Raiders DOMINATE Dolphins In Statement Week 1 Win!

I don't know what I was even worried about. Brock Bowers? Who cares? Put me and you out there and we'll see Klink Kubiak slice and dice this defense. We'll see Robbie Leonard send the dogs after Malik Willis. One and oh. Now look. It was the Dolphins. Some people were saying this was a battle of two very bad teams. A mid-off I've seen it be called. So what you want to do in games where you're playing bad teams is show that you are at least a step above the worst of the worst. And today we did. I am pretty satisfied with a lot of the question marks I had going into this game and into the season. And when Brock was called out this game I was nervous. I predicted 24-20 us. I thought it was a coin flip. So did the Vegas odds. But it was pretty evident early on that the operation that we had, that the talent that we had was not going to be able to be matched by the Miami Dolphins. 23- nope. Let me try again. 27-13. Game could have been a lot worse for the Dolphins. Kirk Cousins we have to thank for both sides of it. The good and the bad. We're going to get into so many specifics. The run game, instant reaction, all of it. We're going to get into all of it. And I'm going to take these off because I can't see a goddarn thing. There we go. That was fun. It's pretty rare that the Raiders have a comfortable win from start to finish. Now there were times where Kirk Cousins put the ball in harm's way and they could have easily came back in it and against a different team. That ain't going to fly. So we got to clean that up fast. We're going to give Kirko the benefit of the doubt as of right now. But for the time being, you know, he's on a little bit of a short leash. But if we're just hopping right into this instant reaction, let's look at the stats here a little. I want to move my face over here. 27 to 13 final. The game was never really in doubt. Kirk Cousins 21 for 31, 160 yards, three touchdowns, two picks. I mean, again, we'll get to them in a second. Ashton Gentee 23 carries for 101 yards, six receptions for 45 yards and two touchdowns. Mike Washington had 5.9 per carry. Ashton Gentee 4.4 per carry. That was nice to see. Receiving, it was pretty spread around. It was Ashton for six, Michael Mayer for six, Jalen Naylor for three, Trey Tucker for two, Jack Besch for three. A touchdown and Malik Benson had a nice play in the beginning and then the defense. N'Kobe Dean had a sack. Quiddie Paye had two sacks. Trayden Stooks with the first career interception, a forced fumble by Kway Walker. I believe Jeremy Chin had a forced fumble, no? Or are they not? Oh, no, no, fumble recovery. Excuse me, forced fumble Jeremy Chin. Fatou Kassi with the half a sack, Crosby with the sack and a half. Dylan Lalby had some really good kick returns. Matt Gay was two for two. A.J. Cole, he didn't punt until well into the third quarter. Again, we had that one interception, but still. My instant reaction is I'm thrilled. I'm absolutely thrilled with what I saw and the Chargers are going to be out for blood next week because they just lost to the Cardinals. We are 1-0 for the rest of the AFC West right now because the Broncos and the Chiefs play tomorrow, are 0-1 or have not played. So for the time being, take a picture of the division because we're in first place. I want to know your guys' thoughts, instant reactions, everything in between because there is so much to talk about. We're going to get into all of it right now. I'm going to start with Clint Kubiak. I thought he, look, when you're playing a not great team, you're going to have people that are cynics about the outcome and that's totally understandable. We're playing a Dolphins team who has not that much talent. Even without Brock, we still eclipsed them in the talent and experience department. But what you want to see is the process. You want to see the first-timers do things well. I thought Clint Kubiak managed the game perfectly. He was level-headed and he called a great game, maybe got a little bit pass-happy for me toward the middle of the game, but was getting action involved. There were multiple times throughout the game where Ashton and Mike were in the ballgame at the same time, where Dylan Laube was, you know, in pass pro and Ashton was a wide receiver. Maybe they really like this wide receiver room because they're going to split Ashton out wide for a lot with Brock Bower. So on a lot of, you know, different types of play calls that you're going to be seeing throughout the season now, you're going to be having Ashton and Brock with Trey Tucker sprinkled in as your wide receiver group, with Mike Washington in the backfield, with Michael Mayer as your tight end. I thought, and I'm pretty sure this was the case, that snap infraction, the punt snap infraction at the end of the game, was on purpose. Because he, he either, it was either on purpose or he glitched, but I think it was on purpose. He fake snapped the ball and then as he was doing it, was looking around to see where the pressure and the protection needed to be, where the pressure was coming from, where the protection needed to be. They know A.J. Cole can boom and he's an automatic weapon. You can buy him at Walmart. And then A.J. Cole on the very next play pins him inside two feet from the end zone. Incredible coaching masterclass from Clint Kubiak. Again, it's one game. We don't want to get overhyped, but it was a pretty comfortable win. And, and I thought Clint Kubiak, and we'll lump Rob Leonard in here too, very, very solid game. They knew, you know, which players to get on the field at which time. I can't believe the Vikings scored 29 points in the fourth quarter of that game. That's wild. The NFL is back and I could not be happier. Robby Leonard as well, I thought was awesome. Dialing up when he needed to