Sunday's 24-6 loss to the Denver Broncos was a tough pill to swallow for the Oakland Raiders, considering the win would've secured their spot as the AFC West champs. Tuesday afternoon, members of the team spoke up about what went wrong against the Broncos, but remained optimistic they'll pull it together before their playoff matchup against the Houston Texans.
Heading into the AFC Wild Card round, here's this week's Tell the Truth Tuesday.
Head Coach Jack Del Rio
"It was unfortunate, a little bit disappointing, but it's one game. It's just one you'd much prefer to have won and have this week off, but we didn't get that done. Bottom line is, for us, it's all about recovering as quick as possible. Get up off the mat, dust yourself off, get to work, get ready for the Houston Texans. We've earned the opportunity to play in the postseason tournament. We're excited about that."
"There are too many examples of us being just a little bit away from it being a whole lot better. I think when you watch the tape the way we do and the way we show our players in the morning, I think they'll come away with confidence of what it can be. That starts, to me, in the run game. It'll obviously run the ball and be able to stop the run. Those are the two number one things."
Running Back Latavius Murray
"This is what we wanted obviously, so we can't make no excuses. We're in the playoffs and more than half the teams are sitting at home, and so we get the opportunity to go out and play, and that's all we can ask for. We need to obviously get better during the week right now, continue to work towards what we want, and that's being in the playoffs, and that's winning."
"We need to find ways to win, especially now more than ever. We're in the playoffs and a loss could send us home, and we need to continue to find ways to win like we have in the past. On offense, we've got to figure it out, we've got to get it together, we can't make excuses, we've got to come together as a team, and again find ways to win."
"I want to put that game so far behind [me], I know we all do, how ugly it was. The only thing we can do is just look forward to this week in Texas, because like [Head] Coach [Jack Del Rio] was saying, 'For all the teams that are in the playoffs right now it really doesn't matter what happened in Week 17, doesn't matter what happened Week 1.'"
Running Back Jalen Richard
"There's been pressure on us all year, that's how we keep our offense balanced. Being able to run the ball, and keep people guessing where they can't just sit and want to drop back everybody, they've got to come down and protect the ball."
"Obviously last game everybody knew we wanted to try and run the ball, and we just couldn't. Denver knew we wanted to run the ball and they had a good game plan, and we really just couldn't connect on the passes to open up some running lanes. Like Coach Jack said, we've got to be able to run the ball even when everybody knows when we're looking to run."
Linebacker Bruce Irvin
"You got to leave it all out there, play your best players, and have your best game plan because you can't depend on next week. If you don't handle business, around this time next week we're going to be packing up, so it's definitely a sense of urgency that needs to come with it this week."
"People don't understand how hard it is to win 12 games in this league, let alone make it to the postseason. People can say what they want to say, the only things that matter are the people in this building, and obviously our fans, but as long as we believe in each other and our fans believe in us we can…the sky is the limit, we can do anything we set our minds to."
"Twenty missed tackles is unacceptable, and if you want to win in the playoffs, you can't have 20 missed tackles. You can't have missed assignments, you can't have mental errors, that's how you'll be sitting at home next week. I think our guys understood, I think we're going to step it up this week and handle our business."
