RAIDERS HEAD COACH JACK DEL RIO
On having control in the game:
Head Coach Del Rio:"It's great to come in here and get a road win in the division. I thought really for the first three quarters of the game, really strong efforts in all three phases. I think that's the longest we had sustained really good football as a team in all three phases. I'm really happy for our guys, excited about that, and of course I know you want to ask- it would be natural to ask what about the fourth quarter? The fourth quarter is not what we're looking for, but that's not going to be the focus. The focus is going to be that we got a win that we much needed. Certainly there are things that we know we'll clean up, but we're really proud of the guys and the effort and the commitment level and the way we're growing and developing as a football team."
On importance in coming out with a sense of urgency after a BYE:
Head Coach Del Rio:"Yeah. Well we just wanted to come out and play good football. We talked about that. We talked about the belief that we had in each other: players, coaches, the support staff, everybody. We're doing so many good things you know there are good things ahead. So we'll stay in the course in believing and coming out here really today just to relax and play good football. Everything was about just relax and play, believe in each other and play good football. I thought that was a pretty good example of that."
On offensive balance:
Head Coach Del Rio:"Yeah. I thought we had some explosive plays overall. I thought that Derek (Carr) was sharp. The offensive line is where it starts;* *they did a nice job. The backs ran hard. The receivers made plays, tight ends involved in that. It was a good performance."
On Malcolm (Smith) being a part of the defense:
Head Coach Del Rio:"I had a huge day riding on Malcolm. Malcolm has been tremendous since the day he got here. Just a great young man. We can count on him to do a lot. He gets a sack today, he gets a pick today, several passes defensed, [and] lots of tackles. Just a really good football player. Glad we have him. He's playing very well for us."
**On Malcolm's growth:
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Head Coach Del Rio:"Well he was among some extremely talented guys and when he did play he always played well. He's playing a lot now for us and he's doing a great job. We're glad we have him."
On deep ball to Amari (Cooper) and letting him make plays:
Head Coach Del Rio:"That's pretty much what it was. It was third and long and Derek gave him a shot. That's what we call those 50/50 balls. When you have a player with the ability that Amari has maybe it's a little bit better odds than that."
On Amari's ability as a player:
Head Coach Del Rio:"No. I would just say he's continuing to do things the right way. It starts with the way he works. He's really soft spoken, pretty humble guy, just loves to play football. He comes to work everyday, he's serious about his job so he's off to a nice start."
On Khalil (Mack) dropping back into coverage:
Head Coach Del Rio:"I was just looking at pretty much the game plan. We had some design up where that was involved and he did a nice job on it."
On Khalil being a better pass coverage player than credited for:
Head Coach Del Rio:"I like him better going forward. I think that's where he excels, but he's certainly capable. He's athletic enough to do whatever he wants."
On pass defense and good coverage in the back:
Head Coach Del Rio:"Yeah. Again I think three quarters you saw a glimpse of, really, a good football team in all three phases playing well. We're learning to sustain. Early it was maybe a quarter of good football one side or the other, maybe a half of good football one side or the other. We're now three quarters of really good football with all three phases and that's what we're looking to have. Looking to be strong in all three phases and I thought we were today."
On team discussing and thinking about playoff race:
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Head Coach Del Rio: **"We talked from day one about number one goals to win the division. You have to win in the division to have a chance to win the division. We don't sit and fixate on it every day. We can see the numbers. We know there's a team that's undefeated right now, but for us it's just about the process of playing good football. That was a stated goal. We're not going to back way from that, but what we're going to focus on every day is being a good football team. Demanding, developing, [and] growing as an organization, as a football team. I'm proud of our guys because I see plenty of good signs of growth."
On if it felt like a home game with fan support:
Head Coach Del Rio:"It was pretty strong. Pretty strong support here on the road. I had heard a few people say that that was possible throughout the week. I hadn't quite experienced that but it was great to have all of those fans out there supporting us today."
On if they eased up in the fourth quarter:
Head Coach Del Rio:"Yeah. Just a little bit. A little bit of things that as it shows you how fine the line is. It's a great teaching opportunity for us or a great example to learn from and it's always a lot more fun to talk about things you want to be better at with a win."
