Raiders' Josh McDaniels Press Conference Today
The Las Vegas Raiders fell to 1-1 on the season with a brutal loss to the Buffalo Bills on Sunday.
Earlier today, Coach Josh McDaniels spoke after watching the film.
You can watch his entire press conference below and read the transcript as well:
Head Coach Josh McDaniels
Coach McDaniels: "Like I said yesterday after the game, we didn't do enough well to really win in any phase of the game. And so, give them credit. They're a good football team, well coached and played and coached much better than we did yesterday. It should be a good day for us to learn about what we need to do better and how all of us can contribute to a better performance, and it's our choice as to how we use this. You can either use it as a huge positive and grow and get significantly better and improve, or not. We're going to try to do that today."
Q: It's tough to go on the road and win when you're having trouble running the ball. Kind of two straight weeks now where Josh [Jacobs] has had a little bit of difficulty getting going. Is that kind of just the natural progress of trying to get him back acclimated after missing some training camp and do you just kind of keep chipping away? Or is there any other way to get that going?
Coach McDaniels: "No, I mean there's no shortcut to it. When you're going to run the ball, I think a lot of people have to do their jobs well. It's no different than pass protection in the passing game. On offense, if you want to have a successful play, you're going to need 11 guys to do what's asked of them or at least do it competitively. We may not win every match-up, but we've got to do it certainly better than what we did yesterday, for sure. It's not one thing. We've got to block the right people, we've got to sustain our blocks, we've got to finish. If we have an opportunity with double teams, we've got to do a good job of moving our double teams and creating an entry point. We've got to read the runs the way JJ [Josh Jacobs] reads them and get downhill. Receivers have got to block, we've got to get a body on the linebackers. I mean, you name it, and we took a turn not doing it nearly well enough. So, that's my job, and we'll get it fixed."
Q: Not being able to throw the ball downfield offensively right now, do you think that is a problem with getting the running game going?
Coach McDaniels: "I don't think that's a problem. I think we threw the ball downfield yesterday some. There are opportunities that we maybe haven't converted on, or some other things that go on. We have plenty of opportunities to do both, I would say. I don't think that's really a big, big factor in this. I think we have got to do a lot of things better if we want to run the ball the way we can run the ball. So, a lot of work ahead of us."
Q: There were a couple of sequences where you did get the ball downfield and then you go to the run and it's knocked back, and now you're in second-and-long. That's obviously not where you want to be, but how does that change things when you're backed up like that, especially after a big play?
Coach McDaniels: "Yeah. I mean, look, every time you hand the ball off you want it to be second-and-six or more if it's a first down play. A team that runs the ball well is averaging four and a half yards per carry or more, and we obviously had some experience running it well last season and we need to get back to what we have been good at in the past. But again, there's no shortcut. We all have a job to do. We have a job to do as a coaching staff of putting together the right plan so that we have a chance to be successful and we've just got to execute better across the board. Like I said, you can have six guys do the right thing and the other four or five don't, and it's a problem. We all bear the burden, and it starts with me. I've got to do a better job of putting us in the right spots and we got to execute better."
Q: At the beginning of the game, Bilal Nichols went down with an injury and Byron Young got a couple snaps. What have you liked about him so far?
Coach McDaniels: "Byron, he played last week, too. So, he's part of our rotation and he has good length and strength. He's still learning how to handle all the different things, the multiples that you see in the NFL. But we got some good snaps out of Byron and then some things that we have to improve on and learn from, like all rookies. That's going to be the case for a while with the young guys. We'll see the film today and hopefully we'll get better from week two to three."
Q: It's only been a couple of games so far and the snaps and possessions have been kind of limited, especially in the second half. But is it a little disappointing that Hunter Renfrow hasn't been able to get really involved yet?
Coach McDaniels: "I would say I'm disappointed just in our overall ability to be more productive than what we've been. And again, Hunter's done his job the right way and a lot of times the passing game is a function of us doing the right thing. And also, the defense gets a vote. So, depending on the coverages they choose to play, it might open up some other things or it may give us an opportunity to throw a person like Hunter or the tight ends the ball inside. There have been some missed opportunities on our part, but I don't think that's a function of Hunter. We've got to do a lot of things better. He should have gotten the ball more than he did yesterday. I think there were more opportunities than that, but protection has to be good, reading the coverage has to be good, blitz pickup; there's a lot of things that will happen before any receiver or tight end will get the football. Much to improve upon, but I'm not concerned about Hunter."
Q: I also want to ask you about Patrick Graham being up in the booth. Is that just a different look or a better look?
