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Coach Allen Tuesday


On the game: "I thought there were some areas where I thought we did well. I thought we started the game off strong offensively and defensively. And then I thought the third quarter was really the turning point in the game with the poor snap and then the blocked punt really kind of turned the game around and gave them all the momentum. That was a big turning point in the game."

On if Travis Goethel had practiced snapping and if they were prepared for that: "Obviously, we could have [been better prepared] and that falls on me. I have to do a better job of making sure we're prepared for all those different situations. We practiced Travis snapping the ball, but we could have probably done a better job of putting him in more live type of situations and giving him the opportunity to do it that kind of represented what he would see in a regular game."

On if he spoke to Goethel: "No, I haven't spoken to Travis about it. Hey, listen, he was asked to do a job and he went out and did it to the best of his ability, and we have to help him. We have to give him a better opportunity to be ready for those situations."

On Jon Condo: "Condo had a concussion so he'll have to be cleared medically. I don't know at what point that would happen, but we've obviously got some plans in place in case he's not ready to play."

On if they'll bring in another long snapper: "That's an option that we're looking at, yeah."

On if he thought about not punting anymore: "Yeah, no, we actually were in a 4-down type of situation and it was 4th and really long there at one point in time and we decided to go ahead and punt it and it didn't work out."

On the 12-men in the huddle penalty: "It was a little bit of a miscommunication there. We were trying to get a personnel grouping onto the field and there was miscommunication on the field as to who needed to be in there. So we have to do better at that. Those are inexcusable. That falls on us as a coaching staff and we'll be better at that as we move forward."

On beating themselves rather than losing to Chargers: "Well I don't want to take anything away from them. I thought they played outstanding in the game. I thought they had a good plan offensively, defensively and in the kicking game. We've got to execute better. And really what we have to concern ourselves is how do we improve in those areas from game number one to game number two.

On Ron Bartell and Jacoby Ford: "Bartell has a shoulder injury. I'm not sure the extent to the shoulder injury. He's having an MRI right now. Jacoby Ford is going to have surgery on his foot this afternoon in Carolina."

On how long Ford will be out: "I do not know that for sure."

On if they'll bring up a receiver from the practice squad: "We're going to look at that. Right now we've got five receivers available to us, so Reggie [McKenzie] and I will sit down and look at where we're at and if that's something we need to do."

On if it's too late to add him to long-term injured reserve: "No, that's a potential."

On what the surgery is for: "It's really basically the same injury he had last year. When he reinjured it this season there was nothing new structurally different from where it was last year. After visiting with the foot specialist there in Carolina, everybody thought that given a little bit of time, he could come back from it. After giving it some time and reevaluating, everybody, the medical people, felt like surgery was the best thing for him."

On if there was a setback: "No, it just didn't respond like everybody was hoping that it would."

On the likelihood he'll be out for several weeks: "Yeah, it'll be a significant amount of time. I don't know exactly what that number would be."

On the running game last night: "We ran the ball effectively early in the game. It was a little later in the game, our last eight rushes, was minus-3 and then we kind of got away from the running game at the end of the game when we were in the catch-up mode. I'm not discouraged where we're at running the ball. We still need to be more effective running the ball, but part of it was we had a couple negative plays that really played into account to the lack of rushing yardage."

On how to balance getting Darren McFadden touches and keeping him fresh: "We're going to have to use the other backs a little bit more and keep Darren a little bit more fresh. He played a lot of snaps in the game. We felt like that gave us the best chance to win last night. We'll continue to evaluate that situation as we go throughout the season. We're going to have to get some other touches for some of the other backs so we can keep Darren healthy."

On if Taiwan Jones' ball security issues played into how much he was used: "Yes."

On if that was why he was downing the ball in the end zone for kickoffs: "That was something we discussed as a staff what we felt like was the best thing as far as returning those kicks. Back when they kicked the ball from the 30-yard line, nobody brought it out of the end zone. Now they're five yards closer and kicking it five to seven yards deep and people are bringing it out and you see a lot more negative plays, tackles inside the 20, and we wanted to make sure we secured the ball on the 20-yard line."

