Head Coach Jack Del Rio
Oakland Raiders Head Coach Jack Del Rio earned his 12th win as the skipper for the Silver and Black on Sunday. It was a victory that came against a team he coached for nine years, the Jacksonville Jaguars. Following the Raiders' win on Sunday, Del Rio was present for his weekly press conference Monday afternoon to chat with reporters about the victory. He expressed satisfaction and pleasure with the team, but remains eager to continue the team's progression.
Here are the quick hits from his media session:
**Del Rio emphasizes winning at least two out of the three phases of football, and Monday he shared that all three phases succeeded on Sunday.
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"The guys kept positive energy going. All three phases throughout kept positive energy and kept fighting. I thought it was a good solid win. Anytime you win on the road, it's tough. You win on the road by double digits, it was a good solid victory for us. Really happy about that. Now we're here and need to have a really good week of preparation. Get ready to play a good Tampa Bay team and take care of business and get our next victory."
Although he's happy the team is 5-2, he wants to push the players to continue their development.
"There are things that we have to do better. I think it's healthy. I think you should enjoy the wins. You should feel good about the success. Take pride in it. We worked hard for it, but to have a healthy respect for what's coming and the need to play better and the need to continue to grow as a football team as we go throughout the year. That's a mature way to look at it, and I'm very pleased about that with a younger team."
Del Rio talked about the team's confidence through its solid seven-game start to the 2016 season.
"I think you earn that. You can't fake confidence. I think you earn that by playing well, playing together, by the work you put in, by the preparation that you have. I think that gives you confidence going into any situation, that you can execute. Then when you do execute, I think it kind of builds on itself. It's all about the work and all about the preparation and all about the attention to detail and that's what our guys giving us right now."
**He praised veteran linebackers Malcolm Smith and Perry Riley, Jr., for their effort and production against Jacksonville.
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"Well they're veterans. Those guys have a lot of skins on the wall, so to speak. They've been through a lot of battles. So the experience is there. We really like Cory [James]. Cory is a good, young player, but to have those two guys and the experience that they have and the number of battles that they've been in, they communicated well together. The idea going into the game was we're going to play all three, but the way we started, we started well and those two guys played well. We just basically left them, let them go. Cory participated primarily on special teams."
Del Rio believes that the defensive pass rush is making strides in the right direction, but knows it can go up a notch.
"Yeah, we feel like we've got a couple guys that can really get there. We're still looking for a little more interior push and I think as we get that, I think it'll make the entire rush look at a lot better. But, we're getting good energy, good effort from those guys."
