Raiders Win Also Displays Key Areas of Improvement Needed for Monday Night Triumph

HENDERSON, Nev.—The Las Vegas Raiders (1-0) are turning their attention to a Monday Night showdown at Allegiant Stadium versus their AFC West nemesis, the Los Angeles Chargers (1-0).

Our latest episode of the Las Vegas Raiders Insider Podcast takes a closer look at what the Silver and Black need to improve on following their win in New England, as they prepare for a victory on Monday Night.

You can watch the entire podcast below:

Geno Smith has done a terrific job since arriving in the heat of the desert, and not just on the field, but in the locker room as well. A true leader, and there is no doubt what Pete Carroll sees in him.

After an impressive win in New England this weekend, Smith spoke.

Raiders QB Geno Smith

Congratulations on your first win as a Raider, Geno. You know Pete [Carroll]'s system. You know his compete, compete, compete, but at the end of the first half when they ware ahead and things were not going well, your teammates there was nobody hanging their heads. You could see it. They were just hanging in there. How proud are you of your teammates that they bought in to Pete's compete, compete, compete, compete?

GS: Yeah. I'm extremely proud of the guys. First of all, it's always a blessing to get a win in the NFL. And, yeah, I mean, the Patriots have a good team. It's the NFL. There's going to be ups and downs, ebbs and flows throughout the game, but I think the message that Coach sends us is that you’ve got to stay even keel, and you’ve got to never pass judgment. You’ve got a four-quarter game you’ve got to go play. And so, I thought we did a really good job of coming back in second half, into the locker room regrouping and then executing in the second half.

Q. You've been involved in these East Coast games, and his record is ridiculously good. Why do you think that is?

GS: Yeah. I think Coach has a really great way of going about it. The two-day trips, just all the things that we do, it really works, and you can see it.

And obviously the guys have got to go out there and execute and it's got to be right, but Coach has a style about him. He has a way about him. He understands exactly what he wants, and the message is clear. And so, when we get out here, we know what we're doing. Business trip. We take two-day trip, study, study, study and then get out on the field and get it done.

Q. Geno, it's third-and-20 late in the fourth quarter and you find Dont'e [Thornton Jr.] on that first down throw. What's going through your mind on that play? Was that the play that was called or did it --

GS: Yeah. Obviously in those situations, man, game on the line, I love the ball in my hands. That's what I live for, man. That's what I play this game for. And we were running a lot of plays, a lot of end cuts, and I felt like we could have taken advantage of some things earlier, but I feel like that was the perfect timing for it.

And so Dont'e made a great play, ran a great route. The protection held up. They were in coverage zero. So, we got a chance to take a shot on an aggressive corner, and it worked out for us. And those are the things we can count on from Dont'e and from our O line.

Q. Geno, for you personally as an individual when you have something like that interception early in the game, what goes into maintaining that confidence and sort of moving on to the next round?

GS: I think I say it all the time, I'm me. You know what I'm saying? That's all I think about. I don't think about nothing else. I'm me. I know who I am. I know what I can do. Mistakes happen. Things happen within the game. There was a tipped pass. I made the right read. Could have made a better throw. But those guys made a play on it, and the ball tipped up, guy made a play.

I'm not going to hang my head. I'm going to keep going. I'm me. And Coach tells the story about Rick Barry, and one day I'll get to that with you guys. I just know who I am. I know what I can do on that field, so I never worry.

Q. You had a few moments out there where they were getting after you and you still made those plays. I think the pass where you hit Michael Mayer. What goes into sort of being aware of your surroundings in those moments?

GS: Yeah. Just anticipating the aggressiveness, knowing the situations. And most coordinators are going to be aggressive in those situations. They’ve got to get the ball back, got to find a way to get a stop. So, typically, they're going to be aggressive. They have to.

So, when you're out there, you're playing, you’ve got to make a play. Those are when I think the better players show up is when you’ve got to make the play. Everyone knows the situations. There's no secrets. You’ve just got to go out there and make it happen.

Q. You've been around Brock Bowers at least since March or so. It looks like you guys have been playing for five years out there today. What kind of an asset is Brock Bowers?

GS: Man, Brock is a tremendous asset. He gives us the advantage in personnel because he's just a tremendous player all around.

And so D coordinators, they've got to figure out how they want to guard him, and we've got to adjust to it. And Brock's a great player, but I think all our guys showed up. I thought Jakobi [Meyers] had a great game today. I though Tre [Tucker] had a great game. You see the big plays that Dont'e made.

Tough running by Ashton [Jeanty]. It's hard to do that in a four-minute situation when the whole stadium knows we're running the ball.

But our O-line played well. I thought they gave me a ton of time back there to get through my reads. Chip [Kelly] called a great game. I think it's a collection of all of us having to do those things but having Brock obviously makes my job a lot easier.

Q. Earlier in the game you had already targeted six of your teammates and obviously it was even more than that by the end of the game. In Chip's system how much does it help that if you're on the roster, you're part of the offensive game plan so they have to watch everybody?

GS: Oh, yeah. I mean, that's how we want to play football. We want to make sure that we make the right reads. I want to make sure that I'm making the right decisions and getting the ball into the hands of the play makers.

We got a lot of great players, and that's something we can take advantage of. So, I'm going to spread the ball around, if need be, but I'm going to find the open guy first and foremost.

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