Raiders Collapse in Embarrassing Blowout Loss to Colts

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As is his usual practice after such losses, Head Coach Pete Carroll addressed the media regarding the team's performance.

However, his responses lacked the enthusiastic optimism that a fan base desperate for a winning season would hope for. Pete Carroll finds himself searching.

You can read a partial transcript of his comments below:

Head Coach Pete Carroll

Opening Statement:

“Well, it was really disappointing for us to go out there and have such a hard time getting in this game. Things happened early enough to get us behind, and it just felt like we just needed to hang and keep going and stay close. And the game got away because we couldn't score enough. There's big plays that are happening to us that just have to be solved, and we have to get the game cleaned up. We can't let this happen. The blocks and the significant field changes – they're just huge to deal with. So, you couple that with a couple turnovers – I think one of them was really obviously questioned as a huge play in the game. When we're down there going in and the ball gets tipped up in the air and they catch it, and it gets in the neutral zone, I’m pretty sure. I mean, you guys would know better if you've seen it. But we have to overcome that kind of stuff, and we just don't seem to be able to find the way to do that yet.”

Carroll continued, “We believe we're going to be much better than this. The coaches do and the players do, and we feel like we can prove it by the way we're working and the way we're preparing it all. But you got to take it to the game, and we've not got that done enough in the last couple weeks here. The Commanders game, this game we’re similar and then we just couldn't get out of our own way. So, we have a lot of work to do. We have to keep believing and we have to keep proving it. The young guys that got a chance to play today will be better for it in the long run of it, but we need to get our guys back out there too. So, we'll see how we can do next week, and we'll just start all over again.”

I think at one point the Colts were eight-of-nine on third downs. That's obviously going to lead to bad outcomes. There was one on a third-and-12 when the game was 3-0 and you guys were leading. How much of a backbreaker is that?

“Yeah, they were seven-for-eight in the first half. They were able to get the conversions. We had calls in. You have a game plan, things that you're trying to get done and they just out-executed us in the throwing and catching part of it and we weren't able to get off the field. That's why they sustained their drives, and they only had a few in the second half, but that was the issue. The stat line is, it's an even-looking game. You would never think the score would be like that by looking at the stat line – in almost any aspect of it from run, to pass, to penalties, you name it. In sight of that though, the game is – we have to get off the field. We've got to make our plays when we get our chances, and we’ve got to stay away from the extremely big plays that happened – the punt block and losing the ball on the interception down there. So, those things are so significant that they're factoring into the game.”

Obviously, multiple people didn't perform well, but was there any consideration to going with Kenny Pickett at all?

“I was thinking that there was reason to do that, but here's the reason why I didn't do that – we need to stay out there and keep practicing. We need to keep practicing, we need the reps, we need the turns. We need to run the system. We need to feel it. We need to see the guys get their opportunities to improve. It's not like a big change. I thought about it. There was a chance to do that – same thing with Maxx (Crosby), to get Maxx out of there. I’m fighting with him (because) he wants to play, but that's normal. That's not what's necessary. We need to get better and get right. So, these are the games that we're working on, and these are the games we have to learn from and grow from so that we can change the course of the way things are going. There's nobody in there that doesn't feel like that. And so, we're going to go right back at it again.”

Do you feel like Geno Smith is pressing at all at this point?

“That's your work. I think it's hard. I think it's been hard. It hasn't been easy. It's been tough to get the big plays in the last couple weeks that give you the easy scores. Even go back to the Commanders game – we exploded a bunch of times in that game. All of those other plays, you don't have to call in between there. It's hard, and he cares so much and it's so important to him to try to come through for everybody else, and he wants to play well and all that. You just have to – in my mind, you have to wash out the ball that gets tipped. That play shouldn't have happened. It should never have been there. So we throw the ball into a little coverage there and a guy gets the pick. You can't make excuses for me. Just got to live with it and grow and see if we can eliminate them.”

Regarding Brock Bowers, I know you had expectations that he could have played. What changed?

“We were going to rest him all the way through the week and he thought – we all thought – that that was going to make a difference. But as he got down to it on Saturday, he couldn't feel it. He couldn't get right. Kind of happened to (Eric) Stokes too. He practiced during the week and got through it, but his knee didn’t respond well enough to feel like he can go 1,000 miles an hour out here on game day. So, a little wishful thinking. Optimism, relentless optimism. Obviously, we’ll get there. If Brock (Bowers) could have played, he would have. If Stokes could have played, he would have. And we thought that by resting them it would make a difference, and we didn’t get as much out of that as we had hoped.”

The guys in the locker room were talking about leadership, the importance of it right now more than ever. How confident are you that they’re the leaders in the locker room?

“I have no problem with that. I have no hesitation in telling you that. There’s enough guys that have been around their own places or been around with us, and guys that we know well. That’s not the issue.”

Is there any update on Germaine Pratt?

“Yeah, just decided to go with the other guys.”

What did you see on the first drive you guys had? Was that the tone you were trying to set, and then what made it difficult after that?

“Yeah, I think it was second-and-three and we got sacked. We got knocked out, and then we wind up third-and-12, or something like that. It was just unfortunate. I don't know about the play in particular, why we cut – we didn’t really cut a guy loose. We got covered up a little bit. He had to hold it, and then it worked against us unfortunately. That would have been, obviously, a great drive to consummate that. It must have been seven or eight minutes, or even nine minutes or whatever it was. It was perfect, and then we get a big play and we get knocked out. So, three points was all it was, which at the time, you think, ‘Okay, we moved the football.’ We felt good about it, and it was a very good opening drive. But then you look at it – it took a long time to ever get another point.”

What kind of conversations do you and the coaching staff have with Geno Smith now, just moving forward from this game?

“We're all in this thing together, and we talk through all of the hard conversations about things we might not agree with and then the things we agree with, and we'll just put it together. Just keep working. The intention and the purpose is connected. We just have to get the results that comes out of that and make sure we're making clear decisions, the right ones, the right choices, working with our experienced players – guys that have an opinion and they know a lot, and G (Geno Smith) is one of those guys.”

How about for you? You came in here with expectations of winning games this year. How are you processing what's happening?

“I'm processing it poorly to tell you the truth, because I did expect to win right out of the chutes. But what I'm seeing and what I'm feeling is I know by the way we're working – because I've watched a lot of teams work and develop your system, your belief in it, and knowing who you count on, who you can trust, and all of that. That is ongoing, and it feels like we're going in a good direction. That said, it's just not showing up here. Don't forget, last week we had the winning drive. We go down the field, kick the field goal, win the game. Okay, that was last week at one point. It feels like a million miles away from that. But that was that week, and then this week was a whole different situation. This was the result. It’s very similar to the Commanders game. So, hoping we go back home, we play right again, and get a game going, get moving. It's going to start sometime. I'm just kind of waiting for that moment where we kick it in. We have the answers.”

Carroll elaborated, “We make the right choices. We make the right plays, the right calls. It's on us, all of us. It’s not on the players. It's on all of us to get that right. Myself totally included in all of that. And then we go, and that's how I've always seen it. I thought it would be last week at home. I thought that we would go on the road, we're going to get it this week, and I'm going to keep thinking that way. I told them, ‘I'm going to keep believing and I hope that you guys will do the same thing until we get this thing right.’”

Is there any concern that Brock Bowers’ injury has become worse and could lead to him missing more time outside of this game?

“I don't know. I’ve got to talk to the guys about that. I don’t know about that. This was just couldn’t quite get it done. On Saturday's walk-thru was really when he said, ‘I don’t have it.’ So, it's day-to-day.”

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