On if trouble getting the ball downfield in passing game was due to Chargers defense or if offense was looking to get short-yardage plays: "No, it was a little combination of both. I thought Carson [Palmer] did a nice job of looking to try to get the ball down field, not forcing the ball downfield, taking his checkdown when it was available. I think Carson ended up throwing for…I think we netted 252 or something like that. So we threw the ball effectively. We had five explosive gains in the passing game. So the passing game was not the issue. The issue was the turnovers and the punt team, the mishandles or the poor snaps, as well as the blocked kick."

On the fact Raiders should have been allowed another play at end of game: "I knew the rule that if they touch the ball first that it was illegal touching and we should be awarded another play. I wasn't sure exactly who touched the ball first when it happened in the game and it was later that I realized it was them who touched the ball first."

On if they'd consider Chad Johnson: "I wouldn't specify him specifically as there's interest there. Like I've told you guys before, I mean, we're going to look at everybody that's available and if we feel like there's somebody that can help us and give us a chance to be better and help this team win, then we're going to do that. If he fits that category, then I wouldn't rule anything out."

On if Denarius Moore will play this week: "I'm very hopeful that Denarius will play this week."

On why Mike Mitchell wasn't used against Antonio Gates: "Just more of a game plan thing. I thought Tyvon [Branch] matched up on him pretty well. Gates had a couple third down conversions in the game that were big conversions, but I felt like we did a decent job on Gates throughout most of the game."

On Miles Burris: "Miles plays the game the right way. He plays with passion, he plays with energy, he plays with speed. If he continues to work to get better, which I know that he will, I would expect him to improve as a football player. I was pleased with the way that he played in the game and we have to continue to see the improvement from Week 1 to Week 2."

On determining which offensive linemen will be up for the game: "Generally you're going to have someone that can play inside and somebody that can play outside. That's been pretty standard that you're going to take seven offensive linemen most of the time into the game unless you have some other situation that would require you to do otherwise. So we felt that having Wiz [Stefen Wisniewski] up in the game and having Willie Smith up in the game was our best options."

On Pat Lee's play: "Hey listen, we've got NFL football players on our roster and we expect them to go out and play like NFL players. I thought he went out and did a pretty good job last night against a pretty good group of receivers and a pretty good passing game."

On success defending the run: "It was good. Our ability to stop the run a lot of times with seven men in the box was a good thing. I thought our front, as well as our linebackers, did a nice job of understanding what the run fits were and understanding the schemes that were getting. We have to continue to play the run that way."

On Marcel Reece's role after getting a contract extension: "I think if you looked at the game the other night, you saw him being used in a lot of different ways. I don't know that he got the ball as much as what you might like, but a lot of that is dictated based of what kind of coverage you get in the passing game. I thought the way that we used Marcel yesterday was done the right way and I think he's a weapon and we're going to continue to find ways to use him."

On the short week: "It's tough when you're short a day. We spent the early part of this morning trying to make the corrections from last night's game and then we're into the game planning stages for Miami. We have a lot of work to do. We have a short time to get it done so we're going to be busy getting ready for this game."

On if the coaching staff worries about the team's past losses in Miami: "Every year is a new year so I don't really pay a whole lot of attention to that. We've got to go play a 10:00 a.m. game on our body clock. We get up early in the morning and have our meetings and practice and so I don't really look at that as a crutch or an excuse. We have to go play a game and whenever they tell us to kick it off, we'll be ready to kick it off."

On if Wisniewski will start: "We're going to look at it this week. Obviously, there is still a competition there and he'll get some first team reps this week."

On emotions after first game as head coach: "Just get better. Me get better individually, us as a coaching staff, the players, this organization. I don't try to get too high or too low after a win or a loss. This is not a sprint, this is a marathon. That was one of 16 games. We have 15 more of them that we're guaranteed and we're going to try to get better every week."

On the unpredictability of having long snapping issues: "No, I didn't lay asleep at night dreaming about that, that's for sure. Yeah, but that's the National Football League, injuries happen. You've got to be prepared for just about anything. We'll be more prepared for that next time it comes up."

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