 Derek, Mike said that he wants to kind of get back to the basics in a way for what this offense can do. For you, what does that mean, running the ball differently, but what needs to change I guess? You all have the same mindset, getting back to the basics, doing what we do, doing what we know how to do, and go out there and execute it. Back to the basics this past week, fundamentals, working on small things and improving. Did you see that transfer into the game, even though it wasn't the outcome you wanted? What specifically do you want to work on fundamentally that would be different from what you did last week? I mean, I think we did it in our first drive, but we didn't sustain it throughout the game. And you know, end up losing. That's what happens. But I think you just keep working on it, keep heavy emphasis on it when you're out here on the practice field, meeting room, and continue to work on it until the Sunday comes. What do you think you guys have done differently, maybe to lead to those struggles where the first drive seems to be going to plan a lot of the time when it's scripted, you guys kind of get off script and have had some trouble sustaining drives in these first two games? Yeah, I think, you know, that first drive, you know, we were into it, moving the ball and playing how we wanted to play and, you know, got in the end zone. And I don't think, you know, the rest of the game, we weren't able to sustain that. And I think that's just the main focus. Getting the drive, make big plays, get conversions, and then go out there and score points. And then we know if we do that, we give ourselves a good chance. How would you describe the shortcomings in the rushing attack? Where is it like, is it something that you guys aren't doing or is it something that opposing teams are doing to stop it or slow it down? No, it just takes all 11. We got to be better. On my part, I got to do my part and be better and it takes all 11. So just focusing on it, being better at it and working it out here. It comes Sunday. Make it all come together. How do you and the team lean on the success of the past rather than kind of referencing the failures of the last two weeks? Just a little adversity when the sky's not falling. And we know we'll be fine, you know, just to stay with it. You know, we got the man in this building that'll get it done. You know, it takes a lot of hard work and improvement. You know, like I said, getting back to the basics. It takes all the left guys to make it happen. You just said that. But are guys sometimes when things don't go well, maybe guilty of trying to do too much and maybe just not not cleaning up their own details and trying to do too much and help too much? No, it's not an individual sport. It's all of us. And, you know, some guys don't have bad plays. That's a part of the game. But as long as you see that mindset want to improve and, you know, still working as hard as they can, it's all you can hope for. It's not always going to be perfect. What has been kind of a move mindset this week? What's it going to take to win on Sunday? I think coach put it perfect. Getting back to doing what we do. Getting back to, you know, what we do to, you know, make this team have success on all three phases. And that's just focusing on that. Only trying to accountable is what I've been saying. But, you know, it starts out here. And that's a big focus on just letting it carry into Sunday. What you do out here is definitely going to carry to Sunday. And that's the main focus. Have you ever been 0-1-2 at any level of football and how uncomfortable a feeling is it, I guess? 0-1-2 back in high school. It's never a good feeling when you're 0-1-2. You definitely win the win. It's why you play this game. But like I said, the sky's not falling. We're still focused. You know, as early as on the week, too, early in the season, so long season. So, you know, we just continue working and working to improve every day. How much do you talk with the offensive line? Do you have meetings with them? I can't remember if you guys were having those regularly in the past. Well, talk about what? Just what you're seeing, what they're doing. Well, I think we all know what we need to do. We know it's not, hasn't been our standard and success we had in the past. And we got to be better. I think we all know that we need to have it since the urgency, and that's what we all focus on. Derek, you've always been critical of your performance, always looking for ways to improve. Was it a little harder to flip that switch coming off that Monday night game and trying to shake that and move on? Oh, no. It made it more easier to get it going. I think when things like that happen, I think since the urgency rises and you know, you get a level that you would just want to get it going at some point. And that's my main focus is come out here and work hard and work hard every day until Sunday comes. Have you seen that in your teammates as well? Maybe you're feeling that this team needed a little bit of a wake-up call, and Monday night might have been that for everybody to take it up a notch. Yeah, I mean, we got in this building on this team, definitely motivated, and it's a