Raiders Podcast: Complete Recap of the Win Over the Packers
The Las Vegas Raiders (2-3) got a much-needed win tonight, 17-13, over the Green Bay Packers (2-3), and we have a complete recap for you.
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00 Hi everybody, this is Hondo Carpenter from Sports Illustrated's Fan Nation Las Vegas
00:06 Raiders Insider Podcast with my complete recap of the Las Vegas Raiders win over the Green
00:12 Bay Packers.
00:13 We got a lot to dissect tonight, a lot to talk about.
00:16 As you know, the final score was 17-13.
00:20 I want to say a couple things.
00:22 You may remember me telling you that Don Shula once said to me, "You never apologize for
00:28 a road win in the NFL."
00:30 He considered all of them stealing a win.
00:33 But I've heard many coaches say over the years, "You don't apologize for any win."
00:38 So there's a lot to talk about and there are legitimate things to talk about.
00:42 But first off, you start with the most important thing, which is the Raiders just won.
00:47 And that's a big deal.
00:48 This is a game they should have won, like they should have last week, but they should
00:52 have won and they did.
00:55 Now coming into the season, I said with coaching and talent, everything they had, I thought
00:59 it was a nine-win team.
01:00 I projected them at this point to be three and two.
01:03 They're two and three.
01:06 But they got the win.
01:07 They're back on the winning track.
01:08 They're one behind what I projected them to be for the year.
01:12 And you never apologize for a win.
01:14 So let's get into it because we got a lot to talk about.
01:17 I think there's some legitimate issues in this organization that have to be addressed.
01:23 First of all, I talked with you in my podcast this morning about five things that you wanted
01:28 to see tonight.
01:30 And we're going to dig into those and get into them because I think they're germane
01:33 and very important.
01:35 The first one was coaching.
01:38 And I'm just going to tell you right now, I thought this game had multiple coaching
01:44 errors, multiple.
01:47 For example, I'll give you one.
01:50 The Raiders late in the second quarter had a third in goal.
01:55 And Josh McDaniels calls for a play to the flag and the receiver gets it at about the
02:00 10 or the nine.
02:01 And I think he dropped it.
02:03 But the point of the matter is, is when you're down there, right after a big turnover, when
02:08 all off season you stress turnovers and your team got one and get you down in the red zone
02:15 and you're third in goal and you're not throwing for the end zone, that's an absolutely epic
02:19 failure, period.
02:23 And it tells me he doesn't trust Jimmy.
02:27 Now he's not going to tell you that.
02:29 But if you trust your quarterback, when you've got Devontae Adams, Hunter Renfro, Jacoby
02:34 Myers, Michael Mayer, Josh Jacobs, who can catch out of the backfield and do some stuff,
02:41 that's clearly what it is.
02:43 Just like a couple of weeks ago, he kicked a field goal and I said it was a statement
02:48 of I don't trust my offense.
02:50 That's exactly what it was.
02:51 But to me, it was a terrible play call.
02:53 I don't understand.
02:54 You go for it on fourth down or you do some things that tell your team you really believe
02:59 in them.
03:00 And then down there, that's just a...
03:02 If it's not the case and the fact that he has been aggressive on fourth down would tell
03:08 you that he does believe in him, then it's a coaching blunder.
03:11 So it's one or the other.
03:12 If you don't have faith in your team or your quarterback, it's a coaching blunder.
03:18 You can decipher it or parse it to be anything that you want, but it is only one of those
03:23 two things.
03:24 It's nothing else.
03:25 So it's very disappointing in coaching.
03:30 This may surprise some of you, but Green Bay blitzed more tonight than they have the entire
03:36 season.
03:38 It was amazing to me how often.
03:40 So the offensive line did not look good.
03:43 I would use the term clean because there were several times when you had six or seven packers
03:50 coming and you had five guys.
03:56 They took a Luminor out, but they ran at the start of the second half.
04:01 So Carmen Brasillo was certainly trying to do some interesting things.
04:06 So I'm not going to hold that on coaching.
04:07 I mean, he coaches the players that they give them and he was making adjustments and trying
04:12 to do some things.
04:14 But when the Packers were blitzing, the Raiders didn't, which is this is a Josh Jacob things,
04:19 didn't make a whole lot of changes.
04:21 They did some, but there wasn't a whole lot of changes.