On signs in practice:
Head Coach Del Rio:"Like I said, I think it's about sustaining really good effort. I've seen spurts of really good effort from our football team. I think today is the closest of sustaining for 60 minutes and ultimately that's what we're after. We're looking for complete games. We're looking for all three phases doing good things to help our football team to play good football. So we will keep pushing but there's certainly a lot to be encouraged about."
On his review of Amari's cut on a short pass:
Head Coach Del Rio:"Just an example of great acceleration. Good body control. You're talking about the one where he made a short gain into a big play? He's got the ability to accelerate and control his body and finish in the open field. He's pretty special."
On fighting in the trenches:
Head Coach Del Rio:"That's where it starts. I believe in the trenches. I believe in the guys in the offensive and defensive lines. I think they're where we start. That's the foundation of it and where we're going to be. I feel really good about this football team having big physical tough athletes in the trenches."
On (Clive) Walford having two big plays as a rookie:
Head Coach Del Rio:"He's definitely getting more reps in practice. He's going to continue to be involved. We think Clive's a good young football player that has a bright future who we want to develop him and grow him and have him be a big part of what we're doing."
On effort to get Walford more reps:
Head Coach Del Rio:"Since the day he got here. Yes. He's a talented guy. He's got the ability to be a kind of do it all tight end. We just happen to have two good payers that he's sharing time with so he doesn't play all the time but he's starting to play more rep and anytime guys do well with the reps they get we attempt to get them more."
**On Neiron Ball's injury:
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Head Coach Del Rio:"The only word was that he was not able to finish the game so that means that we will have the test that is necessary to get a better picture of what's going on."
OAKLAND RAIDERS QUARTERBACK DEREK CARR
What does a game like that do to the team's confidence?
Carr:"Coach always stresses to just do your job, don't do anything superhuman and don't do anything outside yourself. Come in and do your job and I feel like that's what we did. That's reassurance that if we just do our job and don't go outside of the framework or try to do too much then that's what we can do. I believe we have a good football team and today we came out, listened to him and did our job. Nothing much more, nothing less and that's what we did."
Was it important for you to come out of the bye week with a high level of energy and start quick?
Carr:"Absolutely and especially with the sour taste of a loss. You always want to go into a bye week with a win, it's a lot better feeling but you learn lessons by losing in this league and we definitely did. It was big for us to come out hot and I think it gave us a chance to get some guys healthy. That's what bye weeks are for. We worked on some certain things and came out and did those things well today."
Is this a turning point game?
Carr:"I don't know. For us, we're just going to continue to go to work. I've been on teams where I've lost a lot and I've been on teams where we've won a lot but I'm the same person every time. I'm just going to continue to prepare how I have been and go from there."
On if he felt the offense clicking and playing as well as it has all year today:
Carr:"I think so and without seeing the film it just felt that way. I don't think we were as good as we wanted to be in the redzone and we need more touchdowns. Field goals as we learn sometimes in this league aren't enough, so we have to score more points that way. To be able to finish is something we have to work on. To me, we didn't hit a lull but we had scored a lot of points and that's where the inexperience kicked in. I have to do a better job of staying on the guys about finishing."
Thoughts on Oakland Raiders receiver Amari Cooper:
Carr:"He's amazing, he's awesome and he's one of the best in this league. Obviously because he's a rookie and hasn't done it for a certain amount of time people won't say that but he's one of the best."
Can you describe the long pass to him?
Carr:"He made a great move on the cornerback and had a one-on-one with the safety and that was totally a please catch it kind of deal*and he did." *What was the locker room like after the win today?
Carr:"It was joyful. That's my favorite thing about winning in this league. It's so hard to do but when you win and you come into the locker room and get to see everyone smile, see everyone happy, it makes all that hard work we put in have a reason."
Were the Chargers different not having safety Eric Weddle in the game?
Carr:"Obviously with a player of his caliber it's a loss when he's not in there but the two that played for him, those guys are great football players. I can't say they were not the same without Weddle but the other two really are good football players and they were trying to do some of the same things that he does so you have to be alert of where they are at and what they are doing."
On the atmosphere of the stadium today:
Carr:"It definitely felt like a home game and you have to give credit to our fans. The only reason I'm saying that is to give credit to them because it felt like a home game for us, it really did and we appreciate that."
