Before the Oakland Raiders returned to the practice field Thursday afternoon to continue their preparation for their Week 11 showdown with the Detroit Lions, defensive coordinator Ken Norton, Jr., held his weekly press conference.
Here are the highlights from his time behind the microphone.
He addressed the team's recent struggles against the run.
"It's a little bit of everything. We have a young team. It's fundamental's it's tackling. It's gap control. It's being consistent. It's knowing how to win. It's all these things we're continuing to work on. You can't put it on one thing. I just need to become a better teacher. We need to be better as far as our fundamentals."
Norton also spoke about the challenges the Lions offense presents.
"They have really good skill players at the running position. Guys that are very explosive, so you can't take anything for granted. We have to go out. They're going to challenge us. We have to make sure that we show them that we're here to stop the run."
There's a lot of football still ahead for the Silver and Black.
"There's a lot of football left. There's a lot of games left and if you look at the standings and you look at the division, this is the time of year, right in the middle of the grind, that the good teams start to separate themselves. November, December, those are the times that the good teams start to separate themselves. If we think we're a good team, let's do what the good teams do and put it all together."
He also praised the development of rookie defensive end Mario Edwards Jr.
"Anytime you have a good football player, you expect the good football players to play good and to really take advantage of opportunities. His development, as we've all seen, is right where it needs to be and he doesn't have a ceiling. It just goes. It's limitless. We just have to keep having him do what he does best."
The Raiders hit the road filled with confidence.
"Again, we've shown resilience on the road, being tough, being able to start fast, being able to play with really good football teams and we finish sometimes and sometimes we haven't finished. It's very obvious to all of us in the room that we have a lot of work to do. At the same time, they know that we are a good football team. We have to play good football more often. We have to play good football for 60 minutes. We have to play good football and not give up explosive plays."
