Raiders' McDaniels Monday Press Conference

TAMPA, Fla.--After a disappointing 23-18 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers (2-1), Josh McDaniels of the Las Vegas Raiders (1-2) stepped to the podium to address the media.

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

Head Coach Josh McDaniels' opening statement: "Alright, so like we talked about after the game, the guys fought hard and competed the entire time. We've got to find a way to play better football earlier in the game, play it throughout, get control of the game. We've gotten the lead in all three games, but yet seemingly haven't necessarily played the game that way for the entirety of the 60 minutes. I thought there were some really good things defensively. I thought we did some things to disrupt them and create some negative situations, which was a point of emphasis. I thought they really hung in there and gave us an opportunity to keep trying to get back into it. But ultimately, we didn't run the ball very well and turned the ball over against them -- that's always a bad formula. So, we've got a lot of things we have to clean up and fix, and that's what we're working on today."

Q: Davante Adams expressed an urgency about no longer having time to talk about it but actually be about it, and how he's not really in the mood to be waiting around for that thing to happen. Do you share that sentiment?

Coach McDaniels: "I mean at some point you want to have it instead of be learning it. I think we're all trying to compete and win. I know where he's coming from, and I think we have a lot of guys who are coming from that same perspective. And it's frustrating when you put a lot into it and you don't get the results you're looking for. So, I understand exactly where he's coming from."

Q: Jimmy Garoppolo was being evaluated for a concussion?

Coach McDaniels: "Yes, he's in the protocol."

Q: Was there any concern in the fourth quarter about his situation?

Coach McDaniels: “There was nothing ever mentioned or talked about relative to that. I'm not even sure when, what hit, or if it was just a culmination. I have no idea. There was never a conversation about that, so I'm not sure exactly. I haven't seen him yet this morning, so I'm not exactly sure when it took place or if it was just a culmination of things."

Q: Are you getting prepared for Brian Hoyer to maybe be the starter?

Coach McDaniels: "We'll prepare for everybody. Obviously, that would change things relative to Aidan [O'Connell] also, if Jimmy [Garoppolo] was not able to progress through the protocol to be able to play. So, we'll be hard at work to probably manage that situation as best we can as it progresses through the week."

Q: Jimmy Garoppolo has done some kind of uncharacteristic things. When you watch the film, is there anything that you kind of put your finger on? Is it maybe a product of going from one offense to another?

Coach McDaniels: "No, I mean, I'm not going to speculate or make excuses about that. I think there are certain times in every game where a quarterback doesn't have what he wants to have available on a certain play, and each quarterback in the league goes through this every Sunday. You have to make those split-second decisions to either put the ball into the ground, or put it out of bounds, or sometimes take a sack, sometimes scramble, whatever it might be. We can't put trying to make a play above doing the right thing at times, and there's a fine line. He scrambled a few times yesterday and made some plays and kept some plays alive. And then there were some other times where you just have to make a good decision, but that's playing quarterback in the NFL. And he's done it well before and we need to do that. We need to play turnover-free, and we haven't really played a total complimentary game yet because we haven't played a game without turnovers. If we can do that, see what the result is and then maybe we can hit repeat and do that a handful more times, that would be a good place for us to start."

Q: You mentioned how you liked the effort of the defense and how they were really big in stopping the run. Adam Butler and John Jenkins were two guys who got a couple more snaps. What have you seen throughout the season that earned them those reps?

Coach McDaniels: "Yeah, Jenk [John Jenkins] played really well. He's a pro's pro, works his butt off in practice, does it with the right technique, understands his role and his job. He's difficult to block in there, he's a big guy. But he plays with the right attitude, technique, mindset. Adam [Butler], the same thing. He's younger but very much a pro, understands his role, does a lot of dirty work trying to be disruptive to maybe help others be disruptive if you will. So, I think we've got a decent level of play from a lot of guys yesterday defensively. Again, we gave up a couple big plays, but I thought they stopped them and gave us an opportunity multiple times during the second half to try to mount some element of a comeback."

Q: You've talked about the turnovers that you've committed; you haven't been able to force any yet at this point. I know it was a big point of discussion over the offseason, is there something you guys need to do to be more aggressive?

Coach McDaniels: "I mean, we blitzed a bunch yesterday as you saw. I thought we had a number of guys punching at the ball and attempting to strip the ball. I thought we had a chance to get our hands on one or two yesterday. I think we're making efforts to do all those things; I know our guys are. I'm seeing them on the field do it. I think we got to keep at it, obviously. Sometimes they come in waves and we're just waiting for our wave. But we've got to make it happen, we've got to go make plays, make disruptive plays, create situations where people are under pressure or duress to try to force them to get loose with the ball or throw it to us. I thought we had a number of opportunities yesterday, got our hands on some footballs. We're just going to need to get some of them to turn our way."

Q: Any specific things on tape about the running game or the offensive line, or is it kind of different week to week?

