It might've been the bye week, but the Oakland Raiders were still able to prepare for this week's skirmish with the New England Patriots by catching up on some rest. This weekend, the Silver and Black will travel south of the border for a showdown with the reigning Super Bowl champs in Mexico City at Estadio Azteca.
Before kickoff, here's what the players had to say for this week's edition of Tell the Truth Tuesday.
Defensive Tackle Treyvon Hester
"We know we've just got to keep focusing on the details. We've got to keep pushing ourselves through each walk thru, each practice, and just keep trying to get better on our pass rushing moves."
"I'm actually feeling good, you know. I feel like I'm getting better each week, we're all getting better each week. Me and [defensive tackle] Eddie [Vanderdoes], just being two rookies on the d-line, we talk to each other, we beat a lot of questions off each other, we just keep each other going. That's just helping us a lot."
Running Back Jalen Richard
"I feel real good going into this week, bye week was real good to me, was real good to my body. I got my massage, I chilled… Just really got away from football for a little bit, just to relax your mind. We're football, football, football 24/7, and you've got all those stresses. You're in classroom settings, you're having to focus on the details, and go out on the field and put those details into motion. Just to be fresh and reset, it was just like I was able to hit the reset button, and I think a lot of guys were able to hit the reset button too."
Cornerback TJ Carrie
"Rest. Rest, man. I think my younger days I used the bye week to get away, and do some extracurricular activities, but you grow to know that once you start getting years into this business that the biggest thing you can do is rest. Let your body recover for those however many days you get off, so you can come back fresh for the second half of the season, and potentially the postseason to make a good push."
Defensive Tackle Eddie Vanderdoes
"When you've got a guy like Tom Brady, it's crucial you can't let him sit back there and bake a cake. Obviously he is who he is, been in the NFL [18] years, so when you've got a guy like that you can't let him bake a pizza, so you've got to disrupt him a little bit."
Safety Reggie Nelson
"They're loaded, they just picked up [tight end Martellus] Bennett, got 'Gronk' [tight end Rob Gronkowski], [wide receiver Chris] Hogan… there's a lot of them. Like I said, we've got our work cut out. They've got Brady who's going to get them in the right position, and the right play call, so we've got to do a good job on our end of just taking care of the little things."
