Josh McDaniels Final Thoughts: Raiders vs. Broncos
HENDERSON, Nev.--The Las Vegas Raiders (2-7) find themselves on the road against their fellow AFC West opponent the Denver Broncos (3-6) this week.
The Silver and Black are desperate for a win, and facing the struggling Broncos on the road is no easy task.
Moments ago Josh McDaniels spoke about the state of the Silver and Black and looked ahead to this weekend's game against the Broncos. You can watch that entire interview below and read the transcript:
Head Coach Josh McDaniels
Q: Against the Broncos, you guys ran the ball really well and had a pretty balanced offensive attack. Is that kind of your vision with this offense?
Coach McDaniels: “Yeah, I mean, I think we've always wanted to be that way. Sometimes the score, and in many cases down and distance, can, I would say, get in the way of that. But if you have your druthers, you can do a lot of things well, and hopefully you can run it, throw it on your terms, convert on third down, avoid penalties -- which we obviously need to do a better job of, offensively. But we've actually gotten in our own way in that regard, relative to some games, relative to the balance that we've been able to have. So, in an ideal world, you'd love to be balanced every week. Sometimes teams do things defensively that would maybe make you want to do something other than that to be productive; stacking the box and giving you opportunities to throw it, or what have you. But by and large, that would be the goal.”
Q: In a bigger sense, is there any kind of common denominator among the first-year coaches in first year situations who are performing well and the ones who aren’t?
Coach McDaniels: “I haven't been able to obviously take time to study that. I think there are so many things that go into a successful day on Sunday. And there are so many things that you would need to have to have a successful start to your year, to have a successful year, period. It's not one thing, it's not two things. There's a number of things that you work on to try to give yourself an opportunity to win and that you probably need to happen for yourself. Some of that is health related, some of it is strategy, some of it is scheme, some of it is talent, some of it is culture, some of it is when you play somebody. There are a lot of things that could go into changing an outcome. I mean, clearly, we could've done a handful of things better and we would be talking about a completely different record at this point. But that's true for all the teams. I don't think anybody's out there winning every game by 21 points. And so, you take a handful of plays from their games and switch it. Ultimately, what it comes down to is what we do through the week to get ourselves ready and then giving ourselves the best opportunity to be right there at the end. And then hopefully we make some good adjustments in the game as coaches, good calls in the game, and then our players are able to go out there and execute in those critical situations to give us the edge. It's hard to say there's one thing. I have some friends who are doing well right now, and I have some friends who aren't. And it is what it is, and sometimes there are some things you can really point to and address right away, and sometimes it's just a longer process. And so, I look at our guys each day and they come from different places. Some of them were here, some of them weren't here. Some of them are young, some of them are older. And we're trying to -- all of us, together -- get acclimated to a new way of doing certain things. There's not everything we do different, and so sometimes that happens a little quicker than others, sometimes it does not. So, I think the best thing we could do is keep putting our line in the water and keep giving ourselves an opportunity to catch a fish there at the end, and we've done that. We've just got to start pulling some fish out of the water."
Q: You have only had Darren Waller, Hunter Renfrow and Davante Adams out there together for around seven percent of the offensive snaps. How frustrating is that?
Coach McDaniels: “That was the goal. Obviously, when you go into a season, those players are all obviously very decorated guys. Any team that has players on whatever side of the ball it is that you are kind of putting the plan together and counting on those guys to really be a big piece of your puzzle and you have to do without them, then you do the best you can. That's obviously an area where we haven't been able to stay as healthy as we would have liked. But we're not the only team like that. That's not unique to the Raiders and we still have put ourselves in position to have a chance to win. That's a fact. We'd love to be able to say we could put those guys out there 90 percent of the time, but it has not worked out that way and such is life in the NFL."
Q: When your offense is at its best, you've had multiple tight ends. Obviously, you can't control Darren [Waller's] injury. But in looking long-term, is Foster Moreau a guy you can see fitting in here?
