Q: With everything that Derek [Carr] has gone through this year, how much of that led up to that game-winning drive?
Olson:"Obviously, experience is one of the best teachers there is, so all of his experiences dating back to probably high school I think prepares him for every game as he moves forward. He's been in situations at the end of games, we've always talked about it, it's important to go out and score on that final drive and he's done that numerous times this season, and he's never a guy that's looking at the scoreboard and wondering whether this touchdown matters or not. He's trying to go out there and score. I think all of those experiences help him."
Q: It seems on those two, long touchdown runs, Mike Rivera had pretty good blocks on both of them. Can you talk about his evolution?
Olson:"I think he's getting better. Again, he still has a ways to go and he would be the first guy to tell you that, but again, experience has been good for him. The amount of snaps that he's taken in two years, I like to think he's developing, and as he matures, in age and experience, he'll become a more functional tight end for the Raiders."
Q: He has a want to that you see?
Olson:"Yes. He has a great work ethic. He's intelligent, an intelligent player. It's interesting with his background, he has a famous sister, but you wouldn't know it in the way he comes to work and the way he prepares. It looks like a guy who's very driven and very hungry."
Q: The Rams defensive front is pretty stacked and they're getting to the quarterback quite a bit. How do you kind of work around the fact that they're going to get some pressure?
Olson:"I just think, again, same thing with Derek, it is important that he gets the right protection calls. It's all part of the development of him at this point, and he gets better every week with that, and he can go back and point at the number of times this year where he didn't make the right protection calls and it cost him or cost us. He gets better at that every week. [Rams Defensive Coordinator] Gregg Williams really creates a lot of problems. He's a tremendous coordinator, has tremendous schemes and does a real good job, but Derek has spent a lot of extra time this week. He'll continue to spend time here over the next few days until we get up to the game and he'll be ready for the challenge."
Q: With [Latavius] Murray, it seems like his acceleration through the hole is pretty quick. Is that maybe one of his real strong suits?
Olson:"Yeah. Tremendous to me, and even the first run that he had, like you said, it was a four or five-yard gain, but anyone on the sidelines, you heard it. He hit it fast and he hit it hard, and then he made a tremendous cut on the second, the long run. Again, he gets to acceleration quickly for a big back. You don't always see that in a big back. To me, what's most impressive is how quickly he got up to speed on that run."
Q: Do you have to coach him to get down?
Olson:"We're always talking about pad level, but again, he's a big back. He's aware of it and that's something that I'm sure, throughout his playing career that coaches have talked to him about, is lowering your pad level and so he's aware of it. But again, he is a big person."
Q: How is he as a pass protector?
Olson:"He's been good. He's good that way. He's still learning as he goes, but he will, again, as he spends more time in the league and gets more experience, he'll be better at that, but he works hard at it. He has good hands so he's a viable receiving back as well."
