Head Coach Jack Del Rio
The Oakland Raiders completed an impressive comeback Sunday after being down 14 points to the New Orleans Saints. The day after the win Head Coach Jack Del Rio addressed the media and talked about the decision to go for the two-point conversion, and the trust he has with his squad.
Here are the quick hits from his press conference:
**Del Rio shared his thoughts on the team's hard fought win, and its ability to battle through adversity.
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"Obviously, real proud of our guys. Great win to open the season on. I thought all three phases right away made their mark on the game. Opening kickoff coverage was excellent and the first two kicks were really good. Defensively, go out and get that fumble. Get them to third down, you're going to get off the field, but even better yet, forced a fumble, a sack-fumble there with Bruce [Irvin]. Great to see."
He expressed that he never had a doubt about if they could win: he believed in his group the whole time.
"At the end of the day, you have to go with what you believe is right for your football team. I believed that we would come back and win that game. I believed that going for it was the right thing to do. I let them know early, that that was what we were going to do. Derek [Carr] took that out to the huddle to start that last drive. It's like, 'Hey, we're going to go down and win this game because after we score this touchdown, we're going to go for two.'"
The decision to go for the two-point conversion was gutsy, but Del Rio was willing to deal with the ramifications either way.
"I understand that with that, questions get asked. Good or bad, I'm willing to do that when I'm doing what in my gut I believe is the right thing and part of that was showing the belief in our football team – showing the belief in Derek Carr, showing the belief in Michael Crabtree. Showing the belief in our group to go down and do the things we needed to do to win that game."
**He was pleased with what he saw out of the team as a unit, and liked the effort he saw from his players.
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"I saw a lot of really good efforts up front. I saw Kelechi [Osemele], in particular, he mauled some guys. I mean, he really was powerful. And, you know, the receivers were blocking. You look down on that run, take a look at Seth [Roberts] and the blocking he did and did throughout the game. So, yeah it was a good effort. We've talked about wanting to run the ball. I was really pleased with [offensive coordinator] Bill Musgrave. I thought he called a phenomenal game yesterday."
Del Rio concluded with praising Raider Nation for travelling well, and making their presence felt at the Superdome.
"There were times no matter how the play went there was a cheer, whether they were cheering for the home team or whether our fans were cheering for us on the road, the Raider Nation showed up. It was awesome to see, it's a tough place to get that done. I mean New Orleans typically is pro New Orleans and you don't have another fan base that can be that loud, but the Raiders fans were there and did an awesome job."
