Raiders' Josh McDaniels Monday Recap of Win Over Texans

After watching the film of the Las Vegas Raiders' 38-20 win over the Houston Texans, moments ago Josh McDaniels offered his analysis.

HENDERSON, Nev.--The Las Vegas Raiders improved to 2-4 on the 2022 National Football League regular season on Sunday when they took down the Houston Texans 38-20.

After reviewing the film, moments ago Josh McDaniels discussed the game.

You can watch the entire press conference below, and read the transcript as well:

Head Coach Josh McDaniels

OPENING STATEMENT: "Like we talked about yesterday after the game, there was plenty of good things in the game. I thought our effort was really consistent throughout the course of the game. I think our execution at the beginning, particularly offensively, could've improved, and it did. And I thought that some of the things that they do make it hard. They're a good football team. They do a lot of different things that challenge you in all three phases. So, give our guys credit for fighting and hanging in there and continuing to play. We needed our best football at the end, and I think our team is starting to understand and embrace that. It's hard to win in this league, week after week after week. Against any opponent, it's hard to win in this league unless you play your best at the end, and I thought our guys really responded in the second half. There was no panic, I thought we just continued to try to execute and do our jobs. Had a lot of guys step up in little different roles. I thought Ameer Abdullah showed up big time in the kicking game. Had a couple of things he did in blitz pickup really good. Some young guys playing in the kicking game also. Just a total team day. Something to build on. Certainly not perfect, got a lot of things that we can make better today. I think our team will like to see those things today because I think we're really trying to take the process one day at a time. And the guys have really gravitated towards, 'tell us what we need to do better, and we'll work hard to try to get it done.' So, looking forward to trying to do that this week."

Q: Thayer [Munford] had to jump in there at a moment's notice and played a lot of football. When you were doing all the tinkering with the offensive line and rotating, were those the kinds of moments that you had in mind in preparation for something like that?

Coach McDaniels: "More than anything else, we're just trying to find the right group to go in there and play beside one another. And I want to make sure I make this clear, nobody won or lost anything. We love all the guys we have. That takes time; it's a new system, it's new terminology, it's new schemes, it's new blocking patterns, it's a new philosophy for everybody. And so, we were given everybody a lot of opportunities in the preseason evaluating everybody. We thought we gave everybody a fair chance to go out there and perform, and I thought Thayer [Munford] earned the right to play some. I think with young players, nobody really makes a big deal out of it when it's Neil Farrell rotating in there on the defensive line, or a young player playing in the secondary part-time, or a young receiver or a back, but when it's an offensive lineman, everybody kind of says like, 'why aren't they all just the same five every time.' And sometimes it's best for everybody that it's not just the same five. He’s watching the game as he's on the sideline and he's seeing things that he's about to go in and potentially do. And so, I think for him, it's been a very good experience. And again, yesterday when Jermaine [Eluemunor] went out, now he goes in and it's not like he's got cold feet. So, he was in there a little bit on the jumbo before. So, I think I he's earned that opportunity, and again, he did some really good things yesterday."

Q: Obviously there were concerns on offensive line after the first couple of games, but if you look at how they're playing as a unit and the way Josh [Jacobs] is exploding, certainly you have to be pretty pleased right now with where they are at?

Coach McDaniels: "Yeah, look, their job is to protect the quarterback and allow the backs to have an opportunity to make yards in a running game. And so, gave up a sack yesterday on a play that we didn't need to do that. But I think for the most part, they're protecting the quarterback pretty well. Again, always room for improvement in that, but I think for the most part they're doing the right things there. And then they're given the backs an opportunity to hit the line of scrimmage without there being two guys in the backfield. And so, we talk a lot about not having negative runs, not having quarterback hits or pressures or sacks, and when you come out of the game and there's only a couple plays where that was the case, then those guys are generally doing their job. And I think the other thing that offensive linemen love, and you can start to see it as the game goes on is, the more you hand the ball to the back, the more they get to go forward. And offensive lineman, if you ask every one of them to a man, would you rather run block or pass block? I mean, most of them are going to say, I'd rather go this way (forward). And so, I get the wear on that guy, and I get to lean on this guy, and I get to finish my block instead of trying to go backward and hold off some of these really good pass rushers. So, obviously we got to do both in every game, but the more they get going, the more Josh [Jacobs] gets going, the running game gets going, I think the more in sync we become, and they've really done a good job. We talk about trying to be a physical team and it's impossible if those guys don't set the tone. So, happy with what we did yesterday and looking forward to building on it."

Q: It looks like Kolton Miller and Dylan Parham are a really good one-two punch on that left side. Are you liking what you're seeing there?

