Running Back DeAndré Washington
RAIDERS HEAD COACH JACK DEL RIO
(opening statement)
A pretty exciting ball game out there and we're happy to come out of here with a win. We talked about it last night and again today about finding a way somehow to come out of here with a win No. 2. So I am proud of the effort. There are a lot of things we want to clean up but hey, we are going to enjoy it. You have to enjoy the wins in this league and we are definitely going to. We've got what amounts to a short week only because of the amount of travel in between. We've got to fly back and we've got a long trip to Baltimore again so we have got to be on top of the way we travel. We know that with the schedule we have this year, we will be all over it trying to get our guys recovered trying to get ready for next week.
(on strives the defense made)
I saw glimpses of what it should look like. I think we all did. We saw glimpses. Nowhere near what it needs to be yet but certainly reasons to be optimistic, which I am. I am very optimistic about the men we have and the work we are putting in. We have got a lot of things to clean up. We are sitting here 2-1 and looking forward to the rest of the season and the challenges ahead. We will take it one at a time and this week we got enough done to get the win.
(on the concern of the offense getting shutout the second half)
There are concerns everywhere. You are always concerned about things that don't go the way you would love for them to unfold. I thought overall we were pretty darn solid. We didn't end up generating as many points as we would like to have but we did enough to earn a tough victory on the road. But this is a stingy defense. Coach (Dick) LeBeau has done a great job to start the year. I think they had one touchdown allowed in their first two games so he's done a great job with his unit. I thought we did enough today to get a win.
(on playing at 10 am PST )
We have got a very challenging schedule. If you look at it all, very challenging. I talked about that with our guys after this game. I said, we have got to travel well, we have got to get home and get our rest and we have got to hydrate and do all the things you have to do to be good and be able to go on the road and win. To win two games to start the year on the road, that's big. We have our next challenge up with the Ravens next week. It is huge for us to play well no matter where we are.
(on the penalties called on the Titans on their final drive)
I thought they were appropriate. A good hard fought battle. Those are things they have actually done several times already this year. The pick play that they run over there, they have already been called on it. It is actually on the teaching tape this week or last week. So it is something that everyone is ready for, alert for. So, it got called again.
(on S Karl Joseph not coming out right away after halftime and how he played)
He just needed a little more time before he was ready to go. My eyes told me that he did some good things. I'm sure there will be things that weren't perfect but I thought he gave us throughout the whole week and the way we played and the way the defense played, I thought he gave us a little bit of a spark having him in. In fact Cory James did some good things. There's some things I saw right away, I was like, we got to do that better now, you're kidding me. So there are a couple of things, those guys in their first start, I thought they held up pretty well and there will be a lot to learn from. He just needed a little more time.
(on CB Sean Smith's interception)
Yeah, exactly. He did a nice job; went in there aggressively and took that ball. It was a heck of a play.
(on T Menelik Watson's injury)
I think he got a calf or lower leg. We'll know a little more when we get a good look at it. I think Vadal (Alexander) went in and played well, so we've been…it was our fourth offensive tackle to play this year on the right side or fifth if you count the left moving over to right, so we've played them all over there and we've done a good job. We've done a good job. We gave up one sack on the day and so, really in my mind, one on the year, although, (Raiders PR) Will (Kiss) can't get that other one changed. Anyway, I think they're doing a good solid job up front.
(on clock at the end of the first half)
I wouldn't say I was satisfied with it. I would say it was handled properly. If at the end of the day the idea is to have common sense and do the right thing. I would've loved for them to not apply common sense and give us the field goal, but the reality is the clock didn't start on time. So, they recognized it and adjusted it. Now was that three seconds? I don't know. I can't speak to that, but at the end of the day, I would love to see our league to allow the officials to have the latitude to make common sense judgements. I think that's what it was. So, I support what it was even though it kept us from having a field goal attempt.