grown man business. So our approach is always the same. Just come out here and get better and get ready for Sunday. Derek, what do you see from this Raiders defense and also a familiar face with Jay Omfraum, who you guys were teammates for a while? Some of you, they do a lot of different things. They switch up a lot, give you a lot of different fronts. And you might have something on one series and a whole other defense in another series. So you just watch a lot of the film on these guys. Happy to see Jay Om over there playing some ball. But we got to prepare for them because they do so many different things. That's right. All right, who's going to start out with the punt return question today? Yeah, well, that's it. Come on. Where are you in the process of figuring out who's is going to still be Kyle or where are you in the process? Yeah, I mean, we're still in the process of going through who's going to be back there. Obviously, today is going to be a big day, but we got to get back to the fundamentals. I got to do a better job coaching it, just letting those guys understand versus a right-footed punter, if that ball starts to turn over, you know, that ball is going to start drifting to the left. If it doesn't, that ball is going to be short and to the right. Just getting back to the basic fundamentals of getting square up to the ball, having our elbows in and watching it through. So we're going to focus on that today and with all the guys, whether it's KP, whether it's Imani Hooker, Robert Woods, or anyone else back there, we're going to really focus on that fundamental today. Does shoulder injury have any impact whatsoever on his ability to raise his hands and catch the ball properly? You know, obviously, we didn't feel like that going into it. You know, Kyle's a tough kid and we're excited to have him. Obviously, the guy has a bunch of playmaking ability that you guys saw in the pre-season and during that opening punt return. So we'll continue to work through whatever Kyle ends up, you know, can take and we'll see what's going on with it. But I think Kyle wants to be out there, you know, even after he dropped that other one, he was like, put me back out there. I want to be the guy, which obviously we love to hear. Why are you coming out of the game describing that scenario that they don't have down going into the game about the spin and the... Oh, I mean, that's obviously something that we taught them early on, but we just need to continue to reiterate it, you know, that, hey, if the guy ends up turning the ball over, if he ends up hitting the ball deep, that that spin's just going to be a little bit different, whether it's a right footed or a left footed punter. But yeah, that's something that we always go through them with during the training camp and off season, and we'll just continue to reiterate it with him because the one that Imani end up dropping, the guy ended up turning the ball over and it drifted to his left. So that's always something we'll focus on and hopefully get better at. Why are they not getting it? Does it say something about your messaging? You know, I don't think so. I just think it was one of those moments where those guys want to go out there and catch the ball and help the team. They probably want to get a return on it and just taking their eye off the ball a little bit, obviously doesn't end up helping. What about Berks? A kick return, I think a point it was, maybe it was Cannon, Hilliard, Chestnut as the top three. Now Cannon's out, Hilliard, maybe, if the, how you looking as far as depth chart goes there? Yeah, obviously Hassan ended up going back there for us during this last game. We thought he did a really good job, you know, coming up and catching those short kicks and then just running and getting up field. So we're excited about Hassan. Obviously Julius will be back there a little bit today too, getting reps and we'll find out what Don Trell can do a little bit later on in the week. What about Berks? I know there was mention that he was back there during camp, but has that something that you may approach? Sure. You know, Traylin was another guy who came up to us after, you know, the unfortunate incidents of, you know, dropping the punt, but he wanted to be back there and he came to me and said, coach, put me back there. I want to be the guy. You know, we just went down the list of Amani and then Robert and then obviously, if things weren't going to work out, Traylin would have got an opportunity. The great thing about Traylin is, you know, he came up to us and said, I want to do it. And you're always looking for a player to do that, like Amani did, like Robert Woods did, said, hey, put me back there, I can do it. So we'll find out what Traylin can end up doing, but he's getting better each and every time he gets out on the field, which is good. Is that the main, like enthusiasm for being back there, you seem to be awarding a lot of points for that. What about successfully doing the job? Where does that come in? Yeah, there's no question. I mean, that's obviously the most important thing for us to get the ball back. And last week, when we talked about that here, that's the main goal. You know, we can