Head Coach Jack Del Rio
Alameda, Calif. – Oakland Raiders Head Coach Jack Del Rio was back at the team's facility on Monday, and met with members of the media to give a recap of Sunday's game. The Silver and Black defeated the San Diego Chargers by a narrow margin, but ultimately got the "W." The team managed to close out the game with a solid defensive stop in front of Raider Nation.
Here are the quick hits from Del Rio's press conference:
**He stressed the importance of winning in the NFL, regardless of how you get the win, winning isn't easy.
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"No, winning in this league is tough. The sense is that you go in and you prepare to strain for 60 minutes with all three phases and hopefully you're able to do enough, collectively, to win the game."
Del Rio talked about the team's outlook on how they've performed and their will to continue getting better.
"I think we have a healthy perspective of what we want to look like and knowing that we're not quite there. There is a lot of work in front of us. I don't think anybody would disagree with that. There is a long season in front of us, a lot of things we must do better as we go forward. We're working hard at it. We'll continue that. I think the fact that the guys recognize that is a healthy thing."
The Raiders recently acquired veteran linebacker Perry Riley, Jr., off of waivers, and Del Rio praised his performance in his Raiders debut.
"It speaks to his professionalism, really attacking the preparation, trying to learn the language. That's the biggest thing. Basically anything you're doing, he's probably done in his career over six years. We found some of the common ground and tried to put it in our terms so he could learn it as quick as possible. He worked hard at it. He played well. Did a nice job for us. Really stepping in and playing well on short notice like that, it was big for us."
**He discussed how the team needs to clean up its pre-snap penalties, and will focus on getting it taken care of.
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"Yeah, that's the biggest one. The judgment calls that can go either way, you're going to be a competitive team, a team that plays really hard, you're going to have some of those. Over the year, they tend to balance out. The pre-snap penalties, don't have a lot of patience for those. We have zero tolerance for those. We've got to clean those up. Pre-snap penalties get me going there."
Del Rio commended guard Denver Kirkland for his ability to step in and contribute to the blocking game.
"He did well. Denver Kirkland stepped in yesterday. He was the extra tight end, reporting as a big guy playing the tight end position. With the absence of Lee [Smith] it was a little bit of the example of what I was referring to when I said it would maybe be multiple people to play Lee's role, because you had a tackle do it, you had some tight ends do it and that's what you're going to do to kind of be able to duplicate what Lee would give us."
