Oakland Raiders head coach Hue Jackson was in good spirits on Friday when he spoke to the media in his weekly day-after press conference, and spoke to the confidence he has in his football team, the importance of running back Michael Bush, and the benefit of having 10 days off between games.
Can you talk about the importance of stopping the bleeding by getting this win, and not letting any of the negativity that's been surrounding the team lately creep in?
"Everybody thinks there's been negativity, I don't. I know losing breeds that, people start saying things...but I never felt that in our locker room. What I wanted to do was to make sure everybody kept working, just keep your head down. I had a good feeling of what wasn't going right, and if you don't know what's wrong with your team you won't know how to fix it."
Whatever Jackson saw that was wrong with his squad he got it righted in a hurry. Carson Palmer played much better (14/20, 299 yards, 2 TD's), the defense was getting tons of pressure (6 sacks), and Michael Bush had a beast of a game (30 carries, 157 yards, 1 TD). Jackson spoke about the important of Bush as well:
Did you come into the game thinking you would have to give it to Michael [Bush] 30 times?
Honestly, I thought I was going to give it to Michael as many times as it took to win the game. If it meant 50 times I would have handed it to him 50 times. I'm sure those guys will tell you that I script the openers, and the opener didn't say run the ball 30 times to Michael Bush, it says be balanced, be diverse. He was starting to stake over the game, the blockers were taking over the game, and the rest is history.
Well said coach. Well said indeed.
How beneficial is it to have 10 games off before you next game?
I think it's very beneficial. I told the guys we got 10 days to get healthy and get to get strong. We're in the last run of this thing, you know, you got seven games left, and we got some real big football ahead of us to play.
With four games left against the NFC North, including a meeting with the Detroit Lions and undefeated Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field, there are a lot of tough games left on the docket for the Silver and Black. Hopefully they can continue to play like they did in San Diego.
To watch the presser in it's entirety, click here.
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