Raiders' McDaniels Immediately After Loss to Steelers

LAS VEGAS, Nev.--The Pittsburgh Steelers (2-1) came into Allegiant Stadium with many fans and embarrassed the Las Vegas Raiders (1-2) 23-18.

Immediately after the game, the Raiders' Josh McDaniels stepped to the podium and answered multiple difficult questions from the media about the debacle, full of blunders from staff and players.

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

Raiders Head Coach Josh McDaniels

Q: In that last sequence when you guys had the ball, was there any consideration for going for it on fourth down and what was the thought process?

Coach McDaniels: "Of course. I mean, you have two choices there. You try and make it a five-point game where you have an opportunity to win it with a touchdown if you get the ball back, or you try to go for it there. And then if you happen to convert, then you have to make the two-point conversion and all the rest of it. So, just those are the decisions you have to make. I thought we did a decent job of putting ourselves in third down there the next series with the defense to try to have a play to get off the field and we just didn't handle that play very well."

Q: Was it a lack of confidence?

Coach McDaniels: "No."

Q: Why not? You said you needed five points.

Coach McDaniels: "We would've needed another possession anyway. It's not a lack of confidence. We went for it multiple times."

Q: You're down 16 and over six minutes to go, you're huddling, your team's walking to the line of scrimmage, it didn't seem to be a sense of urgency with the clock at all. So, with that situation, you decide to kick the field goal with one of the most highly paid offenses and your quarterback. Can you talk about that clock management there?

Coach McDaniels: "When the score was what it was, we needed to do the right thing with multiple possessions. Whether we were mixing in the tempo, we were mixing in huddling, trying to still stay with some of the runs in the second half there and in the fourth quarter when they were playing split safety defense and trying to really take away Davante [Adams] and Jakobi [Meyers] and some of the receiver play. And Josh [Jacobs] hit a couple of runs in the fourth quarter. So, we were just trying to do the right thing, trying to be productive as best we could. And like I said, mixing in the tempo as we went."

Q: Jimmy Garoppolo has thrown six interceptions so far this season. Some of them have been plays where it looks like he’s just throwing it away. What's that conversation like?

Coach McDaniels: "Those are plays obviously we don't want to make. Jimmy makes a lot of good plays, but obviously when the quarterback holds the ball, he holds the fortune of our team also in his hands when he's doing those things. He knows, he understands the situation. He had a couple plays where we have to make a smarter choice and just go ahead and go to the next play, whether it's second and long or whatever it may be. This team (Steelers) is a team that historically, they win when they get turnovers, and they have a harder time when they don't. A big key obviously was for us to take care of the ball and we didn't do a good enough job of that tonight."

Q: You mentioned the missed play on that third down late in the game and there was a coverage issue on the touchdown. Maxx Crosby with the unsportsmanlike penalty. What was the frustration with that and just not being able to make those plays?

Coach McDaniels: "I thought the defense hung in there. We haven't played complimentary football really yet. And so, until we start doing that and are able to run the ball offensively … . We got ahead again, but it didn't manifest itself in control of the game. I thought the defense hung in there, made a bunch of stops there to try to keep us within a couple scores, and eventually we punched it in and then it became a one score game. And then we stopped them, and they gave us the ball back. I don't have any issue with the effort or the intentions. The defense, like I said, gave us an opportunity to win the game. There are things we're going to see tomorrow that we're all going to need to fix, but I don't question anything we tried to do defensively."

Q: Josh Jacobs got a little bit going in the second half, but he still seems to be stuck in the starting gates. Can you talk about that?

Coach McDaniels: "Honestly, I think the running game is a function of a lot of people doing their job well. It was last year when he was the rushing champion. A lot of people did their job well, including him. I don't feel like we're quite there yet, obviously. We haven't done a very good job of running the football for three games. And we've had a few moments here and there like you referenced, but we need to do a better job of keeping the line of scrimmage clean and giving him an opportunity to get through the line of scrimmage to the linebackers and into the secondary and the defense. And we haven't done a good enough job with that."

Q: You and Dave Ziegler signed Hunter Renfrow to a big deal, and he's been nonexistent this year. For you guys, how vital is it for your offense to get Hunter involved?

Coach McDaniels: "Yeah, he had a couple of catches tonight, but it's important. We have multiple guys who can do something with the football. We're trying to read the coverage out and then go to the right match-up as best we can. Sometimes that takes us inside, sometimes it does not. Certainly, he's a good player and he's had a lot of production for us in the past and we've got to try to find a way to get all our guys involved in the game."

Q: As the coach of a team with a quote "home field," how discouraging is it to just continue game after game to hear the building ring with cheers of the fans from the opposing team?

Coach McDaniels: "No, I mean, we have great fans and Pittsburgh travels well. So, you deal with what you have to deal with. That is what it is. We've handled that before and we need to handle it again if it comes up."

Q: When you're facing a big decision like that at the end of the game with the field goal, what's the process like? Is that ultimately your call and are you consulting with a bunch of people? And then also, what's the process afterwards? Is it something you look at your in-game decision making any closer?

Coach McDaniels: "Of course. Ultimately those are mine and you confer with some other people and discuss what the options are. Like I said, it doesn't matter what the decision is if we don't execute well. And so, if you choose to kick it there, you have to play defense and I have confidence in our defense. They've been playing well and thought we had an opportunity to get the ball back there with maybe a couple of minutes to go and have a shot to go down there and win it with a touchdown. So, that was the thought process."

Q: How close were you then actually to going for it rather than kicking?

Coach McDaniels: "I don't know. I mean, like I said, we kicked one earlier in that sequence I believe, right. And then they had the leverage penalty, so we'd cut it to five maybe a minute and a half previous. And then we were fortunate enough to get a penalty on that field goal and got down there. I mean, it is what it is, like I said. You can go either way with those, and I did have confidence that we were playing well defensively and had an opportunity to maybe get the ball back with two minutes to go and have an opportunity to go down there and take the lead."

Q: That late touchdown drive that the Steelers had kind of seemed like on most of the plays the receiver was pretty much wide open, including the touchdown itself. What did you see on those drives there that could have led to that?

Coach McDaniels: "I'll have to look at the film. I think they had a couple I'm going to call them scheme plays I guess that they kind of popped somebody free on one of those. I think was that [Pat] Freiermuth on the touchdown. It was just some kind of a naked or something like that. So, it was a good design on their part. Obviously, we have to cover it better than what we did, but I think that's what it was."

The Silver and Black return to the road next week in Inglewood, Calif., to play the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday, Oct. 1, at 4:05 p.m. EDT/1:05 p.m. PDT.

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