04:24 They just kept rolling the dice.
04:26 So I realized that the offensive line did not look good, not pretending that it did,
04:31 but I thought Carmen Brasillo did make some attempts at some coaching changes, but I don't
04:36 care who you are, when you got seven on five or eight on six or whatever you have, or seven
04:42 on six, even at times you're going to get pressure.
04:45 So again, I thought there was that.
04:48 Another coaching error is the Raiders come back, there's a minute, just over a minute
04:52 40, I think a minute 43.
04:56 And Green Bay had the ball, the defense gets another big stop.
05:04 You're going to have to punt.
05:06 Now you know, you're going to get the ball back.
05:09 So normally conventional wisdom, you take a timeout right there, save as much of the
05:14 clock.
05:15 Instead, they wasted almost 30 seconds by letting that ball just go.
05:22 And then you saw that they go to kick a field goal because at the end of the game, when
05:26 they got the ball back, end of the half, when they got the ball back, when they would have
05:30 had more time, it was a coaching blunder.
05:32 Now in fairness, I didn't get a chance to ask Josh about it after the game because someone
05:36 else did, but he was asked about it.
05:39 He said he considered it.
05:41 Okay.
05:42 His call, he's the head coach.
05:44 I disagree with it, making that clear.
05:46 And I didn't ask about it simply because of it had already been asked.
05:51 But the point is it was not a performance in coaching.
05:55 The Raiders did not win tonight because of coaching on the offensive side of the ball.
06:01 They did not win because of coaching at all.
06:04 And do I think the coaching was atrocious?
06:09 No.
06:11 But do I think it was stellar?
06:13 Not at all.
06:14 And I think there's higher expectations on that coaching staff and they were disappointing.
06:22 The next thing I talked about is the $102 million offense that five games in still can't
06:27 score 20 points.
06:29 It is pathetic.
06:31 I mean, Jimmy Garoppolo is your handpicked guy and he's got more interceptions and touchdowns.
06:38 I mean, I've said this before, but it's true.
06:41 It's like walking into a Jenny Craig clinic and I'm your instructor.
06:44 You can't go spend millions of dollars on your handpicked quarterback and you're five
06:48 games in, you're two and three, and he's got more interceptions than touchdown passes.
06:53 That's just ugly.
06:54 It's ugly.
06:56 And I was in with Colton Miller, talking with Colton and Miller on video and off camera.
07:04 So I didn't get in to get a question because I would have asked Jimmy specifically, you
07:10 know, you're not performing at the level that you need to.
07:13 What do you have to do to turn that around?
07:16 And again, you can say, well, there was pressure from Green Bay.
07:20 Absolutely right.
07:21 Absolutely right.
07:22 No, no, not saying that there wasn't.
07:24 But there were some bad throws, some bad reads and some misses tonight that just can't happen.
07:29 Listen, when they're bringing seven and you got five blockers and you get sacked or you
07:33 throw the ball away, there's no shame in that.
07:37 None.
07:38 But there is, you know, when you have chances to make plays and you don't, you're paid tens
07:44 of millions of dollars to make those plays and you got to make them.
07:48 Period.
07:49 Period.
07:50 There's no getting around it.
07:51 He's not a rook.
07:52 He's got, he's got to make those plays.
07:55 And Jimmy, if you just give you Jimmy stats right here, he was 22 of 31, 208 yards.
08:02 He was sacked three times, one touchdown and one interception with a rating of 86.5.
08:12 So again, underwhelming, completely underwhelming.
08:16 The $102 million off, when you look at rushing, Josh Jacobs had 69 yards on 20 carries.
08:25 I thought he was able to do some things.
08:29 I was a little bit surprised that they didn't run more.
08:33 There were a couple of times when he was getting off some chunk plays and I would have thought
08:38 they would have, they had a chance to put Green Bay back on their heels and didn't.
08:43 I think that was a little overthinking, just like when Josh said on that, not taking a
08:48 timeout on third down, he says, you know, I considered it.
08:50 I think sometimes they're just overthinking and there's paralysis by analysis.
08:57 And so the $102 million offense did not perform.
09:00 F. F. I mean, Spillane gets the ball down in there on a, on a interception and you can't
09:09 punch it in.
09:10 You got to kick a field goal.
09:11 Unacceptable.
09:12 And I said at the time that it's unacceptable.
09:14 They needed a touchdown there.
