Head Coach Jack Del Rio
What a finish.
I'd like to reiterate one of Oakland Raiders Head Coach Jack Del Rio's favorite phrases, "you get what you earn in this league," and the team's win on Thursday Night Football was a well-earned victory. The game went down to the wire, and Del Rio was obviously overjoyed to pull out the 31-30 win in front of the home crowd. Following a thrilling matchup on primetime television, the Raiders Head Coach took the podium to recap the outing.
Here are the quick hits from his press conference:
Del Rio talked about how he felt following the game-winning touchdown.
"Games like this, going down to the wire and knowing that the outcome is in the balance, the excitement of being in that position is something that I just can't get enough of. I absolutely love it. It's something about being in the NFL, playing and coaching as long as I have, you just appreciate these moments. You get these awesome, awesome moments. A group of men believes and stays the course, fights and despite all kinds of things that could have been a little different, finishes super exciting."
He discussed the performance from recently-acquired linebacker NaVorro Bowman.
"That is a great story. He's been here two days. He has the green dot on. He plays just about the whole game and calls the defense. I just absolutely love the football player in him. He's a hunting dog. He loves to play. He brought experience during the week. He was a settling influence, kind of a determined influence on the sideline. Like I said, played most of the game. I thought he did a remarkable job. Really happy to have him and glad that he stepped in and did such a nice job."
Del Rio speaks about playing complementary football every week, and according to him that was accomplished Thursday.
"Talk about complementary football, that's complementary football at it's finest. That dog-gone No. 10 [Tyreek Hill] is a weapon. I thought Marquette [King] did a good job keeping the ball away from him. The one time he had to go tackle him himself, which was great to see. That guys is a dynamic returner. I though the special teams did what they had to do with that aspect. I thought offense and the defense did enough to go home with a smile."
He acknowledged that this was a crucial game, but also emphasized every game is crucial.
"Yeah, it's been vital. It was vital last week. It was vital the week before. It's vital to win in this league. You have to stack up as many wins as you can. Obviously, tonight was huge. It was next. I'm so glad it came on a short week where we have chance to get the bad taste out of our mouth. The key for us has been that we really continue to believe. We understand we haven't done things we have set out to do."
Del Rio touched on the recent problems with dropped catches, but knows it will be remedied.
"Look, we've had so many opportunities to catch the ball. We have to catch the ball. I mean, really there's not much to say on it. We're in position to catch the ball. We're not catching it. We have to catch it. We'll get the jugs out and make sure we're catching it more. We had a lot of opportunities over the last few weeks. We haven't had any yet. We'll keep working at it."
