Everything Raiders' Carr said Post Win Over Texans

The Las Vegas Raiders improved their record to 2-4 on the year after taking down the Houston Texans and we have everything Derek Carr said afterward.

HENDERSON, Nev.--The Las Vegas Raiders improved to 2-4 on the 2022 NFL campaign yesterday with a 38-20 win over the Houston Texans.

As you can imagine, Derek Carr was excited to lead his team back into the winner's column, and below, you can read everything he said after the big win.

Raiders QB Derek Carr

Q: Your offensive line has taken a lot of criticism at times this season but seems to be getting better with each game. Would you talk about their maturation?

Carr: "I'm just so proud of them, man. They've been pushed really hard and it's something we've talked about since OTAs and training camp. We've had conversations about different people moving spots and all that kind of stuff, and I'm just so proud of them. It's never going to be perfect, especially in this league against the guys that they're playing. But I'm proud of them, they've worked really hard. [Carmen] Carm [Bricillo] and [Cameron] Cam [Clemmons] have done a great job at teaching and watching them grow has been awesome because we got the running game going, pass game. Sacks are going to happen every now and then, especially in this league, and all that kind of stuff. But they'll be the first one to tell you there's stuff they'd love to clean up, but I'm proud of the way that they're playing and we're going to need them to do that and as we go forward."

Q: Josh McDaniels was just talking about playing your best football when your best is required. A 21-0 fourth quarter, two must-have touchdown drives and the defensive touchdown as well. Is that kind of what you want to be about moving forward?

Carr: “Absolutely. I mean, at the end of the day, it came down to us executing in the red zone much better, and just outside the red zone. I think we were three-for-three or four-for-four on touchdowns there. I mean, that right there is going to help everybody. Teams are going to have to defend the run and we have our weapons. We don't even have all of them right now. And if they want to defend that, then Josh [Jacobs] is doing a great job with the o-line. And the receivers blocking today in the fourth quarter was really impressive. Again, there are things correct, but if we can execute at that type of clip, that type of level, it'll be good for us going forward because that's a really good defense. You watch the games that they played leading up to this, that's a credit to them. Playing against them, they’re so fast. They have a lot of different looks and certain things, and they mixed some things up over by week too, which was great for us to just play football and make adjustments during the game. But I was really proud of the way that we finished the game. It's something that we talk about, that competitive stamina."

Q: You got Hunter Renfrow back today. You just talked about all the weapons, and you don't have all of them back, Darren Waller, of course not back yet, although Foster Moreau stepped in and played really well today. What is it like having the luxury those players offer when you do get down in a game, to know that you got guys that can make plays all over the place?

Carr: "It's very nice. I'm blessed to have so many options. It really keeps defenses honest. It makes them have to make a decision; how they want to play us and what they want to do. And then it's up to me and Josh [McDaniels] to figure it out and for me to read it right and do it the right way. So, whenever we get everybody back and healthy, it'll be awesome. But that doesn't guarantee that we'll win more games. It'll just guarantee that our guys are back and we have an opportunity to kind of get better with everybody there."

Q: When you can run really run the ball down there in the red zone, get physical and basically push your agenda down there, how important is that for the whole playbook to open up down there?

Carr: "When we traded for Davante [Adams], I said it from the beginning, the happiest person in the building is Josh Jacobs by far. If teams want to give him attention, then Josh is going to be the happiest man on the planet. And you see it in the red zone; teams lean into him, doubling him, playing a split-safety, or doing this or different ways to do it. You can play single-high and do it certain ways to just get help there and it gives you good angles in the run game, or it gives you this or that. And so far, we're seeing that pay off. And Josh is one of the best backs in the league. He's not a slouch back there. And so, if our guys keep working hard and keep doing the right things, we want to be a balanced football team. We don't care if we throw for 5,000 (yards), we don't care if we rush for 2,000 (yards); we don't care if we're in the middle. We just want to win football games and just make it hard on people."

Q: Can you talk about the progress of this offensive line?.

Carr: "Absolutely. I mean, they've worked really hard. And again [Carmen] Carm [ Bricillo] and [Cameron] Cam [Clemmons] have done a great job with that group. And they've taken the hard coaching. It's tough; they're hard on us for a reason, to push us to be the best version of ourselves. And they've taken it and ran with it, and they're doing things better than they were doing them in OTAs, just like we all are. We're just trying to keep getting better and hopefully we keep getting better as the season gets later. They are a prime example of a group that has done that for us, so if they can continue to do that and we can be balanced, it's only going to help the offense as a whole."

Q: What exactly happened when you had to come off the field for one play?

Carr: "I didn't want to stay down, but sometimes they catch you. He just hit me my ribs and I had no breath. And so, the pain from that, as soon as I could catch my breath, it hurt too much to breathe. And so, I did my best. I tried to get up one time, tried to push up and couldn't do it. And then finally as time went on, it was better. So, honestly that's the only thing about today that really bugged me. I hate coming out for a play."

Q: What do you think it's going to take to get this team to start to string some wins together?

Carr: “Well, a lot of what we did today. Really towards the end of the second quarter and on, we stopped beating ourselves and we just executed. It sounds so cliché, but when you just do your job the right way, not your way, but just do it the right way, and all 11 do that. On offense, you need all 11. If one guy doesn't do it, the play's over. Defensively, if a corner blows a coverage, but the defensive end gets a sack, it's nice. But offensively, you need all 11, and if we can keep doing that, then hopefully we can play good football going forward. But it's not going to be easy. We've got a lot of tough teams coming up, especially this next week."

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.

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