09:17 And listen, we all know you can kick a field goal at the end of the game and win, but they
09:21 need touchdowns.
09:24 And that was a brutal mistake.
09:26 And your defense is giving you the ball.
09:28 They got you the ball three times.
09:29 Now, if you read my, my stuff, I talk about the rule of five, the Raiders tonight, uh,
09:37 they had three interceptions, which I thought was extremely good and they got, uh, two sets,
09:43 two sacks.
09:45 So they had five, obviously the Raiders, you know, they didn't, the Raiders didn't get
09:50 to the rule of five.
09:51 You can go back and read that in my game thread, what the game rule of five is that almost
09:56 guarantees a win, but it was a win.
09:59 And again, coaching, I don't think was up to the standard that it should have been.
10:03 I don't, nor was the offense up to the standard that it should have been.
10:08 The third thing I told you that they had to have was execution and discipline.
10:13 Now, Marcus Peters is a liability unless it's a passing situation.
10:21 In a passing situation, he's a real threat.
10:24 The problem is you've got other corners that you need, and you have a Nate Hobbs, who's
10:30 physical and Amik Robertson, who's physical, and Jacorian Bennett, not saying they all
10:34 played because they didn't, but Marcus Peters is, is, is here because of the Raiders failures
10:40 in drafting prior to Dave Ziegler and Josh McDaniels being here.
10:45 He's a filler, you know, with his ability as a pass defender making five mil a year.
10:53 I mean, he's probably a eight, nine, 10, $11 million a year foreigner if he was a contributor
10:59 in the rushing game.
11:00 He's not, but nobody, everybody knew that he wasn't brought in and changing, but he
11:05 was a liability.
11:06 But tonight he helped in the passing game.
11:08 We had a beautiful pass breakup that led to an interception, but I think he hurts this
11:13 team when it comes to the, the rushing attack.
11:17 Overall, though, when you look at this game and you, you look at it all, I think there's
11:21 a lot of really good here.
11:24 In passing, they gave up 182 yards and rushing yards, they gave up 110.
11:32 They give up 290 yards to an NFL team.
11:36 No shame in that game.
11:38 No shame in that game.
11:39 You held them under 300 yards and oh, by the way, you kept them to 13 points and they should
11:44 have had more, but your defense was stellar.
11:47 Okay.
11:48 So execution, I thought there, there was not as many dumb penalties tonight.
11:53 I'm not saying there wasn't some things you looked at, but there wasn't.
11:57 And I thought guys on the defense, especially executed offense, there was some drops offense.
12:03 There was some misreads.
12:06 So again, execution on the player side, I think on special teams was an absolute A,
12:11 but when is it for this team?
12:13 And on defense, I gave it a solid B edging, a B plus, probably a B plus if you really
12:20 want to know the truth.
12:22 And I thought offensive execution was a D. So quickly coaching, D plus, and that's the
12:34 whole team.
12:35 That's counting special teams, defense and offense.
12:38 Special teams, A, defense, B plus, offense, D minus.
12:48 When you look at the $102 million offense, it isn't producing.
12:57 It isn't doing what it's supposed to do.
12:58 I'm going to ask Josh McDaniels about that tomorrow in detail.
13:02 I've got two big questions I'm going to ask him tomorrow that I think are really important.
13:08 I did not ask them tonight because right after when, when you've got a press conference tomorrow,
13:15 I don't think is the appropriate time to do that because we're talking specifically about
13:19 one game.
13:20 My questions tomorrow are going to do holistically with the team as a whole and not just one
13:26 game.
13:27 So I'm going to ask them tomorrow.
13:29 But they're interesting.
13:30 The defense.
13:32 So the fourth thing I told you that we had to look at was the defense.
13:34 And I, again, B plus, A minus.
13:38 And you got to understand, you spent $102 million on your offense.
13:45 And so other than Max Crosby, you got a bunch of players.
13:53 It's a blue collar lunch pail.
13:55 Now, Robert Spillane was a big get.
13:58 And by the way, I'm going to get into more of this later in the season.
14:01 That was all Dave Ziegler, him and Marcus Epps.
14:06 What a great, and Ziegler identified, I need him and made him a priority and got him.
14:13 But Spillane has been really, really good.
14:16 But he's still not a guy that's a household name around the league.
14:19 Max Crosby is.
