Head Coach Jack Del Rio
It was a happy Sunday for the Oakland Raiders, as the team defeated the Tennessee Titans on their home turf in Nashville, Tenn., for their first victory of the season. The Silver and Black put up 26 points, while limiting the Titans to 16, and Head Coach Jack Del Rio certainly seemed pleased following the game. Monday afternoon, Del Rio was back at the team's facility in Alameda, Calif., for his weekly media session recapping the game.
Here are the quick hits from his presser:
**Del Rio recapped how the defense performed in the second half, as opposed to the first half.
**
"I think it was pretty solid throughout the day, I think a couple of those things that caused us not to get off the field early, I thought we kind of settled in and did a little better with that later in the ball game. As you saw [we] were a lot more effective when we were able to make those plays and get off the field on those third downs."
He was pleased with the effort from the team's defensive tackles, particularly rookies Eddie Vanderdoes and Treyvon Hester.
"I thought from the first snap, [defensive tackle] Eddie [Vanderdoes] was very strong in there. He's got a natural feel for pass rush, and for being stout in there, he got some real quality snaps in yesterday. We've seen [defensive tackle] Treyvon [Hester] throughout the camp, and preseason, he's slippery in there and he'll come free and give us some juice inside."
Del Rio touched on the physicality of running back Marshawn Lynch, and believes the running game can get better.
"It was great to see and I think even there, there are things we have to do better. It was good, not great. It was good not great, you know? Again, there are things to correct and do better as we go forward. There were definitely some bright spots. Having him in there with his physicality behind our offensive line, that's a good way to get after people to close it."
While Del Rio was impressed with the play of safety Karl Joseph, he was happy to see improved tackling from all parties on defense.
"Very active. Did a lot of nice things. I think he was our leading tackler yesterday. I thought overall as a defense, we tackled well yesterday. We spent a lot of time on fundamentals in camp. I think we had three missed tackles on the day and that's good; you're playing good defense, you're tackling well, leveraging and tackling. Those things occurred with a high frequency yesterday."
Kicker Giorgio Tavecchio was the tale of the tape on special teams, but Del Rio was also pleased with new return man Cordarrelle Patterson.
"I saw about 14 or 15 yards after contact. He's a strong runner. He brought it out… I think the blocking was OK. We'll improve as we go, but he is certainly somebody that runs with a lot of force, a lot of speed, a lot of force. So, we're excited about him having those opportunities as we go throughout the year."
