Prior to his team taking the field Wednesday to officially begin their on-field preparation for their Week 4 matchup against the Chicago Bears, Oakland Raiders Head Coach Jack Del Rio addressed the media.
Here is what we learned during his press conference.
Head Coach Del Rio has a lot of respect for the Bears defense.
"Vic Fangio, the defensive coordinator, he's done a great job in his team in the league of putting great defenses together. A good unit that has some good people up front and we've got to get ourselves ready."
The Raiders stuck to the game plan and got the ground game going in Cleveland.
"I think we had a plan and stuck to the plan. We were doing well enough as a football team to allow us to be in a situation where we could continue to run the ball. We weren't coming from behind like how we started in the opener."
He also praised quarterback Derek Carr's intangibles.
"Derek has tremendous work ethic. He has a tremendous desire to really understand pressures and protections and that part of it. For a young player he's advanced in his desire and his apperception of those things. A lot of guys just want to know where the routes go and where can they can throw the ball and how they can use their arm talent, but he's really been a student of the game in terms of wanting to understand protections and what the issues are and what are his answers."
The pass rush is important, regardless of who plays quarterback Sunday.
"We feel like pressure is going to be important. I think being able to get after the quarterback is imperative, obviously, to disrupt the timing, not let them be comfortable."
Head Coach Del Rio also spoke about his familiarity with Bears Head Coach John Fox.
"That just adds to it. It was that way when we started against Cincy, with [Bengals Head Coach] Marvin [Lewis]. I've known Marvin, been good friends with Marvin. You want to beat the guys you know, real bad, aright. That's just how it is. He wants to beat me real bad. I want to beat him real bad. We'll get our teams prepared."
