Everything Raiders' McDaniels 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 Josh McDaniels 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, Josh McDaniels was excited to see his team get back in the winner's column, and below, you can read everything he said after the big win.

Raiders Head Coach Josh McDaniels

OPENING STATEMENT: "Well, we talked a lot about a few things in the bye week, and we saw some fruit of our labor here show up today. We talked about our red zone and trying to improve offensively and defensively in the red zone. Thought we did some of that today. Took care of the football against, I would say historically, a team that gets it off of the offense and the runners better than almost everybody else. Lovie [Smith] does a tremendous job teaching that stuff. And I thought our guys ran with the mindset of, 'we need to protect the football on every play.' And every time you come out of a game with no turnovers, you give yourself a great opportunity to win. And then scoring on defense, when you do that, that can really go a long way. So, proud of our guys. Thought Houston fought hard. Every game they've played, every game we've played, basically has come down to what's happened in the fourth quarter. Today was no different, and I thought our guys really hung in there. It was kind of a nip and tuck, then they took the lead, then we came back, and they took the lead again. Sometimes you want it to be simpler than it is, and I didn't think that our group did that at all. I think they kept playing hard and just focused on going out there and what can we do better the next series. Thought they played a full 60-minute game. So, good to win at home again and excited to have an opportunity to go on the road and try to do the same."

Q: You've been preaching trying to play your best football where your football is required. 21-0 in the fourth quarter. Defensive touchdown, like you've talked about. Seems like that's a page right out of that blue book?

Coach McDaniels: "We talked about it at halftime. There were a few things, subtle little adjustments that we tried to make. I didn't think we played very clean in the first half. Offensively, had a couple penalties. Had a couple penalties in the kicking game. Fumbled a snap. Just little things like that, that created maybe harder situations than what we needed. So, just talked about trying to do our job a little bit better. We expected the game to come down in the fourth quarter because, like I said, every one of our two teams has. So, I thought they stepped up and played really well. I thought the communication was better. I thought the execution was better. I thought the offensive group up front really gave Josh [Jacobs] an opportunity to get started a bunch of times there in the second half and was able to run it in."

Q: Josh, was it nice to see the stars come out. I mean, the guys that you depend on to do well for you today. Davante Adams making the catches. Josh Jacobs of course a catalyst today. Hunter Renfrow returns, makes some big catches for you. But is nice to have the guys that you count on actually contribute?

Coach McDaniels: "This will be a tough answer for me. They're all stars to me. And so, everybody has a role, everybody has a job. The guys you mentioned certainly performed well today and had some opportunities to really make some good plays and did. But there's a lot of other players, Alex Bars is out there. Dylan Parham was sick this week, goes out there and plays the entire game wire to wire. Mack Hollins makes a great catch down the middle there in the two-minute drill. You got a bunch of guys on defense rushing hard at the end, making some critical stops. I just thought our team came out and tried to focus on what their job was, and that's usually a good formula. When everybody tries to do their job and does it well enough, you have a chance to win."

Q: When you were down 10-3 before that last drive to tie the game in the first half, it seemed like the guys were flat and there wasn't a lot of emotion. You didn't go in there screaming and yelling, but you went around to a bunch of guys patting guys on the rear and being a cheerleader. Talk about that part of the game, 'Hey I believe in you, let's go'.

Coach McDaniels: "Again, I think sometimes you can have good week of practice, which I thought we did, and you come out and all of a sudden, it's 10 to 3, and you're going, ‘Why isn't it easier than what it is?’ And the reason is because the other team is pretty good and well coached. And football is tough. The National Football League is hard. And so, just wanted them to a stay like this. We don't need to go up and down and scream and throw helmets and rant and rave on the sideline. That's really not going to do any good. I've learned about that over many years and just trying to give them confidence that if we do our job the right way, which I didn't think we had done up until that point consistently, I thought we would be able to move the ball and be productive. And I think they saw that from themselves that last drive in the second quarter and then start the third quarter and score three more drives. It's all them, the players win the game. I think they settled down, they got into the to the flow of the game. They understood how Houston was playing us and they made the place."

Q: Up front with the offensive line, you talked about the physical presence that they're kind of creating. It took a while for you guys to figure this thing out, but the stamp that they're kind of putting on things, how do you feel about that?

Coach McDaniels: "Yeah, look, we want to be a tough, physical team. There's no shortcut to that. You have to do the hard things, you got to practice in pads, you got to do the drill work that's required of you to improve in those areas. You got to double team each other, you got to work hard at it. You can't just say we're going to be a tough team and then all of a sudden that happens. That's all about work and you earn that. You earned the right to be a tough team with what you do during the week. And I think our guys have not flinched at all from the time we started training camp and really started talking about that identity and see if we can develop that on our team. I think we do have a lot of tough guys and when you take a lot of tough guys that work hard and want that to be their own identity, then they have a chance to create it. I thought our offensive line, our tight ends, I thought Foster [Moreau] coming back – he obviously made a few plays in the passing game but blocking on the edge. Jak [Jakob Johnson] pulling around and doing some dirty work there, and the receivers of course. We talked about how important it was going to be for our whole team, our whole unit, to block for our backs, and I thought they came with the right mindset today."

Q: It seems like Alex Bars has really brought a physical tone to your offensive lineman. And then the smart decision to move when the defender jumped across the line on fourth down. Can you talk about that a little bit?

Coach McDaniels: "Yeah. Alex, he works really hard every day. He's kind of a self-made player and really appreciate the way he comes in. He's got a great attitude, studies and prepares really hard along with the rest of our group on the offensive line and has really come in and been a consistent player. We were searching, as you mentioned, for a while, like, what's the right formula? Who are the right guys to put beside one another so that they can work well together, or work best together? And I think Alex has really established himself in there and did some really good things today. And I couldn't see it from my vantage point, but if it was him, it doesn't surprise me that he did that. We used a hard count and I saw somebody flinch and go across, and it's disappointing if your offensive guys don't touch him. So, I was happy to see us be able to do 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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