Head Coach Jack Del Rio
Oakland Raiders Head Coach Jack Del Rio was back at the team's Alameda, Calif. practice facility Monday to talk with reporters about Sunday's win. The Raiders 30-24 defeat of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers wasn't pretty, but the team was clutch and walked away with a victory. Del Rio expressed that he's pleased to be 6-2, but knows the team can continue to progress.
Here are the quick hits from his press conference:
**Del Rio talked about the amount of penalties called, but focused on the team's resilience.
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"I thought we earned some, and I thought some were questionable. What I like about our guys is we're resilient. We continue to fight and we work our way through whatever obstacles present themselves. Yesterday, we dealt with a large number of infractions that we don't want to see, but we fought our way through it and came home with a win."
Del Rio praised the other members of the secondary for stepping up after cornerback Sean Smith left the game with an injury.
"Yeah, I thought they did well. I though D.A., [David Amerson], we matched D.A. on Mike Evans and he did a nice job. We doubled him throughout the day. Those other guys were left one-on-one a lot, and I thought they did a nice job covering their guys. Overall, the explosives were way down. I think we had two explosives that we allowed on the day; one on a quarterback scramble and one on a pass. That's a good number to have coming down. That's what we're after. Third down continues to be a strength for us. We want to continue to fight in red zone situations and win those, but a lot of the critical situations are the ones we're winning. Proud of our guys for that."
He praised the Raiders defense for its continued improvement and thought the team accomplished some goals Sunday.
"Yeah, I mean, it's kind of what we've expected, you know? Doing some good things and there's still some things to clean up there as well. But, yeah, coverage is tighter. We're much more sound, not letting anything get behind us, really keeping a lid on [No.] 13 [Mike Evans] was the key and not letting them getting the running game going. I thought both goals one and two for our defense were achieved yesterday."
**Del Rio broke down quarterback Derek Carr's performance Sunday, reemphasizing his confidence in the signal-caller.
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"I don't really look at it like that. I don't care to make any proclamations if that was the best game, the third best game, it doesn't matter to me. For us, we just want Derek to go out and be himself, play good football for us and help our team win. I thought he did some beautiful things yesterday and there's some things he'll learn from and do better. Very happy with the way he's shown the ability to bring us back. Crunch time, clutch time, you've got to have it. He's been money and that's been big for us."
The Raiders commander-in-chief discussed that the team is continuing its development and understanding how to win.
"I feel great about that. As I said, last year, I think we learned how to compete for 60 minutes. I think this year, we've learned how to continue to compete for 60 minutes and look for and expect to make the plays that need to be made to win."