dial up, had his guys flying around the football field. Last year, the defense wasn't horrible. It wasn't great. It was middle of the road. But we didn't ever have to play with a lead, or we weren't able to play with the lead. And now that we are, you can see the improvements that we made. People were flying around. So I thought the coaching staff was awesome. I love that Mendoza and Aidan O'Connell were right next to the quarterback coach, asking questions every time a play call was being called in. I thought that was incredible. Now, Kirk Cousins. Let's talk about Kirk Cousins because he had an up and down day. And I do believe at the end of this game, his leash got a little bit shorter. Look, it happens to anyone that is rapidly reaching the age of 30 like myself. Can't believe I just said that out loud. One day you're slipping into your favorite pair of sweat pants and you realize this feels a little bit tight around the waist than it used to, and it did not shrink in the wash. And someone who's lucky enough to be like me, who's always been naturally skinny and had a high metabolism, I never had any trouble waking up with enough energy to keep that body fat weight percentage down. And testosterone has a lot to do with that. But once you hit a certain age as a guy, your testosterone level starts to go down around 30 years old with a 1% loss around every year after that. And you look on the market for different things to help you supplements to maybe boost your testosterone level to give you that energy to lose some of that body weight. And there's a lot of scary ingredients in some of these supplements, but not with the one that we're talking about today, Mars Men. And what I love about this product is that they do not shy away from essentially showing you every single ingredient on the bottle plain as day, the amount and everything in between. Mars Men is designed to help unlock that testosterone in your body so it can be used to give you more energy throughout the day. No synthetics, no needles, just a natural, clean supplement. For a limited time our listeners get 50% off for life plus free shipping and three free gifts at MenGoToMars.com. That's MenGoToMars.com for 50% off and three free gifts when you check out. After you purchase your Mars Men, you will get a prompt asking you who sent you, where you heard about us. Make sure you shout out the channel and tell them All Abort Raiders sent you. So obviously Kirk Cousins was just dinking and dunking all day and night and when you could scheme people open, that works well. But what I was afraid of is our inability to be able to score touchdowns in the red zone. I don't know what we ended up being. Does it have it here on the team stats? Time of possession, tackles, blah blah blah. No. I'm trying to remember. I mean we scored one, two, three touchdowns in this game. They probably were all within the red zone. But there were a couple times where, you know, they were daring Kirk Cousins to throw the ball down there. When you don't have Brock Bowers in the game, it's going to be tough to find somebody to get separation. I wanted them to kind of throw like a fade to Michael Mayer, just a 50-50 ball to give somebody a chance. And for the most part, I thought Kirk Cousins did a good job of managing the game. What scares me is the interceptions obviously, but in particular the second one. The first one, it was not a good throw, but he overthrew him. He missed him. A little miscommunication with Jack. I don't know what exactly happened there. We'll watch the film tomorrow. But it was a bad throw. The second one, he got a little yippy in the pocket even though it was kind of clean. And he threw just like a rookie mistake kind of pick. I did not really like that at all, to be honest with you. It freaked me out. And I do think that play in particular has him on a little bit of a shorter lease. Now, I'm not saying Fernando Mendoza wouldn't do the exact same thing. But if Kirk Cousins is going to start for the majority of the season, he can have multi-interception games because, you know, a rookie quarterback will do that. I think he was really trying to avoid taking sacks, which I understand. But that second throw was not good. And if you're playing a good team, that's going to come back to bite you. And this game could have been a lot closer if maybe we were playing some other team. But our defense did step up in a major way. So Kirk Cousins for the time being, a lot that I liked, a lot that I didn't like. He's obviously a great leader and he knows what he's doing. He knows how to get them in the right plays. I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt for this game because he was missing Brock Bowers. We expect, it sounds like, Schefter said earlier today that Brock Bowers is going to be back maybe next week. So that's huge for us. I'm really surprised on how comfortable this game was, especially with Brock being out. I thought it was going to be a little bit of a struggle. And what really sold me on today was the offensive line. They protected Kirk really well. Did we give up a sack today? I mean, there was a busted play sack. We allowed zero sacks. There was a busted play where Kirk Cousins was running and got tackled. We allowed zero sacks today. We sacked Malik Willis five times. Four for 13 on third down, which isn't great. But we had 21 first downs to their 13. We had 17 more total plays. Six penalties, not great, but only for 29 yards. Two picks. The turnover battle was equal, which you don't love, but we had the ball for nine more minutes. Yeah, I'm really happy with what I saw. Kirk Cousins' leash got a little bit shorter, but I want to see what he's like with Brock Bowers because he did not have a security blanket, and it's week one. You don't know what you're going to get. Jeff Halfley