Photo by Tony Gonzales
Interim Head Coach Tony Sparano
On the game: "Obviously we ran into a good football team here today. They played well and we didn't. We didn't start fast. We knew this was a team that started fast, one of the better teams in the league that way and we didn't start fast on either side of the football today. Obviously that's my responsibility, but we didn't start fast, we didn't make any progress in the first several drives. We didn't offensively keep the ball, defensively keep them out, and then we got into the turnover thing and put our defense in some bad positions when we were already in some bad positions. We'll learn from this. This is not a game we can hang on to very long. We get back, get to work and get ourselves ready to play another game at home this week."
On if he saw this coming: "No, I'll be honest with you – and I said this to the players – there was one day in practice this week I didn't think we had a great day of practice. Again, that's my fault. I have to do a better job of making sure those things don't happen out there. All that being said, it's not something that I saw coming. I knew we were playing a team that was a good team. They've beaten good teams, specifically in this place, and they're a good defense. I knew that that was the case coming in here, but to say I'd seen this coming, no, I didn't see this coming. Our team has been in close football games for a bunch of weeks right now and this just wasn't one of those football games. Obviously, this got away from us and we just couldn't turn it around. Some of those games in the past we've been able to turn it around and we couldn't turn it around today."
On if the team was flat: "I didn't see flat, honestly. I didn't feel flat. I didn't see flat. No, I felt we had good energy. I felt like the kids were hopping around pretty good. We were running good, all those things. I just think, honestly, they came out, they hit us good. We got off the field in three plays and they took the ball down and scored. I don't have to tell you the rest of that. We didn't make enough happen early on to keep them off the field and they took the ball down the field and then they got that big run that jumped out of there on us and it kind of opened that thing up there a little bit."
On taking Derek Carr out of the game: "Honestly, it doesn't have anything to do with what Derek [Carr] did or didn't do or those type of things. It was a scenario where I have to be honest with myself at that point and try to take him out of the football game and not risk potentially, at that point, of him getting hurt or those type of things. I made the decision to take him out of the game and I think it was the right decision."
On the Rams throwing first nine plays of the game: "They came out throwing fast and they came out and hit a couple of chunk plays on us. They hit an over-route there that was a chunk play on a naked and then they hit another one and it was a chunk play. I think those two plays got them going a little bit, but they threw the ball. It wasn't something we didn't think they were going to do, to throw the football that way. Obviously, they had a good day being able to do that, particularly early in the football game. Our defense came back in the second half and got us off the field a few times, had a little drive going there and then couldn't do anything with it."
On the tackling: "I didn't feel like we tackled very well. To be honest with you, I didn't think fundamentally…[inaudible]…a big run came out of there, some tackles, some fundamental things and I think we had some people in the open field we didn't do a good job of getting them on the ground either, which is obviously something we did do several days ago. We tackled very well. We have to get, obviously, back to doing those type of things. It's something with our team…We're either a very young team and obviously we have some veteran players in here, we have to be able to all learn from this. As I just told the team, we can't just learn from winning a game a week ago, we have to learn from these feelings too. The way I didn't want them to forget the feeling last week, I don't want them to forget this feeling right now. We'll forget it after we watch the film tomorrow and get on with the 49ers."
On punting instead of kicking a 55 [Sebastian] Janikowski field goal: "At that point, we talked about it a little bit and we felt like we would knock them down in there, which we did if I'm correct. I believe the ball was on the 2-yard line or 3-yard line, or whatever it was, I don't really remember the result of the drive - it might have been a score; I don't remember the result of the drive."
On their successful short passes: "Again, I have to watch the film, but what I saw a few times was missed tackles. I thought I saw a few missed tackles out there. They got the ball out a couple times on some bubbles. We'd been doing a great job playing those things and we didn't do a very good job of it here. We all have to take responsibility; it starts with me. We all have to take responsibility for it. It's embarrassing."
On if he's experienced a loss like this: "Yeah, I've been through games like this, sure. I've been through games like this and I've been through games like this and bounced back and won games. Unfortunately, it's the nature of this league. You look up at the scoreboard up there and it happens every single week. You have to learn from it and you have to move on from it, but you do have to learn from it. You just can't dismiss it. After playing the way we played a week ago and coming out here and doing this, it's something that we have to pay attention to and learn from."
On if defensive pressure was too much for Carr at times: "I thought early in the game, I didn't feel – and again I'll have to watch the film – but I didn't feel the pressure early in the game. They probably blitzed us, I couldn't even imagine how many times tonight. It was a lot. And they were pressuring when the score was up there pretty good. That being said, we have to block the pressure. We knew it was going to come. To be honest with you, it wasn't very much out there that we didn't see or practice. They got good hands, getting [Chris] Long back out there. When I say good hands - their front. And we knew that. And getting Long back out there obviously provided a little more for them too. As the game went on and you get into one of those deals where you have to throw the football like that, that is not the type of football game – I don't care who the team is that they're playing – that you want to play against this kind of team."
On team's resiliency: "I have every faith and trust in the people in that locker room. I love those kids in that locker room. I wish they didn't have to go through this. In order to get to where we want to be I guess this is something we have to go through, but I have every confidence to believe that they'll bounce back and they'll do just what I believe is in their DNA and they'll be resilient and learn from it and handle it like professionals and be ready to go. I think a lot about the people in that room."
