Raiders' McDaniels After emBEARassing Loss to Bears
CHICAGO, Ill.--The Las Vegas Raiders (3-4) were emBEARassed on Sunday by the lowly Chicago Bears (2-5), and after the game, Coach Josh McDaniels spoke.
You can watch the video above and read the transcript below.
JOSH McDANIELS: From all three phases, we didn't do anything well enough to deserve to win. Taking care of the ball, they did a lot better job than we did in that. Running the ball, controlling the line of scrimmage, playing better on third down. You name it, that's what it was. Obviously we have a lot of work to do and a lot of things to improve. We were just not good enough to win in any phase, really.
Q. Is there a reason for what appeared to be non-preparedness?
JOSH McDANIELS: No. We had a chance to go down there and take the lead. We stopped them on a third down. I think we had an opportunity for a field goal in our first drive, if I'm not mistaken. We didn't convert that. I don't think it was that we weren't ready to play. I think our guys had energy and juice. We were excited for this opportunity. Like I said, we lost control of the line of scrimmage and then we kind of were playing the game backward. That's not really a formula that has suited us. We need to figure out how we can do that better.
Q. Any thought on making a quarterback change at halftime?
JOSH McDANIELS: I mean, look, I don't think everything was the quarterback's fault, certainly. I thought there were some missed opportunities that we had. I thought he hung in there and kept playing, put us in position to try to go down, 21-10, if it was. Not really, you know what I mean? Not really.
Q. When you are 24 games in, the process seems to be struggling, do you look at changing the process? Do you look at adjusting it, scrapping it?
JOSH McDANIELS: I look at everything. I mean, again, I think we've had stretches where it's been fine, very competitive. But we need to find some consistency in all three phases. I think we have. I think we have some of that in the kicking game. I think we've had stretches where we've played competitively on offense and defense. Just not enough. Again, you're asking the question to the one who's responsible. I have to figure out something. We have to figure out something as a staff, as a team, to try to be able to be more productive, more disruptive, more productive on offense, score more points, obviously. Right now it isn't good enough. It needs to get better.
Q. What was ultimately the determination of starting Brian Hoyer?
JOSH McDANIELS: Look, I've seen him practice every day, you know what I mean? I've watched him. I saw Aidan in the L.A. game. I had an opportunity to really understand what was going on there. I saw Brian last week in the New England game. So I just made a decision to try to go with the veteran guy and try to go out there and play a solid game. I'm not going to second-guess that.
Q. Is there ever any consideration to see what you have in Aidan?
JOSH McDANIELS: Yeah, but this isn't the pre-season any more, you know what I mean? We had an entire week of practice in L.A., most of the week. We had an opportunity to practice him. There were some good things. There were some other things that we needed to work on and fix, and obviously get better and improve. Such is life in that regard. When your starter is not available, you're trying to make what you think is the best decision for the team. Again, I don't put this all on one person now. Let's make sure we make that clear. There are a lot of people who can do a better job than what we did today. That's what we're going to need to do.
Q. You made a real concerted effort to get the ball to Davante early. He wasn't much of a factor beyond that. What happened?
JOSH McDANIELS: I think to put this all to bed, we always try to get to the ball to our best guys, you know what I mean? Sometimes the defense plays things that take that opportunity away. Other times they don't. We've always been looking to try to do that and we'll continue to try to do that. It just so happened there were a handful of things in the game that we had opportunities to go ahead and get to him. They played defenses that didn't double-team him, all the rest of it, take him away. We moved around some. But give those two credit, the quarterback and 'Tae. They got off to a decent start, then they started to do some things with the coverage. Again, we have to play the game more on early downs, first down, second and four, instead of getting into third down, third and long, as much as we did as the game wore on.
Q. You said it's not only one guy. What did you see out of him today, the good, the bad and the ugly?
JOSH McDANIELS: Like I said, there were some good things, then there were just some missed opportunities. I have to take a look at the first interception. I didn't really get a great look at it in real-time. I know it was kind of a bang-bang play there to J.J. over the ball. Like I said, thought he hung in there and gave us some opportunity to come down the field later in the fourth quarter and try to make it a 21-10 game. Again, it is what it is. He'll take his fair share, I know that. He's an accountable guy. Again, there are so many things we can do better to help ourselves win.
Q. (No microphone.)
JOSH McDANIELS: That's a medical thing for me right now. I mean, if he's healthy, yes, he'll play.
Q. Daniel Carlson might have been dealing with something.
JOSH McDANIELS: Yeah, a little something in pregame. Again, I don't really have anything I'd say of firm analysis yet on that. He toughed it out. He kind of fought through it. I don't think it was anything crazy, but he tweaked something.
Q. It seemed like tackling was an issue, something you thought had been solved.
JOSH McDANIELS: Yeah, I mean, when you give up that many yards after contact. ... There were opportunities for us to kind of make a stand near the line of scrimmage for one- or two-yard gains, what have you. We missed way too many tackles, over-pursued. All those things are not conducive to playing good run defense. Give them credit, they had a good plan. They did a good job of trying to stay balanced, kept the young kid in a situation that was really ideal for him. We were trying to create maybe some third and longs to put him under some pressure, but it never really materialized. Like I said, control of the game was important today, and they gained control of the game I'd say somewhere in the second quarter.
The Silver and Black will stay on the road to take on the Detroit Lions on Monday night, October 30, at 8:15 p.m. EDT/5:15 p.m. PDT.
Please tell us your thoughts when you like our Facebook Page WHEN YOU CLICK RIGHT HERE.