(on players raising their fists for the national anthem protest)
No thoughts on that, other than that I would've hoped if that were the case it would've been brought up ahead of time so we could be all involved in one thing or another. As I said earlier when this whole thing started, I respect everybody's opinion to express themselves, that's what we have as Americans, we have that right, OK. I just would like to see us as a team to do things together and united. So whatever he felt or they felt, I don't know what exactly you're talking about, but if that occurred, I support their freedom. I also deeply respect our flag and the people who've sacrificed for our country, to make it what it is. I think it's an awesome place. We get to enjoy things like football on Sunday, so that's how I feel.
RAIDERS QB DEREK CARR
(on if it was nice to see the defense making strides today)
Yes, because we were sloppy today on offense, not to our standards. Did we win? Yes. Did we execute? Yes. Can we move the ball out of backed up situations when we had penalties? Yes. Did we do those things right? Yeah, but I hold us to a higher standard than that. I expect more but we did enough today to win. It's a good feeling to feel good about but it's good that this happened and we got the win because now we can go back and say, 'look guys, we gotta grind harder or whatever it is.' We've got to do better and it's always good to do that with a win because you feel good about it. We know everyone in that locker room on our side of the ball knows we need to play better. That was just not good enough. With that said, we did enough today to win. Execute. Defense, my goodness. We can get off their backs now. They won their game, the game for us. That right there was a prime example of what I've seen every day in practice. That's why I kept saying what I was saying. It's hard to complete balls against them. I mean, Marcus (Mariota) is throwing accurate balls that are getting tipped up and picked. That's tough, man. That's just going to happen in this game, obviously. It happened to me today. You know, I saw the ball get tipped up and the ball was about in the air for about 90 seconds and they got one. So it's going to happen. They're so good, man. They make plays like that all the time in practice.
(on winning two road games at 10am Pacific time and how the team has adjusted to the time difference)
It's cool. It's good. Focused on this year, obviously. I'm happy that we've done it twice now. It's always a good thing to come out this way, anything out past this way. It's always good to get a win early in the morning. It's good for me because10 a.m. I'm wide awake. My day is already started for a long time. I love, absolutely love, playing on the east coast and we got the first game. I'm always up early, ready to go. When we play later, it's like man, it can't get here fast enough. I'm happy for our team but at the same time, we're focused on this year. We've done it twice really well and it's been cool.
(on watching the final sequence of the game)
Man, I was just praying. You know me. I was praying, man, that we'd get a stop. They worked their tails off. They really did. The main reason I wanted to see it was there was so much pressure on. There were all these things said. I just want them to see the fruit of the hard work that they've put in be produced. I was so happy for them. They worked really hard too about not holding and just getting around guys. You see D.A. (David Amerson), you saw Reggie (Nelson) do it late in the game, you know, jumping around the guy, not grabbing. They do such a good job of that so it's like little things like that I see them do at practice that you see paying off in the game. I'm so happy for them, like really. I know when you're struggling on one side of the ball in a certain way, you just want to see that hard work pay off and it did today. They deserve all the credit.
(on the change in offense from the first half to the second half)
I thought our focus was great. I thought everyone was energetic. The heat wasn't getting to anybody or anything like that but in the locker room, we were ready to go, ready to put some more points out there. We hurt ourselves with penalties. I mean, illegal formations stuff like that can't happen. I don't know if I remember why or what they called it on but it's like stuff like that. We can't do that. We're way better than that. We're past that. It's stuff like that whether its ball placement or a drop there, we know we're better than that. We're sitting there and we're frustrated because we expect so much more. We expect execution all the time. That's what we have to kinda realize in the NFL- it's not going to be perfect or pretty. I thought we moved the ball well. We just didn't get enough points in the second half, obviously.
RAIDERS WR AMARI COOPER
(on dropping a couple of passes during today's game)
I've got to look it all the way through. I actually just have to tuck the ball; that's it. They weren't drops. It's just, I caught it, I ran, one hit my knee, one guy hit me so I just have to tuck the ball. Easy to fix.
(on the play of the Raiders defense)
The defense played well today. They held it down when we needed them to hold it down.
(on the playing conditions)
It was kind of hot, it was kind of hot. Reminded me of playing at Alabama.
