Head Coach Jack Del Rio
The Oakland Raiders were back on the field Wednesday afternoon, and are in the midst of their preparation for this Sunday's game against the Los Angeles Chargers. Prior to Wednesday's work, Head Coach Jack Del Rio met with the media to recap Monday's game against the Philadelphia Eagles, as well as look ahead to this weekend.
Here are the quick hits from his media session:
**Del Rio talked about making sure the team takes care of the little things going forward.
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"That's the difference between winning and losing. The execution of basic plays. You get a design to get a guy free. The guy runs the right route. The quarterback throws the ball on time. It all works together. The line obviously has to give him time to get that done. All those things happen, and then you have a successful play. Any one of those things can throw it off. We basically have taken turns with how that is or what that is that's caused that. The bottom line is execution."
He shared his thoughts on how the offense and Offensive Coordinator Todd Downing have performed this year.
"Well, obviously, a lot of things have gone on in a negative direction. But I do know the guy is super bright. He's going to be a really good coach in this league. I believe in him. Those are not things that people want to hear right now because the reality is we've underperformed offensively this year. So naturally there's going to be those kinds of questions. I think we all understand that. I understand it. He understands it."
Del Rio shared what he saw from veteran safety Reggie Nelson Monday night.
"I don't know, he had the Christmas spirit. He was feeling good. He was active. He had the one tip ball that he picked. He had his hands on a couple of others. He came up and showed up in the run defense. I thought he tackled aggressively in the game. I thought it was one of his better performances this year. We've been talking to him. The guy has now 36 interceptions. It was like, 'Come on, man. We have to get you 36 interceptions.' Happy for him to get that done. He's a proud guy. He's worked hard. He cares a great deal. I was happy to see him play so well."
**He broke down why the team was so effective in the running game against the Eagles.
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"I think there was an attitude set early in the week that we wanted to be physical. There were two things that I talked about with the team that we were going to run and we were going to be physical and we needed to start fast in that building because they really jump on people there. Looking back those were two of the things that we said we had to do. The line did a nice job. They've been physical all year and we played more of what we call 'Big Boy Ball' on Monday night."
Del Rio continued to praise center Rodney Hudson for his grit and his willingness to play through pain for his teammates.
"What he's given up for the team right here in the last couple of weeks is extraordinary. There's not a lot of people that are willing to do that. He's been there for his team and his teammates. He's performing well. It's not like a guy that's making it to the game and not performing and actually hurting the team. He's performing well. It's admirable for him to tough it out and deal with the pain and make it to the game and play as well as he has."
