myself and everybody included. We’ve got to get better. I think we’re off to a good start. Like you said in the second half, we allowed just three points. So, we just have to keep improving. We have the guys communicating at all three levels and you see it on the field, so it’s an exciting start.”

On if he noticed the leadership on the sidelines not panicking

“100 percent," McDaniels said. "We stayed calm. We did a great job the whole first half, I feel like defensively. We let them leak out of the pocket, they made a couple of plays, but we went in, 13-10. We didn’t panic; we didn’t start freaking out. I was like: ‘OK, we know what we need to do. We just need to stay calm, keep doing our job, and beat the man in front of us.’ I feel like we did that majority of the game.”

On QB Jimmy Garoppolo’s toughness

“100 percent," McDaniels said. "We see it every single day and he’s a dog. In the big moments, he stepped up. Goes vice versa, the defense when we needed this, we stepped up. So that’s how you win football games. It has to be complimentary football, we all have to believe in the guy next to us. Like I said [QB] Jimmy [Garoppolo] is a dog. Super excited to have him as my quarterback.”

On adjustments made to slow down Broncos QB Russell Wilson

“I feel like we just calmed down," McDaniels said. "I feel like there were self-inflicted wounds in the first half. Just trying to do too much. We just slowed the game down, just focused on our job and we found a way to get a win. It was super exciting.”

On winning and building from it

“I feel like we needed that, you know what I’m saying?" McDaniels said "We needed a game like this game to get us, to throw us in that water, see how we react. You know what I’m saying? We swam, you know what I’m saying? And that felt bro. However you win is a win.”

On being a physical player

“I’m a dog bro, you know what I’m saying? Wherever the ball is -- I’m getting to the ball. What happens, happens. You saw what happened.”

On QB Jimmy Garoppolo’s chemistry with the offense

“Definitely the chemistry. I mean just the way he makes his reads, just the way he plays the game, it’s him man. He’s very poised. He commands the huddle every time, and the moment is never too big. He definitely has my respect.”

On what the offense said to each other after the interception at the end of the third quarter

“I think we had almost 10 penalties for like, what, 97 yards or something? Something like that. So we were fighting through adversity the whole time. We were saying we are playing this bad, but we are still in the game. So that’s a testament to who we are and that adversity. The guys were willing to put in the work. So that’s all we were just trying to come home and finish. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter if we win by one or win by two—it’s a win.”

On what might change with the running game next week to improve

“We have a lot of runs that were really close," Jacobs said. "It’s the small details. Not only that -- I have to admit I have to knock the rust off, too. There were a few plays where I tripped up a bit, plays that I knew I could have made or reads that I was a little late on. [That’s] just going to come with me working at practice and trying to get that back.”

On finding a way to win

“I love my brothers. We really stuck together tonight and all that hard work in the offseason has shown to payoff so we’re just going to keep going step by step here.”

On not giving up

“Yeah, every time I looked at my teammates, I saw a fire and a passion and willingness to win. So as long as we stick together and keep trusting ourselves good things are going to happen.”

On the fourth quarter performance

“That’s our job. We go out there every time on the field expecting to get off without letting up points. So it’s our job to find a way no matter what circumstance we’re in.”

The Silver and Black open the regular season at the Denver Broncos on Sunday, Sept. 10, at 4:25 p.m. EDT/1:25 p.m. PDT.

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