Las Vegas Raiders DC Patrick Graham Week 8 Update

HENDERSON, Nev.--The Las Vegas Raiders (2-4) find themselves heading to the bayou to take don't the New Orleans Saints (2-5) on Sunday.

The Raiders' offense is on fire, and a win in the Big Easy is critical for the to keep their hopes of a playoff birth alive.

DC Patrick Graham gave his weekly status update on the team moments ago, and you can watch the entire video, and read the transcript below.

Defensive Coordinator Patrick Graham

Q: How do you feel like the secondary did with Nate Hobbs out?

Coach Graham: “Well, the guys came together and fought to compete to win the game last week. And I believe, like I said before, it’s always next man up in this league and they came out there and fought, and thankfully we got the win and I know they are back at it now just trying to improve, but they were competitive on some throws. They challenged us, they got a good receiver core with Houston. So, I was pleased with what they did.”

Q: From your vantage point, was miscommunication an issue on some of the third downs?

Coach Graham: “I think usually when you look back at any game there is usually something that came up. Again, you usually keep that in house or just try to figure it out because of any competitive advantage for the other team, but very seldom do you play a perfect game and it’s hard enough to cover those guys and it’s hard enough to have 11 guys on the same page but that’s what you’re striving for. So, usually you are going to see something in any game you watch.”

Q: Was the emergence of Neil Farrell Jr. and him getting more reps factor into trading Johnathan Hankins?

Coach Graham: “Anything with the trades and stuff like that, you got to talk to Josh [McDaniels] about that.”

Q: What kind of progression has Neil Farrell Jr. made as he gets more reps?

Coach Graham: “The typical progression you see from rookies just in terms of learning how to study better, taking care of his body better, and then it shows up in practice. Because any snaps earned on the field, how we do it here, is based on practice. And so, he’s had an emergence on the practice field. When we talk about the idea of practice execution becoming gam reality, that’s what we are looking for. And he’s worked really hard at practice, and it’s been encouraging. He knows he has a lot of room to grow, and that’s the case for most of us out there, but the thing is you’ve seen it in practice.”

Q: Can you talk about what you are seeing out of Clelin Ferrell?

Coach Graham: “It’s simple. Just in terms of what he’s doing in practice, we’re hoping for it to transfer to the gameday. And the advantage he has of going inside; he’s a long body, he plays with length, he plays with his hands in front of his eyes, he has good strength, and he has toughness. So, once you have that combination of things, whether he was a defensive end, outside backer, however you want to look at it, and you slide him down inside with the combination of the athleticism and quickness, it makes a suitable situation for us to put him down in there, and he’s capitalized on it so far.”

Q: On the Duron Harmon 73-yard interception return for a touchdown, it looked like Johnathan Abram widened the seam allowing Harmon to make a play on the ball. Can you talk about how important Abram has been in your system?

Coach Graham: “The versatility of Johnathan is important. You see him playing different spots out there. The leadership in terms of the communication, that’s a big part of it as well. It all ties together. Anytime someone makes a play out there on that field very seldom is it because of one person, so I’m sure Duron will thank all his teammates, whether it was the rush that got there, the other safety that was holding the disguise or what have you, but it all ties together with everybody. Duron is the ultimate teammate and I’m sure he thanked everybody about that interception.”

Q: Where are you with Tre’von Moehrig right now in terms of his development?

Coach Graham: “Again, he’s a second-year player. When I look at the safety position, it’s similar to the quarterback spot on the other side of the ball. In terms of how do you improve? You got to get experience. You got to see it. We could talk about it on the board, we could show the video, but until you see it through those eyes because there is a lot of field you are defending back there and then tying in the disguise we are trying to ask you to do, tying in the run fit, tying in, ‘Okay, I might get matched up on the receiver now.’ It’s through experience that he’ll grow and he’s still in the early part of his career, so I’m pleased with where he is heading right now and he works hard, he’s diligent and he knows he has room to grow and he’s working at it.”

Q: What is the fine line of, ‘Hey, that’s normal for the development process and the more we invest the better off he’s going to be’ and ‘Hey, he’s got to be out there?’