Coach McDaniels: "Yes. Foster has done a really nice job. Foster is tough. Foster is unselfish, he's smart, he works really hard at it. Tight ends have to do a lot of things and some guys may have a little bit more of an area of strength. Darren is certainly a different type of player because of his speed. But tight ends have to block, they have to catch, they have to protect, and they're used all over the formation. Foster's skill set has allowed him to be productive in multiple ways. He's not just a blocker, he's not just a pass receiver. We've used him in protection and created big plays to others because he's doing his job. And he's a phenomenal teammate. Phenomenal. His parents did an incredible job of raising him and he's such a leader for us. He's not a captain, but he behaves like one, and our team follows him like that."
Q: Denver's defensive numbers are really solid in all phases. What do you see that makes them so effective here in the first half of the season?
Coach McDaniels: "They don't give up a lot of easy plays. You don't put on the tape and say: ‘There's a great opportunity to crease them on this, that or the other.’ They've done a really good job of limiting those, so they force you to drive the ball. They're really good on third down and they create negative plays. So, when they create a negative play, and on third-and-seven plus, I want to say that they're giving up 11 percent conversions on third-and-seven plus, which is a tiny number. So, obviously, there's a tug of war there. We have to do a good job, or try to do a good job, of avoiding negative situations so we can stay in second-and-shorter or third-and-shorter and try to keep moving the ball down the field. And they do a tremendous job of not allowing that. And so, there's just nothing easy. Their scheme has enough variety to it that they can get you with that. They change it up a little bit. He's done a really nice job as a coordinator. He's done a really nice job of changing it up from week to week a little bit, but also giving his guys an opportunity to really play fast and aggressive. And they've lost some guys up front who are good players. I give George [Paton] a lot of credit. They had some really good depth behind those players that they've accumulated over time and in the draft. Shelby [Harris] being out and [Randy] Gregory being out, and then the guys on the edge, [Baron] Browning and [Nik] Bonitto, I mean, those guys have still been able to make plays and be disruptive. I've got a lot of respect for what they've done in terms of building the roster defensively. They've got a lot of good players, and their depth has really stood out to me as you watch them throughout the course of the season because they've had to do without a number of guys."
Q: What are your expectations for Jerry Tillery in this particular game?
Coach McDaniels: “He's an interesting guy. I mean, what a fun guy to have here. But he's worked really hard to catch up. I mean, the system that he was in, the terminology is different, so those kinds of things. There are some barriers there that we've got to break down, obviously. But he's working his butt off to be able to try to do that as quickly as possible. So, we'll give him another day of practice here today, see where we're at after today, and then how big the role could be if he's active on Sunday. I don't want to put him out there and put him in positions where he's just not able to be successful because he doesn't really understand what it is yet. So, we're going to take this whole body of work for the week and evaluate it and talk to him about it, see how he feels, and then kind of cut the role down if you can to something that: ‘OK, he really understands this stuff, and we'll let him go out there and play his best.’”
Q: Can you pinpoint a couple of guys in the locker room who you can see who are kind of keeping the rest of the guys on ease throughout the stressful season?
Coach McDaniels: “Yeah, we have a number of guys who I'd say do that. And I think the stress part of it is really something that you have to control on your own, and that lends itself to how much you allow other things to impact your day-to-day behavior and how you approach your workday, which I don't really see a lot of that from our guys. When you have some really good personalities on your team like Denzel [Perryman], Maxx [Crosby], Mack Hollins, Brandon Bolden; they can keep it light, but they also know when to turn it up a little bit. So, I think we've tried to find a really good balance between a stressful type of an environment, which we don't have right now inside, and the urgency required for us to do a little bit more to win. And so, I give them a lot of credit. The players have done a really good job and I think the coaches have done a really good job of just trying to stay the course, let's not raise the temperature in the building. We don't need to do that. We know what we need to do to try to win and I think those guys have really risen to that part of the challenge, and hopefully we can have another good day today.”