Did Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers' performance last week give you any motivation for this game?
Carr: "I didn't watch it to study him but I saw the highlights and it doesn't shock me that he did it. He's one of the best in this league and one of the best to ever play this game honestly."
RAIDERS WIDE RECEIVER AMARI COOPER
Was that fun out there today?
Cooper:"Yeah it was really fun, great weather. It was a great day to play some football."
Did it feel like the offense was clicking out there on the field?
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Cooper: **"It definitely did. We were converting a lot. We were running the plays that we practiced and transferring them over to the game."
Did Derek Carr place that long pass in the right place?
Cooper:"Yeah, he did. He told me after the play that he saw the safety there but he trusted in me to go up and make the play."
Fourth quarter aside, how good does it feel to come down here and punch them in the nose?
Cooper:"It feels great. Of course, we have to finish. We want to be a team that finishes well, but it feels good to get a win."
On juke play:
Cooper:"It was just the perfect play. When I caught the ball I saw that I had a lot of room. I kind of started to stumble but I got my footing back. I saw the guys coming and I just made some moves on them."
On offensive line:
Cooper:"They love it and I love it. They free me up so I can go get into open spaces and try to get a touchdown."
RAIDERS SAFETY CHARLES WOODSON
I know that you know it was just a matter of time before Philip Rivers could get in a rhythm:
Woodson:"He didn't have to. A lot of that was errors on our part, mental errors. There are some great guys on our defense, not playing smart, maybe relaxing there at the end. He's a great quarterback, but if you're able to put together the first half, you have to be able to put together the second half too."
On hit on Malcolm Floyd:
Woodson:"I was just trying to cover a little ground to get to the ball. I was trying to help my teammates out. I was able to get out of the post and make some contact on the receiving side."
On overall performance:
Woodson:"It was working. The offense was moving the ball. It started early with the defense getting the turnover, with Malcolm (Smith) getting the pick. Malcolm has to get in the endzone there though. If we have an opportunity to score on defense, we need to score. Special teams was playing well. We played well as a defense for three quarters."
RAIDERS TIGHT END CLIVE WALFORD
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On touchdown pass from Derek Carr:**
Walford:"I was just so excited and so thrilled. He snapped the ball and I saw the way the defender played it. I felt like he was going to come at me, so I ran my route, cut back, saw the ball and knew I had to make a play on it."
Are you getting more comfortable with this offense?
Walford:"It's a work in progress. I'm trying to take it day by day. Whenever Coach Musgrave or Coach Del Rio calls my number I just try to make a play so they can have that much more confidence in me."
RAIDERS CB DJ HAYDEN
On overall game:
Hayden:"We did good in the first half. In the second half we kind of fell off a little bit, but at the end of the day we got the win."
On momentum moving forward:
Hayden:"It's the NFL. It's always good to win but we have to keep perfecting our craft. We have to keep playing football."
On Ken Norton, Jr.'s comments earlier in the week:
Hayden:"It means a lot. It means he believes in me. I believe in myself. We just have to go out here and do work."
On confidence boost after interception:
Hayden:"I was just out there playing football. That's all it really was."
On lead after second quarter:
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Hayden: **"We were out there playing good football. We kind of fell off at the end, but we just have to finish the game off."
RAIDERS RB LATAVIUS MURRAY
On quick lead:
Murray:"Any time you're on the road, you definitely take all you can get. The defense came up with the turnover there and we were able to punch it in early in the game."
On offensive line's performance:
Murray:"The guys were just moving people up front and getting us to the second level. It starts there and they really did a good job."
On young players stepping up:
Murray:"To see the young guys making plays shows that there are great things ahead for us. It's back to work and we're ready to get them next week."
On Amari Cooper:
Murray:"It's just what he does; to be able to be so explosive and stop on a dime and finish runs like he did. He's just been doing it since he got here. I'm really happy for him and to see every time he catches the ball what he does with it."
On crowd:
Murray:"We knew that going in, that we were going to have a good following. It helps; it really does, to have a bit of a home game on the road. It's huge. It's good we came away with one."
On Coach Del Rio's message after the game:
Murray:"Obviously, the way it ended, we'll have to be better there. But a win is a win, and to be happy about that and move forward next week."