is a good defensive coordinator, so that Miami defense is not horrible. But if you're going to throw multi-interception games again, Kirk, I mean, it was giving Geno Smith, I'm not going to lie to you. Fernando Mendoza is going to come in. And right now, you have to think, if there's a world where this team looks a little bit better than we thought initially, and Mendoza gives us a little bit of a better spark, they might yank Kirk faster than even we think. So who knows? Who knows? Who knows? The defense. Now look, we're going to talk about the defense here. I did just remember that there's going to be press conferences, so I'm going to pull the press conferences up here, and if they start playing in the background, then we'll react to them and we'll watch them. But the defense was awesome today. Okay, Clint's already at the podium, so let me just make sure we have this ready to go here. We'll actually go to, we'll go back to Clint, and we'll watch the press conference here, and then we'll get into the defense. So let's go back to Clint. Let's go guys. Really proud of our team. You know, it's been a really, really fun journey from the spring and from training camp, and now really proud of the guys. Not happy with how we played the game offensively in that second half, and we have a lot to get better at, but I'm very excited for our team and for the organization, and for the silver and black, the crowd tonight was phenomenal. So take any questions you got. We had home field advantage today. I don't know how many Dolphins fans there are, but we had home field advantage. How would you, how would you articulate Ashley Gentee's performance today? Well, coming off, coming off his injury, I'd say. I totally forgot about that. It was coming off of an ankle injury. Gentee was incredible. We'll get to him in the stand-up later. You know, it's kind of on par from what we've come to expect from him. He's been a leader throughout, and you know, what he did tonight is what we expect from him, but doing it on a, with a bad ankle, with a little bit less practice than he's used to, I think just tells you the kind of guy you're dealing with. And just a quick follow-up, Matt, there was a, like, I think the Dolphins' third drive of the game, Max Crosby was out for like four to six straight plays. Is that a sign that he's on, like, a snap count, or what was the decision behind that? That's just my call, you know. I did notice that as well. That was something I forgot to bring up. I'm glad they brought that up. Max Crosby played maybe 75% of the snaps, 80% of the snaps, but there was a bulk of time, especially in the second quarter, I think, the third drive, like, I don't know who asked this question, I apologize, asked where he wasn't on the field. Interesting. That's my call. First of all, congratulations on your first win as a head coach, but I'd like, you mentioned the crowd, and I've been here for every game, Clint. That's the loudest they've ever been sustained through an entire game. What's that tell you about their buy-in to what you and your staff are doing? Yeah, you know, we, you know, we watched a really cool video about the history of the Black Hole and the Silver and Black, and you made a big point of, you know, earning, you know, earning our way to making this our house, and, but it's just the support we had, how loud it was on the first drive throughout the game. It was, it was, it was special, you know, it's what this building can be, and obviously, it's up to us to earn the respect of those fans. Yes, sir. You got it for one week. You were disappointed in the second half of the offense, but hurt from Clint's first 10 passes. What does that say about the rhythm that offense was in to start the game? Yeah, it was a really good start, you know. You know, you kind of, we come right in that first drive, and I think we, you know, aside from, I think we kicked, you know, we have one field goal, but we're scoring. Just want to see us, you know, want to see us continue to get better, not be satisfied and close games out. Following that, what do you feel like clipped in the second half offensively? It's credit to Miami. They played really well, and we didn't, we weren't on the details. And then just overall with Kurt's performance, what did you, what did you like about how he was able to run the offense today? Do you think anyone dare ask him if they, if he think, if he's thinking about Mendoz after one week? I thought he came ready to play. I thought he had a great, great start to the game. You know, two decisions that he's got to have back. That's the nature of the position. So that's something we're going to get, we're going to get fixed and get cleaned up. But overall, he played winning football. Clint, could you talk about your staff today? I think that Raiders fans got to see a lot of what we've seen in the preseason with their creativity, their cohesiveness. Just would you take a minute to brag on your staff a little bit? Yeah, I'm really proud of the guys. You know, again, you know, we're not where we want to be. There's things that we got to get better at. You know, we have 12 guys on the field. You know, I'm burning timeouts left and right in the second half because we're having trouble getting lined up. So that's what I will say. There were a couple of times where I thought the play took a little bit too long to come in. And with Clint and Kirk, I thought that would be better. But Kirk's dealing with a lot of young guys and a new offensive line. So again, benefit of the doubt. Thank God we had a nice, easy game to start. But we got to fix that stuff for week two. You make mistakes now, so you don't make them later. You know, we're not a finished product, so we can get better too. Clint, obviously, Michael Mayer getting his deal done, stepping up in this