have enthusiasm and say, hey, I want to be back there, but we have got to catch the ball. We got to do our part on special teams to give our offense the ball back. That's our number one goal. And then we'll fight for yardage and get that. But it's obviously we've got to catch the ball, give the ball back to the offense. That's got to be the number one goal. The enthusiasm part is just helps us say, hey, OK, well, he wants to be back there, but can he end up doing it? Or is he back to square one? And Kyle's case, this turns into sort of the yips, too. And you just have to work on him, just catching the ball above all else? Sure, I think it's going to be confidence with him going back there. We'll continue to work with him. He does a great job in practice. It's just him going into the game now of having that confidence of going and catching the ball, whether there's guys around him or not, whether he has to signal for fair catch or get a return. But we'll continue to work with Kyle. Hopefully, he continues to have confidence going back there. And we'll find out what we're going to do this week later on. Are you back to the point where you were a year or two ago where it's just catch the ball and don't worry about a return? No, we don't want that. The biggest thing, catching the ball and giving back to the offense, but we don't want to just be go back there and fair catch the ball every single time. That's not what we're looking for. If guys are 20, 30 yards down the field and we're calling for a fair catch, we're obviously not helping out our offense at all, a gaining field position. But we want our guys to go back there and make smart decisions. If there is a chance to call for a fair catch, let's call for a fair catch. If there's a chance to return some and get some positive yards, we still need to do that. How much of these two losses is on your humans? I mean, obviously, when we lose, we always feel like we're a part of it. We're going to win as a team and lose as a team. We obviously don't want to have bad critical mistakes that help our team lose. We want to be more impactful to help our team win. So we'll continue to discuss it and hopefully get better and make an impact positively on a win for us. What you expected so far in terms of his ability to change field positions? Sure. He's doing a great job for us. If you guys were at the game against Buffalo, the wind gusts got up to 30 miles an hour during pregame. And it was pretty interesting. But he stayed compact, was really smooth, hit some really good balls for us. And we were obviously excited to go down there. And it's a net close to 46, 47 yards. We were excited for him. He's doing a great job. Todd, you guys have struggled with, we've talked about it a little bit, but those sustaining drives after you guys go off script, it's been something that has kind of been a struggle for your offense early on. What do you attribute that to in terms of why things are so successful early on? And then you guys can't seem to finish drives later in the game. Yeah, first I would say a little bit of a misnomer with the script term. You'd set an opening script or what we call the opening script. And it's just a group of plays that we like early in the game. We get together as a staff. It's the same process we've done for years around here. And inevitably you're going to come off of that script because of a situation. Whether it was a Giants game getting in the red zone quickly or a third down early in the game, you come off of that script within the process of the game. But I would say why we haven't been able to sustain is because our consistency hasn't been there. Our execution, as we've gotten into our second third drives or into the second half of the Giants game, we just need to be more consistent in executing our bread and butter schemes. The toss sweep that you guys ran several times to the left, it got stopped for lost yardage multiple times without Taylor on the field. Why keep going to that when they were sniffing it out? Yeah, the ball exchange was the same in that it was a toss, but there were two different schemes, one of them being in sub and then the other one being a big personnel grouping. Thought we could get the front set in a way that we could gain leverage on those blocks. Obviously it didn't work out and we didn't execute well enough, but after the second one stayed away from that a little bit. So. What's it like right now to kind of reset to the identity that you need to have to be the team that you've been? Yeah, I think the communication number one across the board, just making sure everybody's working to the right guys and understanding what we're trying to accomplish. Number two, we got to win the line of scrimmage. We have to fire off the ball and we got to win that line of scrimmage, get into these combinations, and let Derek get into his fourth or fifth step and see where we go from there. Derek Carr, and have you kept up with him over the years? Yeah, Derek and I have a great relationship. He's a wonderful human being, as I know you guys have seen throughout the years. And Derek is one of those guys that is a perfectionist, a pleaser. He wants to try to improve at every