QB Derek Carr
On what happened in today's game: "It was just from execution, it just wasn't us. I don't know what that was. I can't wait to watch the film and learn from it. Obviously, we turned the ball over way too many times. The two I had – the one to 'Mo' [Maurice Jones-Drew], I was going down just trying to make a play, especially in that situation. Again, that's me just trying to do too much in the situation that we're in. But the second one, he got tackled. I felt we got the look we wanted, the guy jumped (WR) James (Jones). It was perfect for that coverage. He jumped James, I went to throw it in behind (WR) Vince (Brown), the guy pretty much hit him but it is what it is."
On if he was okay with being taken out of the game by Coach Sparano: "Oh, gosh no. I was pretty hot. I was pretty upset, but then he explained why. It's hard because I'm so competitive. I want to play. I want to do my best to help us and all those things, but when he explained why I have to be smart too and understand we still have four games left. We can't risk anything with the situation the way it was."
On if their performance today resulted from being too relieved to get their first win of the season last week: "I don't know. It's hard. It just didn't feel like us, so maybe. Coach Sparano told us, he said he wanted us to remember the feeling we had last week, but remember this one, too, because this hurts – this is bad. This is a bad feeling, but we know that it's tough right now – it's really tough right now. So, what kind of people, what kind of team are we going to be? Are we going to turn on each other, or are we going to hold hands and go together with this thing? Obviously, we're going to stick together and see what happens."
On if the offense's number of three-and-outs had an impact on the outcome of the game: "Obviously, with three-and-outs it's tough on our defense, but as an offense we know what kind of defense they have. We know how talented they are, all those things. So, in the situation early in the game, you just want to be smart, you want to make the right calls. You don't know if you're going to get a new look or not, so be smart, take what they're giving you. I thought we did a good job with that. Obviously, the three-and-out, that's tough because some of the third downs were really close or the second down plays were really close also. But against the kind of defense that they have, you don't want to go out just taking chances all the time because, obviously as you can see, they're good at taking the ball away. For us, it was just about being smart at that time, but obviously later on in the game, how it started to work out, you kind of just have to start…they're playing cover-2 soft zone, you've got to take everything underneath. It's tough – it's a tough situation."
On the coaching staff's message when it was 38-0 at halftime: "From the coaches' stance, they were fired up."
If the coaches were angry: "No, just that we need to execute. Be passionate – have a little passion about us. And that's one thing, in my head, 'Let's go win the second half. Let's go win the second half and see what we can do with this thing.' That's one thing about me, I never give up. I always have the passion in me, so I just try and relay the encouragement to the guys. That's really hard, and how did we react? We didn't react good enough, obviously. We didn't react good enough, so we've got to take a look at it."
On if the team came out flat today: "I guess so because it just wasn't us. That didn't look like us, what we had been working on. Obviously, times like that are going to happen. You never want it to be like this. You never want to go through those times, but they do happen in this league especially against a really good team like they have. I don't know if 'flat' is the word, but it just wasn't us."
On if he thinks this game could cause the team to unravel: "For me, I always have hope in my teammates. I always have the faith in my teammates and our coaching staff. I don't worry about them. I know that we're going to keep fighting. I know that they're going to prepare and all those things. It's my job as the leader of this team to make sure that they're still staying encouraged and executing crisp at practice. I don't think our practices were good enough this week, and that's something that Coach (Tony Sparano) hit on and that's on us. I'll make sure we get that right."
RB Darren McFadden
General comments on game after winning last week: "We came to the game with a lot of positive energy. It was a carryover from last week and we were trying to keep it going. Today, we got hit in the mouth and we didn't respond like we should have. You have to give it to the Rams, they played a hell of a game."
On the difference between last week's game against Kansas City: "They just hit us in the mouth, that was the main thing. We have to respond. We can't get down on ourselves. I feel like there was something that happened out there and we didn't respond to it and we should have."
On whether the Raiders were ready to play the Rams: "Yes, we were definitely ready to play. Anytime you come here you're going to be ready. But, you have to respond when you get hit in the mouth."
On what was said at halftime: "Go out and keep fighting, finish and win the second half and that's something we definitely didn't do."
On getting back to work on Monday: "Yes sir, back to the drawing board for us."
WR James Jones
General comments on game: "Today we got slapped. We got beat up. They (Rams) came out and played better than us in every phase. We got hit in the mouth and didn't punch back."
As a veteran what do you tell teammates on days like this: "Keep swinging, just keep swinging. If you look around the league there's a lot of teams losing by more than three points. They're a lot of teams getting blown out and it isn't just us. They probably didn't lose by fifty, but there are a lot of teams getting blown out. Just keep swinging and good things will happen."
DE Justin Tuck
On the loss hurting after a big win last week: "I don't know if it hurts worse but it hurts. I don't care where you are as a team but when something like that happens, it hurts. I really don't have any words to describe what that feels like. If I sound dumbfounded, that's because I am."
On coming out and playing flat: "I don't care if we come out flat, it's still no explanation for that. This is a humbling game and every time I go on the football field I'm surprised by this outcome."
On having a loss like this: "I don't think it's been like this. I had my fair share of losses but I guess my memory deleted all those other ones, like I hope it does this one. I can't think of anything of this magnitude."
S Charles Woodson
On his play today: "I'm not going to speak for anybody else today. I know I didn't play well. That's all I can say."
On rebounding from the game: "It's not hard. I've always said that for any game. A loss or a win, you have to put it behind you quickly and move on to the next team. That's really all you can do."
On the Rams speed of the game: "I'm not surprised on how they came out. I think we were in a position to stop some things and we just couldn't get it done for whatever reason."