Coach McDaniels: "Yeah. When they stand beside each other, it's an interesting little dynamic there. Because Kolton's so tall and Dylan's a little shorter, but it's really an interesting twosome over there. It's similar on the right side too, and yesterday we ended up with Thayer [Munford] on the outside. And so, the young guys are kind of around a few guys that kind of have a little bit more experience than they do, which is helpful. And then Andre [James] is right smack dab in the middle of all of them. They're really doing a decent job of acclimating to one another, working together with one another. I think the thing that doesn't get talked about enough is the communication. There is subtle things that they need to communicate constantly with one another, and they're starting to really get the hang of that and work well with one another. And that manifests itself when there's not a lot of unblocked players in the front and I don't think we had that yesterday."

Q: 3-for-3 offensively in the red zone and 1-for-3 defensively in the red zone, is that kind of what you need?

Coach McDaniels: "Yep. We've talked about it for a while. It doesn't mean that next week is automatically going to be the same result. But we've said this for a number of weeks is, when you when you don't play your best, or you lose a game, you have an opportunity to learn from that. And so, we've tried to find some solutions. We have to identify the problem first and then try to find some solutions to it. So, we've worked really hard at that, the players deserve the credit. We practiced in the red zone three days last week: Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. And they really acclimated to trying to improve in that area of our game and we saw a little fruit of our labor."

Q: When you look at the team coming out flat the first half, was it more maybe pressing trying to do too much coming off a bye?

Coach McDaniels: "I don't think we were flat from an energy standpoint. I don't think we executed very well. I thought we had our first drive and we kind of overcame a penalty to get down there, and then we kind of got stopped down there in the fringe area. And then we had the fumbled snap, followed by the sack. It's like we just couldn't get out of our own way, honestly, at the very beginning of the game. And so, I thought we settled down there right before the two-minute drive offensively. And again, at that point, it's 10 to three. So, the defense had done a decent job of holding them to a few field goals as the game wore on. We just had to kind of get into a rhythm and start just doing our job. And sometimes the answer isn't, we need one guy to go out there and make a miracle play. That's not really the answer. The answer is we just all got to go out there and do what our responsibility is, and I thought our guys started to click when they started to do that. And that's a simple formula."

Q: How did Jermaine Eluemunor come out health-wise? And how about the rest of the team?

Coach McDaniels: "I don't know exactly where it is right now. They're all coming in kind of right as we speak and so we'll take a look at Jermaine. Again, he went out with the ankle and then came back in and finished. Was ready to go and if we needed him in the jumbo and those kinds of things, he was able to do it. So, we'll see kind of how this goes today. I know they took him in, the x-rays were negative. But there's a lot that can go on. So, we'll see what it is today. The rest of it, we really didn't have much. [Matthias] Farley had a cramp there at the end. Hopefully we came out of it fairly healthy."

Q: When we talk about the run game, we often talk about the line and then the ball carrier. Jakob Johnson plays a pretty big role as well. What has he done to kind of help move everything along?

Coach McDaniels: "You can throw in Foster [Moreau] and Jesper [Horstead], because Jesper played some yesterday, Foster did a really good job in there and Jakob [Johnson] too. Those guys have to do a lot of different things, and yesterday was really a challenge, because there was a lot of movement up front. Some teams play pretty static and the guy that they're blocking is right in front of them and he never moves and they just go right to him, but yesterday there was a lot of times where we had to be patient and exercise some patience as we went around and found our man. I thought they both did some really good things. Look, the fullback by nature - we don't have Kyle Juszczyk, and Jak [Jakob Johnson] is the first one to tell you that. He and Kyle aren't necessarily the same type of player. But Jak has his strength and he knows what he is. He's a good blocker, he's an incredible teammate, he's an unselfish guy and he's a physical player. So, he adds that element of physicality to our group. He knows what his role is, and he goes in there and he does it as well as he can and he usually doesn't well."

Q: Duron Harmon continues to make plays. He gets another one (last night). He's exactly what you said he was when you brought him in. He's a coach, he's all of that. Can you talk about what his presence means to your defense?

Coach McDaniels: "This is a guy that has been around so many different types of players, teams. Yeah, he was with me in New England, but he left and went somewhere else and he's seen the grass somewhere else, and he's learned a lot. The greatest thing about Duron is he's so willing to share his experiences with everyone else, good or bad. When he makes a mistake, he wants the other guys not to make the same one and when he sees something that he can help them with, he does. He's extremely coachable. On our end as coaches, he's a great player to coach because he listens very well. He's a great listener, he can make adjustments quickly, and then he's a great communicator. I think it gives you a lot of comfort back there when you have somebody that's echoing the calls and really making sure that we're all on the same page. And I think Du [Duron Harmon] has done a great job of that, and clearly our guys feel very strongly about him - voted him as a captain and deservedly so."

