Raiders' Coach Josh McDaniels' Monday Press Conference

The Las Vegas Raiders (3-4) Josh McDaniels spoke at his regular Monday press conference moments ago, and we have it for you.

DETROIT, Mich.--The Las Vegas Raiders (3-4) don't have time to lick their wounds after a colossal discombobulation and collapse over the weekend because they head to Ford Field in Detroit for a Monday Night Football game against the Detroit Lions (5-2).

Moments ago, Josh McDaniels held his regular Monday press conference, and you can watch all of it above. Additionally, you can read the transcript below:

Coach Josh McDaniels' Opening Statement: “As we said last night, we got outplayed really in two of the three phases, for sure. I thought that we competed hard in the kicking game, but we've got to coach better, play better, compete better. There are a lot of things we can do better. I know our team is better than that, but we certainly didn't put it out there on the field yesterday. So, we have a lot to improve on and that's what we're going to do today." 

Q: Is there anything that you saw in practice that made you feel like you might have that kind of performance? 

Coach McDaniels: “Nothing. And honestly, I felt like we had a good week. I thought we were ready to go. Went out there and had the three-and-out and then drove the ball down the field and had a chance to take the lead early. I didn't see anything like that. We went on Friday and all that stuff, but none of that stuff is an excuse. I think, ultimately, the game kind of snowballed on us. Like I said yesterday, when you lose control of kind of the line of scrimmage and the score, then the game always feels like you're playing it backward or you're chasing, and that's basically what yesterday felt like." 

Josh McDaniels is vigorously looking for answers for the struggling Las Vegas Raiders / Darrell Craig Harris, Raiders Today

Q: What did you see from the team maybe after the game in terms of their reaction? 

Coach McDaniels: "I mean, we all know that that wasn't good enough. I didn't see anything different than what I've seen from them before. I think when you get your butt kicked in the NFL, it doesn't feel good. But I know we have great leadership, great character and great resolve. And look, we have no choice. That's what you do in this league, this is a hard league, and you're going to go through games throughout the course of season that don't taste good. And so yesterday left a terrible taste in all of our mouths and the way to fix it is to work and to go back to work, and address the things that we need to do better.” 

Q: How close was quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo throughout the week to playing? 

Coach McDaniels: "That's a medical thing. Honestly, I wouldn't be able to put a percentage on that. I know he's doing well, but that's something that they will let us know exactly when we're able to turn the corner. I'm hoping for this week, but I don't have clarification on that yet." 

Q: Execution and penalties play a big role in the offense, but it doesn't feel like it just ever has gotten started like it should with all the weapons that you guys have.

Coach McDaniels: “Yeah, you're hitting it on the head. It's not one thing. We move the ball and then we get bogged down with something, either miss a third-and-short, or there's a penalty here or there. Yesterday, we had a couple penalties and just didn't do very well on third downs in the first two and a half, three quarters of the game. And the are a lot of little things that go into those plays. A football game can be changed by the execution of four or five different plays. Pick any four or five different plays, and you say: 'Man, if we would have made this, if we would have made that.' But at the end of the day, you did what you did, and we called what we called. And so, whether it's a call you want to choose differently, or an execution of a play, or an assignment, or whatever it might be, at the end of the day we need to put together a performance that's representative of what we think we can be. We're searching for that and there's no shortcut to it. I think we have got to have 11 guys on every play trying to do the right thing, which I think we do. We've got to have more execution on a consistent basis against good teams. That's what it's going to require of us."

Q: Is it especially disappointing because you were coming off on back-to-back wins? 

Coach McDaniels: "Yeah. It would've been disappointing regardless. Like I said, I don't think we played representative to what we feel like we can be. It's always disappointing when you lose in this league, no question about it. We've been competitive in most every game we've been in this year and that one got away from us. And I feel like you are what you do. And so, we didn't play competitively enough, we didn't coach well enough, and the game got away from us." 

Q: It's frustrating to not get the offense going with all the weapons you have, but how close do you think you are to actually kind of turning that corner? 