turn. And so it was really fun coaching him in a manner of which he always wanted more. He always wanted the next thing. He always wanted the next drill. He always wanted the next cut up and all those things. So as a player, a very dedicated player, as a man and even more impressive human being, and somebody that I consider a close friend. What areas do you feel you've grown since your last opportunity in Oakland as an OC? Yeah, a couple of things. One, I hope I'm more collaborative. I know that my first time in Oakland, there were times I kind of just shut the door and put my head down and tried to figure it all out. And so I hope I'm a little bit more collaborative that way. Secondly, I think I try to anticipate some problems a little bit better, maybe instead of just banking on what we do, winning every situation, trying to anticipate some things. And then I think any time you're doing something for the second time, the second go around, you gain experience, right? You're able to maybe anticipate some main game things, deal with some relationships. Maybe different than you did the first time around. And so hopefully I'm better. What problems have the offensive line has had? And now injuries come into that group as well. Do you have to kind of adjust what you do? Maybe keep more backs in the block, more tight ends in the block? Just try and help everybody out? Yeah, I think that's a constant evaluation. Some of the most highly played and highly skilled players on defense are those edge rushers. And whether you've got a full complement of guys or whoever you got out there on the offensive line, those are some tough matchups sometimes. And so we're always looking for ways to make sure that we're doing what's best in protection, trying to give Ryan a chance to get through progressions and find that balance between always having a bunch of people in blocking and only three out on the route and then times where we got to be able to get four, maybe even five out into the route to take advantage of spacing or matchups. So that's a constant evaluation for sure. I did it exactly the way we did after Stevan and Petaylor. You know, on a kind of short preparation, I thought he did a great job. I'm really excited to see what he does with a full week of preparation. But he played hard. Obviously, like any of us, obviously myself included, there are things you wish you could have done different in the game or handled different, but I think he'll learn from those things. And with a week of prep, I'm excited to see how he plays. Before games, we always see you kind of walk in the lining of the field and headphones on usually. Have you always done that? And what's that about in terms of your own preparation? Yeah, everybody's got their own way of getting ready for games. Some guys go out there and work out and all that. I take prayer walks. You probably see me do it around the practice field here. Obviously, my faith is something that's important to me. And so I spend some time just in reflection, listening to some worship music, say a little prayer, protection over the players and my staff and the guys I'm working with and all that. So... How far back does that go? Oh, I mean, way before here or being a coordinator, that was something I started when I first got into the league and started kind of maturing in my faith. It's something that kind of helped me get focused and centered for game day. Feel confidence is an issue for some guys on the offense right now based on production that you haven't had and the results? I don't know that I'd say confidence. I think there's a level of frustration. I think anytime that you're working as hard as we're working and not seeing the results come to fruition, there's a little bit of frustration maybe impatience. But we're working hard together to band together to make sure that we're focused on helping each other out and find a way to break through. And I believe that the process will work and that we will start to see some of the rewards to our hard work. Coming off of... You have to find your own impatience a little bit too when it comes to that. I don't know that I get impatient. Obviously I want what's best for our players. And I work tirelessly to try to put them in the best positions we can. And so I have an urgency to try to get our players going a little bit because I think they deserve that. I see how hard they work. But I wouldn't consider myself impatient more just urgent. Coming off a game where you only scored seven points. How do you approach this next game? I'm sure you want to come out and get points early and sustain that. But what's the approach for you as a play court? Yeah, I can't chase big plays and try to manufacture some 40-point play out there that don't exist. So we have to stay true to the process, but we have to put an emphasis on scoring points. And it's hard in this league to sustain long drives without producing some big plays within those drives and certainly without conversions on third down. So we're going to have to find a way to put some chunks together and to convert some third downs. And our mantra's got to be, hey, we got to go score some points. Josh Gordon settled in a little