Breaking Down the Raiders’ Collapse: Coaching, Roster, and What’s Next

To his credit, Pete Carroll made no excuses, pointed the finger right at himself and didn’t back down after the poor performance.

He took the loss head on like the certain future Hall of Fame coach that he is.

Head Coach Pete Carroll

Opening Statement:

"Well, this looks like a real miss from bouncing back [after the game against the Los Angeles Chargers] for this ballgame. We did the things we thought we needed to do to get right, but we didn't play well in the first half at all. You can see it across the board. Teams in offense and defense, we weren't physically back as much as they were. They played really well. They were strong from the beginning, and it put us behind them, but we weren't out at all, and our guys didn't feel like that. Mentally, we were okay, but physically, we just didn't seem like we made the bounce back as well as we normally do in coming back after the Monday night game. So I have to do a better job. It's all three phases, so it's me. So, I've got to do a better job making sure I manage our return. So that when we get on the field, we're ready to go."

Carroll continued, "The guys are trying, but it just didn't quite happen like it had before. So it's there for us, and our guys know that. We stayed with it. We kept hanging. We kept trying to find a way, and the belief was ongoing. So, I'm really happy with that. It gives us a chance to keep finding ourselves and see if we can get our game right. That was a good bounce-back game for [QB] Geno [Smith], even though he was under duress a good part of it. He found his way, got us back on track, and gave us a shot. [WR] Tre Tucker had a terrific football game for us, and it's good to see that. The kicking game was really explosive, and it just looked like we were off. So, it's not scheme-wise, it's just physically, I think I didn't get them right. So I'm taking this one, and I'm disappointed in myself that I didn't see it coming. And give [Head Coach] Dan [Quinn] a lot of credit, his guys were ready to go. They played a fine football game under duress too. They had guys that were banged up and all that, and I give them a lot of credit for directing a good win. So, getting back to work."

On if he expected this outcome:

"No. If I had known that, I would have done something."

On why the offensive line is struggling:

"Well, it turns us back to [how] we have to balance out what we're doing so we can mix better. We didn't run the football at all early. And then when we did, we drove the football, we made our scores. So once we got going, I thought [RB] Ashton [Jeanty] did a really good job with his opportunities. He got a lot of carries today. It was a good ball game for him. It was tough, and he played tough and showed you how he does it. But we didn't start out well at all. We came out of the chutes getting hurt, and so until we got going, you couldn't see much. But we do have to mix better so that we feel the run and the pass mix that gives us an advantage. Instead of feeling like we're getting knocked around."

On how he feels about giving up 50 yards in one play:

"Huge play. That's just not the football that we play, and that's what I'm saying. We have to be better, because it starts right with that. If you give up big plays, you're no good, and we were no good today."

On starting RG Alex Cappa over RG Jackson Powers-Johnson:

"It was a short week, and he just got back. We'll give Alex a chance to go again and see how that goes. He was available to play, but we just decided [that] for the continuity of coming out last week, we might be a little bit smoother, and we didn't hit any of these days this week, and so it just felt like this was a better choice to go that way. The competition goes on."

On TE Michael Mayer's status:

"He did have a concussion. He went through the protocol and all of that. I don't know how serious it is. We'll find out."

On not bouncing back from their game against the Los Angeles Chargers:

"It looked like that. That's what it felt like. It felt like we did not get back. We had a terrific practice on Thursday, and it felt like we had bounced. So we adjusted to make sure to get to game time, knowing that these guys were going to have all the rest that they needed, and we needed to get as rested as we could, make sure that we would be strong and ready to go. But it didn't work out, and if it did, you would've seen it. So, I didn't handle that as well as I needed to."

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