Coach McDaniels: “I always think we're close. I mean, I watch us in practice very closely and you see execution, you see good plays, obviously you see a lot of intentions to do the right thing. I think we have the right mindset. I think we understand what we're trying to get done. You're right, we have a lot of good players. There's a fine line between not doing good enough and really doing well. And sometimes, like I said, it's six plays or whatever it might be, you change the result. And the result, I'm not talking about we break 19 tackles and score a touchdown. We finish one block and then all of a sudden it's a bigger play, or we make a read or protection adjustment, and it changes the result of the play. Football is a mysterious game sometimes and I think our players feel like we can do much better than what we've done. And that's what we have got to continue to work toward because I think if we actually achieve that and we get to where we want to be, I think that some of these games can feel a little different. Every game feels hard right now whether we win or lose. They're all feeling the same way because we're kind of nip and tuck, it’s right down to the wire, or in yesterday’s case we just lost control of it there in the third and fourth quarter. But execution is really the heart of anything that's being done well. Special teams, we're doing a decent job there and it's showing. And we've done some good things defensively, but we're going to need to keep pushing offensively to try to find that place where we feel like we can get to.” 

Q: From the quarterback standpoint, on one side it's good that guys are getting experience, but on the other, how does that affect and hurt the momentum and the chemistry if you had the same quarterback for all seven games? 

Coach McDaniels: "Yeah, it's always tough when you have multiple guys in the huddle, calling the play, handling the offense, and all the rest of it. That doesn't aid in it. Again, we can't control those circumstances, so we do what we got to do based on injuries and the health of the team. That happens at lot of spots. Obviously, we prefer to have just Jimmy [Garoppolo] in there and just stay in there the whole time. And hopefully, we'll be able to get to that here shortly. But again, regardless of who's playing, I just know that there's a higher level for us, and we've got to get to it." 

Q: How vital are the leaders in the locker room going to be moving forward into this week? 

Coach McDaniels: "Yeah, again, I think we're seven games in and we know where we're at. Every game’s different and difficult at the same time. This one's going to be against a really good football team, playing at home. We'll deal with that environment. But I think our leaders have done a great job, regardless. I think some of the best qualities of our leaders have shown through in the times of adversity, which is really when you need them. I think sometimes the feeling after you lose, it doesn't feel good at all, but I also think the way to improvement is also clearer because you sit there and you look at the reasons why we didn't play well enough, and you can kind of see that we need to do A, B and C a little bit better. And if we do, I think we'll be a much better team. So, I think our leaders will have a good attitude and good approach. We're all accountable, starting with me, so we've got to do a better job. And if we do, then there's going to be a better result.” 

Q: How do you as the leader help the team keep everything in perspective? 

Coach McDaniels: “Just by staying the same. I've kind of been the same the whole way and we're not going to lose our mind today. We're just going to kind of try to fix the things that need to be fixed and take the same approach after we win or lose. We try to address the things that we can do better and correct them. That's football, that's the nature of the game. We look hard at some of the things that we are doing and see if there are things that we should be doing differently or more of, maybe some things less of, that's what you always do as a coach, especially after a game where you didn't hit the nail on the head necessarily with what you were doing. So, we're going to look hard at ourselves. Then we're going to try to provide a really good plan this week, so we can go play fundamentally sound and be aggressive, play fast and aggressive, and play with great effort to try to get back to what we know we can be.” 

Q: Do you have an update on Divine Deablo? 

Coach McDaniels: “I don't. I do not have one yet.” 

Q: The defense had been playing really well. Were you surprised that the Bears were able to run as much as they were and then the missed tackles as well? 

Coach McDaniels: “Yeah, I don't think we tackled well. I mean, that's not a mystery. We gave up too many yards after we had an opportunity to contact the runner. So, we're going to need to work on that and try to shore that up. I give credit to them; they did a good job. They had a couple unique ways to try to create space and separate the defense a little bit. Like you mentioned, we had been making some progress there, but yesterday was clearly not our best and there are going to be some things that we can see today that will help us.” 

Q: Third downs were a pretty big struggle yesterday, offensively. Was there a common denominator? 

Coach McDaniels: “Really, it was both ways. We gave up too much on defense and we didn't convert enough on offense. It really wasn't third-and-forever, that wasn't the problem. It was mostly third-and-manageable, third-and-five, third-and-three, things like that. And those plays usually result in tighter coverage and we just didn't do enough with our opportunities when we had it in a down a distance that we felt like we could convert. We had some opportunities, but we just didn't make the play. So, we'll look at what we're doing there, too. We had a good week the week before and we're going to need to play well on third down if we want to possess the ball and control the field position, control the clock, control the game. We're going to need to do better on third down.” 

Q: I know kicker Daniel Carlson was able to play through an injury in pregame. Any update? 

Coach McDaniels: “I don't have an update on Daniel, again. Again, I think he was OK. It wasn't something crazy, but we'll see here this morning after he sees the medical people.” 

The Silver and Black will stay on the road to take on the Detroit Lions on Monday night, Oct. 30, at 8:15 p.m. EDT/5:15 p.m. PDT.

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