14:21 And so this is really a no-name defense other than Max Crosby.
14:25 And what do they do?
14:27 They're not pretty.
14:28 I'm not saying the men themselves are not handsome or ugly.
14:32 I'm not getting into that.
14:34 But they're not pretty.
14:36 But they play enough for you to win.
14:40 If this $102 million offense performed like $102 million offense, at worst, you'd be sitting
14:45 here four and one and maybe five and O.
14:49 But they're not.
14:50 And so the Raiders are two and three, but again, B plus, A minus on the defense.
14:55 And then the fifth thing I said that you needed to see was just win.
15:00 It is imperative.
15:01 You know, I have said this to you, and I know people don't want to hear it, but I'm in the
15:07 locker room.
15:08 I'm there.
15:09 This team has not quit on Josh McDaniels, and I won't say they have until they do.
15:14 And when they do, I'll say it.
15:16 I think they're certainly questioning some things, but nobody's quit on them.
15:21 Not one person has.
15:23 Having said that, when you're not winning, frustration builds.
15:30 It just grows.
15:32 And sometimes just getting a win lets the steam out of the tea kettle a little bit,
15:39 lowers the temperature a little bit.
15:41 Winning covers a multitude of sins.
15:42 I talked to several players about that tonight, and I think it's an absolutely germane question.
15:49 So overall, I think there's some real questions.
15:52 Josh McDaniels continues to offer some time management questions and some coaching decisions.
15:59 Is he too focused on the offense that maybe the team as a whole is suffering?
16:04 I think that's a very fair question.
16:07 And I laughed.
16:08 Somebody this week sent me an email basically telling me, "See if I have the male parts
16:13 to ask tough questions."
16:14 You know what?
16:15 Shut up.
16:17 You go get this job and work it every day.
16:23 I've proven I'm not afraid to ask any question.
16:26 I don't need you to tell me if you had the male parts.
16:28 Well, if you're so good at it, go get the job.
16:31 The point of the matter is that there are times to ask tough questions.
16:35 And again, I think it was absolutely germane to ask, "What are you thinking on third down
16:40 not taking a punt in the ball?"
16:42 I mean, not calling a timeout.
16:43 Very fair.
16:45 Somebody did, or I would have.
16:46 I think it's important to ask Josh McDaniels, "Do you think you're so focused on offense
16:50 that it's hurting the rest of the team and they need your attention?"
16:53 I'm going to ask him about that.
16:55 I think there are some other things to ask about.
17:00 But a win is huge.
17:02 They're two and three.
17:03 They're only one behind where I predicted them to be at this point.
17:07 They've got the Patriots coming in here and should win that football game.
17:11 That puts them at three and three.
17:13 Now all of a sudden they find themselves back at 500, six games in, and this team has a
17:17 chance to get on a roll.
17:19 I told you before this game, the next six are going to tell us a lot.
17:23 Does Josh get that locker room turned around?
17:27 Not turned around from not believing in him, but performing.
17:30 Does he and his staff perform better?
17:33 I think absolutely it is fair to point out player execution mistakes, but it is also
17:38 very fair to talk about poor performance by some of his staff and him.
17:44 And so that's the complete recap.
17:47 The Raiders got a win.
17:49 It was not pretty.
17:50 Now I told you after the Denver win, good teams find a way to win games when they don't
17:56 play good.
17:57 Okay.
17:58 Now you may argue this isn't a good team.
18:01 I believe with the talent they have in the coaching, this team should get to nine wins.
18:05 I think over 500, you're a good team in the National Football League.
18:11 If they don't get to there, then we're going to hold them to the standard of that's where
18:14 they should have been.
18:16 But this win was huge.
18:18 Like Al Davis said, just win.
18:20 You don't apologize at all for a win, but there's a lot to go for this team to work
18:27 on in a very short week.
18:29 You've got a lot of people in this organization tied to the Patriots.
18:34 This is a very big game coming up.
18:35 There's going to be a lot of emotion here in six days.
18:39 It's going to be a game I predict the Raiders will win, which will get them to 500 and then
18:43 get them starting to feel good.
18:45 But if this team's going to get to nine, obviously Jimmy has to stay healthy, but he's got to
18:51 play better and the coaching has to help them.
18:55 They're going to need coaching in one of these games where the coachings out coach somebody
19:01 and the team's able to sneak a win.