Coach McDaniels: "I think it just starts with us being able to put a body on a body. There were a number of them in the second half where we did that, and bam, we were seven or eight yards a carry on those plays. That's where it always starts, in pass protection and in the running game. If you get a hat on them, then you usually have a chance to get the runner started. But I would say through three games it's probably been everybody's taken a turn at maybe not necessarily being as precise or perfect with their job. So, it's going to be details, it's going to be work, it's going to be a team thing. Running the ball is never one guy's job, it's going to be the job of everyone at the point of attack and then across the board our receivers got to block. So, no shortcut to it. We got to put in more work, more time. There was evidence of it being done well yesterday at times, but just not enough, not consistent enough."

Q: From that last part of the fourth quarter where there was complimentary football, can you take anything from that?

Coach McDaniels: "Yeah, you take something from everything. I loved the way we were fighting and competing. It sure as hell wasn't perfect yesterday for us in terms of putting ourselves in a hole and I thought our guys fought back and had a chance to do some things there in the fourth quarter. I thought our defense really stopped them when we needed to give ourselves enough opportunities with the possessions to get back into it. That's great, but we're all like Davante [Adams] said, and we're looking for more consistency so that we avoid putting ourselves in that position to begin with so that we can have an opportunity to win."

Q: I know you addressed the fourth down field goal decision last night, but is that a decision that you go back and forth with?

Coach McDaniels: "I think it's fair to be critical of it. I'm not saying I would do it differently, but I understand both sides and that's what I was going through in my mind, too, was trying to evaluate both scenarios. Again, you can say I was wrong. I'm not going to sit here and tell you that it was 100 percent an easy decision. I did feel like with the timeouts and the time, the two-minute warning, that we had enough opportunity to stop them and go ahead and get the ball back and put ourselves in position to win the game. So, that was my thought process. It had nothing to do with not believing if we had a play that would work or whatever. We went for it a number of times yesterday on fourth down as it is. I think we've gone for it in every game on fourth down at some point. So, not averse to doing that. That was the decision that I made in that situation."

Q: The failed conversion on fourth-and-five earlier in the fourth quarter, did that affect the decision to kick the field goal at the end?

Coach McDaniels: “No, it didn't affect it. I felt like we kind of knew what we would probably get, and they did they did a better job on that one than we did of executing that. But no, one didn’t necessarily have much to do with the other one. Like I said, I could see both sides of it, as you guys did.”

Q: On a personal level, the last 14 hours everywhere you look is dissecting a decision that you made. I mean is that hard to stay away from and is it something you can tune out?

Coach McDaniels: “Yeah, I haven't been online, and my TV hasn't been on a whole lot. I mean, I'm not avoiding it. I’ve just been working and trying to go through our stuff. I get it. Like I said, I understand both sides of the equation, and had we stopped them on third down on defense and had the ball with two minutes to go, it is what it is. That's football. Sometimes you make a decision and it works out for the best and sometimes you make one and it does not. So, like I said, I can see both sides.”

Q: On that third down conversion late by the Steelers, was there miscommunication between the two safeties?

Coach McDaniels: “Yeah, I mean, we were pressuring because it was short enough to where they could have run the ball. So, we were pressuring to at least try to be as disruptive as we could in the running game. In that situation, could we get down there on them tighter? We could have made a different call to try to do that, but obviously giving up a completion in that situation is not what we wanted to do. We've got to coach that and do a better job of making sure that we help those guys be aware of that situation as it is in the four-minute defense.”

Q: How has Jakorian Bennett handled his role as a starting cornerback as a rookie?

Coach McDaniels: “I think he's handled it very well. He comes in and prepares really hard every day. He's just doing a really good job of getting into a routine with his body and making sure he's ready to go every day physically, along with mentally. I think he's really been trying to soak in some of the education from guys like Marcus Peters and [Marcus] Epps and those guys that have played a lot of football and understand what it takes. So, JB has been up to the challenge. He's learning every game. There's going to be some really good plays and then there's going to be some things he'll learn from relative to mistakes. But I trust his process, I trust his maturity and I trust his desire to improve and get better as we go through the course of the season. I think the reps are only going to help him.”

Q: Tyree Wilson played only 11 snaps. Was that tied to his health?

Coach McDaniels: "Yeah, I mean, just relative to being able to come off of that and then be able to play. I’d say his wind more than anything else.”

Q: A lot will go into the decision on who plays quarterback if Jimmy Garoppolo can’t go. But is there some value in maybe using that opportunity to get a bigger picture of a young quarterback like Aidan O’Connell and to get a feel for a sense for him for the long range over maybe what the short term is?

Coach McDaniels: “Yeah, I think we'll try to do the right thing for the team this week for sure, no matter what it is and whatever that ultimately ends up being. We're not going to use this like it would be a preseason game, so if the best thing for the team would be to do something down that road, then we would discuss that and consider it, but we haven't begun those conversations yet. We will obviously today.”

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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