bit more in the practice field. We play 18 snaps Monday, but you'll see him build enough for potentially more. I think so. And you'll understand in maybe different positions. So we don't have to just tag him at one spot and limit his route tree a little bit. I think he's getting some more exposure and getting in better shape and all those things. So excited to have Josh and like what he's been showing us. We see like different personnel packages where it's like you'll go big and pass out of that package and opposite. Does it get to a point where you're just like, you know what, let's just strip it down a little bit, stick with the basics and try to figure out what it is that we do really well. Yeah, you know, I think that we've executed some bread and butter schemes out of different personnel groupings. That's something that we said all the way back in camp, right? Is we got to be able to run the same plays out of different groupings. You know, there was an empty play in the game. We just missed trailing on a shallow cross. That was out of a big grouping. Again, back to some of our conversations at this podium from last week, you know, you build certain tendencies in that personnel grouping. We had a very heavy run tendency, so we wanted to open them up and get a shallow cross. We just didn't execute, but you're always going to try to find wrinkles like that, you know, and tendencies like that to try to take advantage of and hopefully we can go execute and produce. Given his ability to make plays after the catch and run with the ball in his hands, do you need to make trailing more a focal part of the offense in terms of what he can do? I think he's been growing each and every week. And I think, you know, he's been generating confidence in a lot of people around here each and every week. And so as that happens, just naturally, I think the ball tends to find him a little bit more. Again, I don't think he can force anything, but you certainly want to give a guy that has done well with his opportunities, some more opportunities. Jeffrey was talking about, seemed like he was pretty excited about a different rush approach against Derek, who he said is more willing to take a hit and you don't have to worry about pinning him in so much you can kind of just go at him. Yeah, I mean, each week you got to evaluate the quarterbacks and their skill sets. We knew with Allen it was going to be, if there was a lane, he was going to probably find it on us. And Derek's got the same mobility, he does. I mean, he's got the athleticism, he can do it. I think he's just comfortable in the pocket to sit and let things develop a little bit more. And not quite as quick to take off, but I mean, if we give him opportunities to, like he's going to, we just got to be disciplined in what we're doing. But it is a little bit different mindset. Between Adams, Waller, Renfro, you under siege sort of at every level of the secondary every time they drop back in this game? Yeah, I mean, they got a lot of playmakers back there. We're going to have to do a good job understanding what the scheme is and changing things up on them. We'll see kind of see where it goes as the game's going, what they're doing with each guy. You know, that's a big part of it. Their game plan coming in, whether it's with Adams or Renfro or Waller, we got to be good at Justin and kind of seeing what that is as the game goes. But yeah, we got our hands full. They got playmakers and they got a guy that can get it to him. So we just got to make sure we're locked in and understand where those guys are at and what they're trying to do with them. Kevin Byrd said that at times, he has to remind himself to do his job first, not to try and help other guys who maybe are younger that don't understand the scheme in the system as well as he does. How much do your veteran guys have to guard against getting out of their own gap and making a mistake as they're trying to help a younger guy? Yeah, I think a lot of it is more probably pre-snap, the communication aspect of it, more so than anything that Kevin's referring to. And we talked about before, the more guys are familiar with the system, what we're doing, what they're doing, the less that communication plays a role as much pre-snap, right? And it takes a lot out of you. Like it takes a lot out of you having to communicate, get all these guys lined up, make sure we're in the right call, make sure these guys understand what's going on, what the offense is showing us that we might have a tendency on. So trying to limit that package and ultimately those guys have a job to do where they do have to communicate, but some of the other guys gotta take some burden on as well with that. Cause ultimately you gotta control it, you can control it and then be ready to go. Mike explained yesterday why you don't. I'm wondering if when you're ever fully healthy in the secondary, you ever consider putting a corner strictly on a top receiver, on a digs or an Adams? You talked when you drafted Caleb about him being a cat coverage guy, like you cover that cat, but you haven't really done that. Yeah, I mean, I think there's a time and place for, a lot of that depends on what you're doing