Coach Graham: “Well, we all get paid to perform on Sunday. That’s what we get paid to do, but some of the best learning and teaching moments that I’ve had in my career have been from mistakes. And I can’t speak for the players, but I know I’ve learned a lot from mistakes, whether it was studying in school or listening to my parents. My dad and mom, I definitely learned better when I got punished in terms of the mistakes there. But that’s part of the process, it’s not going to be perfect. It’s an imperfect game but learning from your mistakes…some of the best lessons are from mistakes because you’re like, ‘okay, they said it, it happened, okay now I got it.’ It’s part of the process.”

Q: What has allowed Bilal Nichols and Andrew Billings be successful in stopping the run?

Coach Graham: “Well, it helps to have good players. We all know that. I think Frank [Okam] is doing a good job of teaching the techniques that we want to use in terms of playing with good pad level, playing with their hands out in front of their eyes, making sure they don’t get blocked by one guy. It’s hard enough to defend in this league, but you talk about it being a passing league and the guys up front have to be able to take on more than one block, or force guys to block them with two guys. So far, we’ve done a solid job with that. There’s still room to improve, but they’ve bought into that you can’t go one-for-one. That’s a big part of it because it’s too hard to cover the pass in this league if you don’t have guys that can take up two spots.”

Q: How difficult is it to begin a week of prep not knowing who the other team’s quarterback is going to be?

Coach Graham: “Each week is difficult just in general just preparing. But we always have to take into account the backup quarterbacks when we go through the process. So, we allocate a certain amount of time for who we think is going to be the starter, then we allocate a certain amount of time for the backup because in the blink of a moment…second play (of the game), Derek [Carr] was down for one play. You never know what’s going to happen. That’s just the game when you are dealing with a collision sport like this. Again, every week is difficult. We are always preparing for whoever is on the roster. I mean, does it add a certain level of difficulty, maybe? But that’s how we prepare.”

Q: It seems like the defense has been more aggressive playing man coverage and blitzing more often. Is that an effort to create more of those game-changing plays?

Coach Graham: “It comes into play in terms of what we think is best for the game plan that week and then what we feel comfortable doing. The more games we play together, the more games I call with the group, we are going to grow more and more comfortable. And just keep going back to it, practice execution becomes game reality. What we are practicing, that’s what we are trying to do out there in the field.”

Q: When they have a guy like Taysom Hill who can line up anywhere on the field, how much do you have to drill that into the players to know where he is always on the field?

Coach Graham: “That adds a level of difficulty, absolutely. He’s one of those like, ‘Where’s Waldo’ guys. Each week there is somebody like that usually on each team, so you got to have an understanding of, ‘okay, there he is. He’s on the field.’ And then you got to be able to execute from there. We got the idea, he’s on the field, we know where he’s at and then from there can we execute the plan? So, there is usually somebody like that on the field for each team, and he’s definitely one of the guys on this team along with a few other guys. You got to know where [Alvin] Kamara is, you got to know where a lot of these guys are. They are really skilled on offense.”

Q: What are some things you got to look out for when game planning against Alvin Kamara?

Coach Graham: “The fact that his balance on contact, this guy breaks a lot of tackles and doesn’t go down easily, that’s a big part of his game in my opinion and has been since I’ve been watching him at Tennessee and then when he got in the league. So, you try to tackle him, he has pretty good balance and he can bounce off tackles. Obviously, the speed jumps off the tape and then the fact that they are able to use him in both the run and pass game. When you start drawing up a back in Madden or whatever – I haven’t played Madden in so long – but like if you are trying to get it together in Madden, I’m sure that’s what you want with your running back and it causes issues. He could be in the backfield, he can be out wide, they can put him anywhere. They can put him at wildcat quarterback, they can do anything. So, you got to prepare for that stuff.”

The Raiders travel to the Big Easy to take on the New Orleans Saints next Sunday. That game kicks off at 1 p.m. EDT (10 a.m PDT) and can be seen on CBS.

Watch the Silver and Black live when you get your Raiders tickets from SI Tickets HERE

Please make sure you tell us your thoughts when you like our Facebook Page WHEN YOU CLICK RIGHT HERE.

Want to talk about this? Want to air your opinion about all things Las Vegas Raiders? Maybe you like to talk about other sports that aren't Silver and Black related? We got your back. Join our 100% FREE message board, a brand new option, when you CLICK RIGHT HERE.