(on the Raiders defense finishing the game)
We trusted them to make plays; they made them and we're excited about that. You never know which group, special teams, offense or defense, is going to need help. We didn't really execute the four-minute drive as how we should have and they came through for us.
**(on what the Titans defense did to slow down the Raiders offense)
**
I mean, they played well out there today. But we feel like if we execute no one can stop us. But all credit goes to them.
RAIDERS RB DEANDRE WASHINGTON
(on the physical nature of today's game)
It was a tough one, man. I think the first three games have been tough. It's exciting coming down to the wire but I'm glad we were able to find a way to pull it out.
(on his 30-yard run)
We had some good looks, man. Good blocking up front; great blocking as a matter of fact. I was just able to get a crease and get skinny and get a big run.
(on heading back to Oakland with a victory)
It's always a good feeling going back with a win, man. It's always a good feeling to get back to work when you get that win under your belt on a Sunday. It makes things a lot easier coming in on Monday.
(on whether the game played out how he expected it to)
Actually, those guys had a nice comeback win last week so we knew no matter what the score was it was going to come down to the end. Whether we were up or they were up, they weren't going to stop fighting and neither were we. So we were expecting that and big ups to our defense; they came through and got us the win.
RAIDERS CB SEAN SMITH
(on the playing conditions)
I live in Florida so I'm kind of used to it. It was a little warm. No big deal.
(on his interception)
It was an in-breaking route. I was pressing, was able to undercut it and make a play on the ball. You know, just doing my job.
(on the Raiders defense playing better today after struggling in the first two games of the season)
It wasn't so much about the first couple of games. It was just going out there and trying to make plays. We're trying to win a ballgame here. To make a play in that point in time was big for us, so it was dope.
(on if he thinks the Raiders secondary has begun to play better as a unit)
Yes. I'm not going to sit here and say that we're where we need to be but today we definitely were on the same page out there. We were communicating a whole lot better and not making the small mistakes that we were in previous weeks.
(on the play of Raiders S Karl Joseph)
Hey, Karl (Joseph) was coming up hitting. I was surprised, being so small, that he was throwing his body in there at those big backs they've got. I think he came in, he played fast, he was loud, made all his calls. I was happy for him.
(on the Raiders defense finishing the game by stopping the Titans in the red zone)
Yes, but at the same time, that was already the expectation for us. Every time we step on the field we are trying to put forth a good showing. You know, we were in all different types of situations during this game so that was good for us to put that on film. It was fun; that's all I can say.
RAIDERS LB CORY JAMES
(on the playing conditions)
It was alright. You know what I'm saying? It was alright, it was a little hot but we got the win so that's all that matters.
(on competing against Titans RBs DeMarco Murray and Derrick Henry)
They're good, it was tough, but we got the win so that's all that matters.
(on where the Raiders defense improved today over the first two games of the season)
Probably just communication and stuff, and not giving up big plays to the open man. Just knocking everybody down.
(on what he was feeling during the Titans' final drive of the game)
We had to stay with it and we got the win.
RAIDERS S KARL JOSEPH
(on making his first career start today)
It felt good, man. Game started slowing down as the series went on but it felt like we did a great job. We were locked in all week and it showed.
(on his play helping the Raiders defense)
I think it was about doing my job. I wasn't trying to do too much or do anything extra but just do my job. If everybody does their job it shows how dominant we can be on defense.
(on his blitz that resulted in Titans QB Marcus Mariota's fumble)
For me, I should have come back underneath. Coming off that blitz I probably went a little too deep and allowed him to move up in the hole. Good thing we got a fumble on it, but coaching point for me, I just got to be able to come back underneath that back and make a sack.
(on whether or not he felt nervous in his first career start)
Not really, but you know it was definitely a little nervous feeling out there those first couple of drives. As the drives went on it started slowing down and started getting a little more comfortable out there.
(on providing a spark for the Raiders defense)
Most definitely. I think they drafted me because of my personality as well. I'm a leader, a natural leader, so I just want to go out there, do my job and get the guys to spark it up, stay focused the whole time we're on the field.
