Geno Smith Breaks Down Primetime Debacle vs. Chargers

Raiders Head Coach Pete Carroll spoke before Saturday's practice. Below is a partial transcript.

Q: Obviously, this Monday is also going to be your birthday on the game day. Have you ever had the experience of coaching a game on your birthday? 

Coach Carroll: "I have no idea. It must have happened somewhere. I've had enough chances, but I don't know. I don't remember that, and it's not a big deal to me at all." 

Q: You said you felt confident in the depth -- specifically Michael Mayer's performance Sunday, and just overall, how you and him have maybe connected since you got here? 

Coach Carroll: "Well, let me take you a little bit of a different place here, that Ian Thomas has done great with us. He's been on point, just in particular and just in this particular position. If Ian [Thomas] plays in the game, he's going to do really well, just as Mike [Michael Mayer] has done really well throughout. 

“Mike has had a great camp with us. He had a great offseason with us, and has done everything we could hope that he could do, and he can play the number one tight end, Y, and move around at the other positions, as well as can Ian, and as we prepared Brock [Bowers] to do a little bit of everything. Those guys cover for each other. So it's a very solid group, and just in general, we have been healthy, fortunately, throughout, so all of our guys have worked the kind of workload that it takes to be able to prepare to play. So I feel very good in that regard, across the board. But if you get hit in the position, and you get hit in a position, then it gets difficult no matter who you are or where you are."

Q: What does it mean to match up against Jim Harbaugh again? 

Coach Carroll: "This is a division game, and it's the next game on our schedule, and it's a championship freaking game to me, and that's the only way I've ever looked at these games. Is there some game that's more important than another that you're going to try harder because you're playing somebody or somewhere or whatever? I don't believe in that. 

“We don't talk like that. These guys are hammered with that thought that every game, every chance, every time we go out, we're going to give it everything we got until it's over, and then we're going to recalibrate by going through the process of the week, and we're going to do it again. 

"So this has felt like a championship preparation. I just told them that it was a championship Friday on the field, and it doesn't matter who, where or whatever, to me. And maybe that's why we've been okay on these prime-time type of games. For years, we've been good at it because we know how to how to approach it. And hopefully we'll be able to do that again and perform like we're capable."