game. What did you see from him? You seem to go to him a lot in the offense. Yeah, we're really proud to have Mike, to have him back for a long time. You know, when you get rewarded a second contract as a draft pick in an organization, that's a big deal. And, you know, he's very deserving of that. He's been a guy that's been extremely physical throughout camp, doesn't mispractice, accountable, and sets a standard. And that's just what we've come to expect from him. When Miami kicked their field goal, you answered with a touchdown. What does that message send to all the players, all the coaches, that this is about winning football? That's the kind of formula. Yeah, that's what we expect from our guys. You know, no head down, no woe is me. Let's go get the ball and see what we can do. You know, I think it's easy for a game to go the other way, and I was proud of our players, how they responded, and the way the coaching staff got them ready to go for the next draft. It looked like a pretty active day for Clint Mayer. What were you able to see from him today? You know, all I see is the blurs of the silver and black on defense. You know, it's hard to kind of watch the tape, but I just love the way our defense played, how they swarmed, how they turned the ball over, how they responded to sudden change. Very proud of them. Okay, look, let's talk about the defense here, because that was a perfect transition. Awesome, really good. Secondary played pretty well for the most part. There were a couple of ill-at-time, you know, Malik Willis big plays, but that's kind of what I was warning us about, is I think just with a new quarterback in the mix now, you don't have a lot of tape on him, and he's mobile. He might be able to scramble, and they scored seven points off of the first interception. So, if you don't throw that pick, maybe this score is even better. Quidipe, Max Crosby. I'm just naming people I saw fly around the field. Quidipe, Max Crosby, Jeremy Chin, Trayden Stukes was awesome. Who else? I saw Tonka deflect the ball. Thomas Booker was in the mix in the backfield. N'Kobe Dean had a huge sack on a spy play. Kway Walker was in the mix, recovered a fumble. This defense, I think, could be really surprising this year, and the reason why I've been saying I think maybe we can be a little bit better than people think, maybe instead of three or four wins, it's six or seven wins, is because we're going to be a potent rushing attack, and our defense is going to be really good. I trust Rob Leonard after what I've seen so far, and this defense has talent. And yeah, oh, it's two bad teams playing, but there was one team that looked significantly better than the other, and they didn't have arguably their best player. Definitely their best player on offense. Now that Ashton Gente's here, I don't know about that anymore, but speaking of standout players, Ashton Gente has arrived. He was awesome. Obviously a standout player, but the rest of the standout players is every single offensive lineman. Not a single sack given up. Kirk Cousins had essentially all day to throw. There was holes and lanes and valleys opening up throughout. Mike Washington had a couple big plays. Shout out to Jack Besch with his first touchdown, trading Stukes with the big pick. Look, it wasn't perfect, but you know, nobody expects much out of us this year. So for us to have a pretty comfortable win where we left some points on the table, we weren't perfect, and we still were in control of that game essentially from start to finish. I don't know what more you could ask for. Kirk Cousins, my main issue is just don't panic, man. You've been in this league a long time. Like, go where the, throw the ball where it's supposed to be, let your receivers make a play. You have to take a sack, you have to take a sack. Next week we got the Chargers, and look, this is why I'm saying don't look at the schedules beforehand to say, uh-oh, we're screwed, or uh-oh this team's going to be really good. You just have to look at what we did in the offseason and say, is this team good enough to be able to compete? Because now the Chargers are coming off a game where they lost handily to the Arizona Cardinals. So maybe that spread when we were going into LA is 7.5, maybe now it's 5.5, right? Brock Bowers comes back, it drops to 4.5. A couple balls bounce our way, we start the season 2-0 with the Chargers falling to 0-2. Again, week one is a liar, we understand this. But every win counts, every play counts, and what you can evaluate is the process. The offensive line was improved. Ashton Gente is the real deal. Clint Kubiak managed the game well. Kirk Cousins, besides really, in my opinion, one really bad decision, was decent. And the defense is going to be better than people think, and is going to continue to get better. We came out of training camp relatively healthy. Once we get Brock Bowers back on this field, once we start to get a little bit of momentum here with the offense, the sky could be the limit in terms of, the sky could be the limit in terms of improvement, in terms of competition. I'm not saying we're going to go 15-2. And do not forget, waiting in the wings is Fernando Mendoza. The more he continues to learn and grow, he unlocks another level of this offense, the over-the-top ball, the quarterback scrambling for the first down. We are starting to see a semblance of a vision here, a semblance of a team that's able to compete, and I couldn't be happier. Shout out to all of you. Make sure we're commenting away. 5 and 10 dollar patrons, what's up? If you want to become a Patreon YouTube member, all of that is linked in the description below. Hit that like button, comment away. The Raiders are 1-0, and please be sure to subscribe. It is free after all, no charge to you. I love you guys, and I'll see you next time.