Coach McDaniels: "We had a long conversation about that during the offseason. There are people that prefer it both ways. Some people prefer to be down, some people prefer to be up. PG has been down most of the time in his career. We kind of took a peek at it in the preseason and kind of liked the way he was able to see everything. I've never called a game from up there and obviously I wouldn't do that now. But I mean, I think there are plenty of coordinators in the league who are up there. They feel like they have a great bird's eye view of what's going on and you can see things more in real time and have an understanding of what happened or didn't happen. So, I think we feel decent about where we're headed in that regard so I think we'll stick with that."
Q: With full appreciation that there's a limited amount in what you can say about Chandler Jones and what's going on there. But from a roster standpoint, he is taking up a roster spot right now and obviously those are pretty valuable in this league. Is there any update? Or how troublesome is it to kind of manage it?
Coach McDaniels: "No update. We just manage it the best we can, you know what I mean? Like I said, it's a personal and private matter. Until there's something that I can talk about, there's not much I can talk about."
Q:Any updates on Jakobi Meyers and Davante Adams? Coach McDaniels:
"Tae is good and Jakobi is just going through the process in terms of coming back. I'm not going to say anything about where I feel like that is or isn't yet because I could be wrong quickly. Tae's good and Jakobi is headed in the right direction, and we'll see how this week goes."
Q: Did you see the blocked kick last night by the Patriots?
Coach McDaniels: "I did not. Oh, with the guy running from the side or whatever? I think I heard about it more than I saw it -- I didn't really see it. But sounded like an interesting way to go about it."
Q: Do you see it being a thing now?
Coach McDaniels: "I don't know. Maybe. If it works, it has a tendency to be stolen. That's what the nature of the profession of coaches is all about."
Q: Toward the end of the game, Zamir White got some touches. Can you see that being something that you lean on a little more moving forward?
Coach McDaniels: “Zamir did some decent things until he put the ball on the ground. But, again, I don't think this is a switch one person -- like we’re certainly not switching out Josh Jacobs. We all have to do a better job. Our football team will see that clearly today. And again, these ones sting because you're excited to go in there and you're excited to play against a pretty damn good football team that's really well coached, and it's been that way for a number of years, in a hostile environment and you go in there and you start decent. And then based on a number of factors the game can flip on you. And when the game flips on you, it feels like it gets out of hand, but when you watch the tape, you're going to see the ‘Why’. And I think the opportunity is there for our team if we want to take advantage of it, to try to avoid this from happening again because there's certain things we can do a lot better than what we did yesterday. Again, give them all the credit in the world. They outplayed us, out-coached us, out-executed us, and that's the reason why they won. But we can learn from this and be better for it and that's the hope and the goal for today”
Q: The Bills took Maxx Crosby completely out of the game and made sure he wasn't going to wreck the game. Is that kind of a teaching moment for the rest of the line?
Coach McDaniels: “Yeah, I mean, when you designate two people to one person, which we've done that plenty of times, too. Look, that's a compliment to the player because obviously he's a hugely impactful player for us and he's been a great player for a number of years now. And a lot of teams do that, so if the offense chooses to do that, then they obviously are putting more resources into that and then maybe running, putting five people in the pattern, etc. So, we have got to be able to try to take advantage of it somehow, someway in another way. It gives other people opportunities, as you mentioned. Because if he's got two on him, they usually have one on somebody else or a lot of people. So, there are opportunities that a will present themselves. We just need to be able to try to take advantage of it. But complementary defense is, when they do this to try to limit somebody there could be a weakness somewhere else and we got to find it. We have other people who can make plays, and when they do, then maybe some of that other stuff goes away. There's no shortcut to that, either. When they do something to try to limit a strength of yours, you have to try to find another way to be impactful.”
Q: The high point of the defense has been the play of your linebackers in Robert Spillane and Divine Deablo. What have you seen so far from them this season?
Coach McDaniels: “They do a really good job of preparing every week and they’ve got a big job. They talk to the safeties behind them, they talk to the front up in front of them. There's a lot of communication that they need to be involved in. Spillane has done a great job with the green dot. I thought they played hard yesterday. There are not going to be too many guys who would say that we all played well yesterday. When you lose the way we did, I don't think anybody would stand up there and say they did a great job. I think those two guys will stand up here today and really do a good job of trying to learn from the film and be accountable to their job, and also to try to help everybody else do their job better. I like our group, our linebackers group is a good group and they compete hard and play hard. We ask a lot of them and we need to do a better job around everybody to help those guys.”
The Silver and Black return home to Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas to play the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday, Sept. 24, at 8:20 p.m. EDT/5:20 p.m. PDT.
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