19:04 It's important.
19:06 That's why in this league coaches make so much money and they should, but they also
19:11 have the burden of responsibility.
19:14 Now a couple of things I want to address real quick.
19:15 I want to just go over.
19:18 Jacoby Myers, seven receptions on 10 targets, 175 yards and a touchdown.
19:26 He was phenomenal.
19:29 Trey Tucker had one target, didn't catch it.
19:33 One target for DeAndre Carter, didn't catch it.
19:35 Hunter Renfro, two targets, caught one.
19:38 Again Hunter is just underutilized.
19:41 Michael Mayer had three targets tonight, caught two.
19:44 I still think he's underutilized, but when you count Hoop in there, who had two targets
19:50 and caught two, I mean Hooper's a guy that when he's targeted, good things happen.
19:57 I think he needs some more targets.
19:59 They need to be utilizing the tight end more, got to get Hunter Renfro in the game and Trey
20:03 Tucker more.
20:05 But I think that those are all fascinating.
20:07 Now let's take a quick second if you don't mind.
20:10 I just want to go over and talk about Raiders defense a little bit.
20:18 Diablo, he had 10 tackles again tonight.
20:21 Spallane, nine tackles, two interceptions.
20:23 Spallane was unbelievable.
20:25 If you DVR'd the game, go back and watch.
20:28 There were several times where you saw him moving guys, putting them in the right place.
20:32 He was really, really good.
20:35 And Max Crosby, five tackles.
20:37 But dear God, y'all know the respect I have for Max, but I mean just getting held, beat
20:46 up, thrown down, laid on, whatever.
20:51 And again, he influenced the game in an absolutely huge way.
20:54 I do want to talk about one player in particular.
20:58 Again, the offensive line was not great.
21:02 I'm not saying that they were.
21:04 But again, Green Bay blitzed more tonight than they have all year.
21:09 In fact, I talked with somebody out in the hallway.
21:15 I don't remember if it was in the hallway or by text, so forgive me.
21:18 I just don't remember real quick.
21:19 But somebody from the Green Bay organization.
21:22 And I said, it appeared to me you blitzed more tonight than you have all year.
21:25 And they said that they had.
21:27 So they confirmed it.
21:28 And I think the offensive line, again, you saw Carmen try to make some adjustments.
21:33 And didn't see a lot of adjustments with Jakub in there or doing some other things by Josh.
21:41 But I thought Dylan Parham, there were some plays where multiple guys coming right at
21:46 him and he can only block one.
21:48 But there were several pancake blocks from him.
21:51 I thought he, you can absolutely say, man, he struggled.
21:56 But when there's two or three guys coming in your gap and you can only block one, I
22:01 thought he held his own.
22:03 So again, a win is a win.
22:07 And that's all that matters.
22:09 Green Bay did not play well tonight.
22:12 But it doesn't matter.
22:14 Because when the Raiders don't play well and win, we don't ask them to give the win back.
22:19 And if you play bad and lose, you don't ask them to give you the win back.
22:24 So that's my recap.
22:26 Again, I think there are some legitimate questions that have to be asked of Josh.
22:30 I'm going to ask him tomorrow at the press conference.
22:33 But for now, they get the win.
22:36 That's what matters.
22:37 They move to two and three.
22:38 They get a chance to let some steam off the tea kettle a little bit, take a little bit
22:42 of pressure off.
22:43 Now respond in a short week.
22:45 There's a lot to talk about this week.
22:47 And we're going to talk about it.
22:49 Next week's game is going to tell us a lot.
22:51 Because remember, I said the next six.
22:54 So I told you these next six were big.
22:56 They're one and 0.
22:58 There you go.
23:00 And now the Raiders find themselves with 12 games to go.
23:03 Still in year two of the Josh McDaniels regime, trying to figure out who and what they are.
23:09 Interesting times tonight here at Allegiant Stadium.
23:12 Thank you everybody for watching.
23:13 I appreciate you.
23:14 God bless you.
23:15 I'll see you tomorrow at the press conference.
23:16 And remember from Sports Illustrated's Fan Nation, Las Vegas Raiders Insider Podcast,
23:21 I'm Hondo Carpenter, part of the Fans First Sports Network.
23:24 Thanks for joining us tonight, everybody.
23:26 Appreciate you greatly.
23:28 And I'm thankful for him.