Q: Stress is not good, but there's nothing wrong with pressure. As a coach, how do you learn to apply things on that?
Coach McDaniels: “Staying the same. We've been doing that since we met in phase one, you know what I mean? And so, I think as long as we were applying the right amount of pressure to do things the right way, and/or the right amount of teaching, I don't really call it pressure as much as I would say, we just want to teach them to try to do it the right way. And if we don't do something right, let's correct it in the appropriate way and try to keep moving forward and getting better. I think the difference you would feel is if we had a change in that behavior, and I don't think we've done that. So, we wanted things done, and you guys have heard me in training camp and things like that, where you're out there yelling and hollering about things not being done the right way. I mean, we didn't have any record then, you know what I mean? And so, just being consistent and trying to hold ourselves first and then our teammates and our other guys with us to the same standard every day. I think that's really what we want to do. And the fact that we haven't changed a whole lot in that regard, I think is the right thing to do at this time of the year.”
Q: The other day it sounded like Nate Hobbs is trending toward next week. Is that still the case?
Coach McDaniels: "We'll see. Like I said, as soon as he's ready to roll, I would imagine that he'll be -- he's itching to get out there. So, this is literally just a medical thing. There are obviously some things that we have to make sure we clear. Once we clear them, then I think we'll get him out there as soon as he's ready to roll. Again, I think we're getting close."
Q: On offense, you guys have faced zone coverage the second highest rate in the league, and a lot of those zones have been two-high safety zones. When teams are kind of approaching you with those softer looks, what kind of challenges does that present?
Coach McDaniels: "It presents opportunities, and it presents challenges to do things that in your repertoire that are just not very good against those coverages. So, I think it just makes you adjust the type of things you do. Certainly, when people keep two safeties deep, it gives you a fair fight on every running play, we know that. And I think we've tried to take advantage of some of those looks throughout the course of the season and do the best we could with those. It also puts a premium on the interior part of the passing game, because when you put safeties over top here and here, then the place where they really defend the best is outside the numbers. So, the guys on the inside part of the formation, the tight ends, the players in the slot, the backs, those type of players have more opportunities because the help is not on them. I think you've seen us do some different things with the backs, you've seen us move Davante [Adams] inside some, obviously the tight ends and slot receivers have a little bit more opportunity when that presents itself. You need to be able to run the ball. That's really a key factor when that's what you're getting played with."
Q: When you've got a player like Nate [Hobbs], I mean he would play with a leather helmet if you'd let him. He just loves the game. How hard is it for you to protect him from himself?
Coach McDaniels: "Yeah, that's why we have to make sure that they give us the go-ahead. Because if it was up to me and Nate, he would have probably played four weeks ago, and that's a tribute to Nate, his toughness and his desire and love for football. I mean, he did it in the game. When he hurt it in the Kansas City game, he went in and said: 'Throw a cast on it and I'm going back out and playing.' The reality is, there's probably a handful of players who would do that, there's no question, because they have that kind of demeanor and toughness about them, and Nate is certainly one of them. But I think the medical people will make sure that when it's OK to go out there and do it, so he doesn't re-injure it, because obviously nobody wants that. Nate will be out there as soon as he can."
The Raiders return to action next week when they head to Denver to take on the Broncos. That game kicks off at 4:05 p.m. EST/1:05 p.m. PST. You can see that game on FOX.
Watch the Silver and Black live when you get your Raiders tickets from SI Tickets HERE
Please make sure you tell us your thoughts when you like our Facebook Page WHEN YOU CLICK RIGHT HERE.
Want to talk about this? Want to air your opinion about all things Las Vegas Raiders? Maybe you like to talk about other sports that aren't Silver and Black related? We got your back. Join our 100% FREE message board, a brand new option, when you CLICK RIGHT HERE.