Q: In the bigger picture of the NFL, maybe analytics for a few years was undermining maybe or underestimating how important a run game is to the whole operation. It seems like it's getting back to where maybe all of a sudden people are realizing how important the run game is, you see that a lot around the NFL. Did you ever waiver as an offensive coach about how important a good run game is to the operation?

Coach McDaniels: "No. I think one of the things when you're kind of evolving your team and offensively you're trying to take a look at what can we do well and can do it consistently well. Sometimes there's teams that you play against where you say, ' You know what, maybe the way to move the ball this week is not on the ground.' You're allowed to make that assessment, and sometimes that's a fair assessment to make. It doesn't mean you're knocking your own team, maybe your matchups are better in the passing game, or the coverages and the fronts that they play are better for you to throw it. I've been a part times where we've started the game with 25 straight passes. That doesn't mean that we don't like the run game, it just means that we thought that was the right thing to do. And hopefully you're right when you make those choices, because if you swing that big and miss, you've got a problem. But generally speaking, if you feel like you can do both and be successful doing both, you should probably do it, because the safest way to move the ball is to turn around and hand the guy behind the quarterback the ball and let him make seven yards and keep making first downs and you watch the clock dwindle down and you don't let the pass rushers rush. What did we throw it, 27 times yesterday? It's different when you have 52 chances to rush the passer, you've got a lot better chance to make disruptive plays. When you have 27 - and I don't know how many of those were on third down yesterday, but there weren't many six or so on third down where the guys really get the pin your ears back and go. You're taking the risk of the game and you're taking it from here to there, because you just don't allow that to happen. I just think if you can do both well, you should try it. I think every team is going to talk about the running game, and we will always continue to say that it's a big part of who we are."

Q: Derek’s numbers in play action were really good. Do you believe that there’s a correlation?

Coach McDaniels: “There sure is. I mean, every picture you watch, every picture you look at from the tablet or the hardcopy in a running play, there's also something to be evaluated relative to what happens if we didn't hand the ball to the back because you can see the front and the coverage and where are they at. So, one usually affects the other. It doesn't always have to go run then play action, sometimes you can use some play action to help them soften up a little bit for the running game. But there's no question if you marry it together, it can really be successful.”

Q: I was curious about Blake Martinez’s increased snap count and how much more you expect him to get involved? And what have you seen from him so far?

Coach McDaniels: “Yeah, I mean, Blake's a veteran guy and he's really acclimated to our system and our defense. He knew Pat [Graham] before obviously and a really good teammate, can play multiple roles and handle that. And with Jayon [Brown] out, it kind of helped kind of our three for two rotation there with Divine [Deablo] and Denzel [Perryman]. So, just I think a steadying presence in there, understands spacing and the calls and made some tackles in there in the running game, which was important yesterday on [Dameon] Pierce and just fortunate that we have him.”

Q: Obviously, you made some additions on offensive line this offseason, but you also have a few guys that were here last year, and they’ve really credited Carmen Bricillo and Cam Clemmons for the work that they did as coaches. What sort of work have you seen from them just going into their development as an overall unit?

Coach McDaniels: “Yeah. First of all, they've had a great attitude. I mean, they have. They've had a tremendous attitude. And again, whenever you change systems and terminology and philosophies, the first thing you have to do is continue to teach them the why, because players usually want to know, ‘Why are we doing something? Why are we doing this as opposed to that?’ And not every time you do that the first conversation you have is an automatic immediate buy in, because they need to see some evidence of what we're doing, and I think we just continue to drip water on the rock and hopefully we're going to sprout something here soon. And that's the kind of been our attitude since we got here, and I think the coaches have done a nice job of being patient and continuing to teach. And the players have done a really good job of continuing to listen and try to do what's being asked of them. And I think anytime your leaders show the right attitude and urgency and work ethic, like you see with a Kolton Miller, like you see with an Andre James, like you see with a Foster Moreau, like you see with a Derek Carr and a Hunter Renfrow and a Davante [Adams]. I mean, it's not hard to follow those guys when they're the ones out there in front saying, ‘yeah, coach me harder,’ you know what I mean? ‘Tell me more what I can do better.’ And then they receive it the right way and then I see the players that are sitting all around them, going like, ‘okay, they're doing a good job of listening and getting better. Now, I should do the same thing.’ And I think that's what our team's becoming, and our leaders deserve a lot of credit for that.”

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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