schematically. There's a lot of ways to try to, whether it's a matchup, if you put one guy on one guy, if there's ways where you're pushing help that way to alleviate it, do you really want your best guy on their best guy? If you know he's getting a piece that we're trying to help him with, where some of those other guys might be vulnerable. So there's a lot of things schematically that we can do to try to help whoever that is that isn't just solely one-on-one, hey, you got them, right? And a lot of that falls on us, just what we're trying to get accomplished with who we got, with who they got. And there's some moving parts. Like, I mean, obviously, if you're traveling with the guy every down, they're gonna know you're a man every single play, right? Where if you're in zone or man and you play those own alignments, now they're not real sure you can disguise some things. So, I mean, there's give and take to both of it. But if the time comes and we feel like that, we got that matchup one-on-one with whoever it is, then I think we're definitely open to it. But you're also in advantage to guys getting used to playing sides, not to the degree of an offensive tackle, but... Yeah, I mean, again, I think it's hard, Paul, because they could just as well put all the receivers on one side and the corners gotta go over, you know what I'm saying? So like, these guys are lining up and offenses do that to you. They manipulate formations to try to see what you're in. Man, zone, whatever it might be. And then all of a sudden, we're working everybody on the left and now all of a sudden he's gotta go right and play and it's like, we're caught with our pants down, right? So, I mean, there's a lot of things that kind of go into those conversations schematically. What are you seeing that's happening on some of these explosives that you guys, I think it's what, three? Yeah. Three, 40 yards or more plays that have been given up. Yeah, I think the couple from the other night, do just got by Caleb, got behind Caleb, showed him, got behind Caleb. We had one bust in a zone where we should have been deeper with our middle piece. And then the last one, the touchdown to digs, we should have been on top of that all day. He did a little double move, broke out, the corner got nosy and then he burst it on him and we gotta be on top of that. Is that one where you want that safety back there? Cause I think that was on the digs, touchdown. Yeah, on the digs. Yeah, we were in unique coverage where the corner pieces were really the on top pieces in that zone. Okay. Shane, when a team has success, Adams was limited to no catches in the second half last week. When an opponent has success against a guy like that, can you maybe take something from that or is there a risk of, they're gonna be trying to adapt to get him the ball and can you overthink it in a situation like that? Yeah, yeah, that's a good question. I think they're probably trying to find answers to solve that riddle, right? To create ways to get him the ball where they don't get handcuffed a little bit where they gotta go away from them. But yeah, we use the information we see on film, what other teams are doing. And a lot of that depends on our personnel, our scheme too and how we can correlate it, how it relates to what we've done, right? Where it's not totally brand new, but there are things you take away from other teams that they've done to try to slow certain guys down. Shane, I think you had four sacks in the first half of the season and since then, pass rush maybe not so effective. I know you're a little banged up at that spot, but how big a concern is that at this point? Yeah, I mean, not, I mean, it is what it is right now. I think our guys are working to try to rush. Paul kind of asked the question earlier. I think a little bit last week was understanding who Josh Allen was, that plays a part in it. But I'm excited for the guys we got in there. They got to go out there and they got to perform and execute and step up and take advantage of their opportunity. So I mean, I'm not concerned with it. I'm more hopeful that these guys continue to get better and improve and hopefully step in and are able to make some impact on the quarterback. And Jeff says, you want to thank you for each all the time, it's about us, it's about us. And what are the main things you're preaching that need to be better for your group to play like you want to? Yeah, I think like we had this conversation as a unit earlier in the week. And it comes back to, first of all, our mentality, our approach, week in and week out, making sure we control what we can control. Like offenses are, we're gonna obviously have to game plan and be familiar with our opponent. But if we don't go out there and communicate our defense, if we don't go out there and play with physicality, play with effort, play with our standard, execute whatever we're doing, right? Like regardless of what the offense doing, it ain't gonna be very good for us, right? So just making sure we're locked in on kind of what we're doing, our expectation, the standard that we're trying to set and trying to get to here defensively, it's more about our culture than what we're trying to defend.