Raiders' Coach McDaniels After Beating Broncos, 17-16

The Las Vegas Raiders Coach Josh McDaniels spoke after beating the Denver Broncos, and we have all of his comments for you.

DENVER, Col.--The Las Vegas Raiders took out the Denver Broncos for the seventh straight time yesterday, 17-16, and moments afterward, Coach Josh McDaniels spoke to the media.

We have all of his comments for you, and you can watch them as well as read the transcript:

On getting the win

“I am just proud of our team. Coming in on the road in the division right off the bat. We talked about this all week; it is not going to be perfect. That was not a masterpiece out there. I liked our mental toughness and I liked how we handled adversity. We had some things that we have to clean up and we want to fix and make better. The fight of our team was great. I thought we hung together. I thought our leadership was great on the sideline. I thought we were determined to play our best football at the end of the game. That is what you have to do in these types of environments and these types of games on the road. If you cannot do that, you are going to lose a lot of close games. I am really proud of the way they responded. We only had to make one more play than they did, and that is what we did.”

On second half defense

“I thought [Defensive Coordinator] Pat [Graham] and his staff did a great job at halftime. I thought the players did a really good job of executing. They dinked and dunked us really good. [Broncos QB] Russell [Wilson] was really efficient. We let him out of the pocket too many times in the first half, but he was very efficient in the passing game. They kind of got a running game going there. We tightened it down a little bit and tried to get on them so there were not as many simple completions. We tried to make them work for everything that they got. We tried not to give up big plays which I do not think we did a whole lot today. We made them have to convert third downs in the scoring zone. I thought the defense played better as the day went on.”

On referee communication after QB Jimmy Garopplo got hit

“He told me what happened, but I did not get into that conversation.”

On offensive line rotation

“[T] Thayer [Munford Jr.] played quite a bit today, whether it be as a jumbo tight end or a tackle. There are certain things we are going to have to do better. I did like the way we stood in there and pass protected. We fell behind, 16-10, there and went right down the field and were able to capitalize on some good plays in the passing game. The protection was good. I even thought the protection was really good on plays where [QB] Jimmy [Garoppolo] scrambled and made a few first down with his legs too. We have a bunch of fighters up there. They are connected as a unit and a group. I like the way they play. We are going to see this film and learn a lot from it. That was a good defense. I am just telling you right now that is a good football team with a good defense. They are well coached. Our guys fought hard all day. They have a good front. It was tough.”

On QB Jimmy Garoppolo

“That is [QB] Jimmy [Garoppolo]. He has great mental toughness. He is a competitor. You have to have a short memory if you are going to play quarterback in this league and win games in the fourth quarter. There is just no other way around it. We do not lose our poise on the sideline as a coaching staff. We did not as a group. He was probably trying to make something that was not quite there. We would love to take the three points and tie the game at that point. But the game was not over. Far from it. We have to go out the next time, take us down the field and put some points on the board again. I thought he was really good in the drive to close the game out with five and a half left. I love his grit. I love his toughness, scrambling for the first down and then making the smart play to slide in bounds. It was a good situational play there. There are some things to clean up like we talked about, but I am proud of the way we played.”

On learning from the game

“I could have told you what the speech tomorrow was going to be regardless of the outcome. Here are some things we did OK, some things we did well and then the load of things that we are going to have to clean up and we have to do better. Now we have tape. Now you have a full game. This football team had not played a full game together ever. Every team in the National Football League will be in the same boat after tomorrow night. We will have played one game and will have learned a lot from it. We will all have a lot of progress that hopefully we can make through hard work.”

On WR Jakobi Meyers

“He is a football player. He is tough. He does a lot of dirty work. He blocks in our running game. He can go inside and make plays inside. He has good size and can make some things happen on third down or the red zone. That is why he is here. Dave [Ziegler] was able to get that taken care of so we could have a guy on the other side of [WR] Davante [Adams] in two receiver sets that does some of those things the way he does them. He always comes up big in big games. Today was no different.”

On WR Jakobi Meyers status

“I do not. I have not talked to any of the doctors yet.”

On WR Jakobi Meyers’ two touchdowns

“The first one was [QB] Jimmy [Garoppolo] and him [Jakobi Meyers] communicating at the line of scrimmage. It was a fade. I think it was [Broncos CB Damarri] Mathis if I am not mistaken. He was kind of tight on him. But Jakobi has incredible hands. He has good size and length. Jimmy put it in a great spot and Jakobi went up, got it and shielded it with his body. The second one was just a slant. I thought Jimmy read it good. It was going to be a bang-bang play because I thought [Broncos S Justin] Simmons was right there. I thought Jakobi did a good job of flattening his route down and really being able to give him the only shot to complete that ball. Jimmy put it right on the money.”

On what QB Jimmy Garoppolo said about the interception he threw

“He acknowledged that at the end of the day, hindsight is 20/20. He would have rather done something different with the football. We’ll learn from that hopefully and get better because of it.”

On how QB Jimmy Garoppolo’s leadership has affected the team

“He’s a good leader. He’s won a lot of games in this league. The guys in the locker room know who they have and what this guy can do -- how competitive he is. He’s a very good leader -- a great communicator. He does what it takes to win. He doesn’t care about his statistics or anything like that. Just: ‘Whatever I have to do in my position to try to help the team win, I’m going to try and do it.’ Again, super happy that he’s a Raider.”

On what he would like to clean up for next week

“I don’t know. I thought some of the penalties -- we could avoid that. I didn’t think we were as productive in the running game as I wished we were. We’re going to have to do better than what we did today in the running game. There are so many things. That mistake on the punt rush. Turnover in the red zone. Defensively, we allowed the quarterback to be too efficient in the first half. We lost contain in the pass rush. I’m just rattling off six or eight things right now that are on my head but I’m sure we’re going to find more than 15 on the plane ride home.”

On running back Josh Jacobs' workload and the other running backs’ performance

“I thought those guys went in there and did a few things. It was a very strange game. Very strange. Seven total possessions and five in the first three quarters. It was very strange -- a lot of long drives and there weren’t a lot of quick changes back and forth. I thought that alone kept the playtime down in the first half. I think we had 12 runs and 12 passes at halftime and then played it from there, as you will. The play count never really got that high. [RB Josh Jacobs] was ready to go and we’ll only get better.”

The Silver and Black remain on the road next week as they travel to the Buffalo Bills on Sunday, September 17, at 1:005 p.m. EDT/10:00 p.m. PDT.

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