Josh McDaniels shared his thoughts on last year’s victory over the Chargers
Staying with the subject of the Chargers, McDaniels was the New England Patriots’ offensive coordinator when the Raiders were eliminating Los Angeles from the playoffs. However, it was a game that drew the attention of the entire league, McDaniels included.
“Yeah. I was interested in the outcome too because I think it affected us in some way, shape, or form, in terms of who we may have played. But it was a great football game. I thought it was well coached. I thought there was some adjustments that needed to be made because the game kind of took a turn and all of a sudden became a shootout. A lot of situational football that probably could have swayed the outcome one way or the other.”
As most Raiders and Chargers fans will recall, it was a wild game that saw momentum swing throughout the contest. McDaniels said it best; there was a lot of situational football involved and, in the end, the Chargers didn’t execute. In fact, what proved to be their undoing was the lack of success in going for it on fourth down. That’s something that McDaniels also took note of now that he’s the head honcho in Las Vegas.
Mental mistakes cost the Chargers in Week 18 of last season
“They (Chargers) went for it on a number of fourth downs. There was a couple of critical situations late in the game, some really important kicking plays. I thought there was a lot of players that really stepped up and did an incredible job under pressure at the end of end of the season. Everybody’s season was riding on what happened in that game and I thought we had a lot of players that made some individual plays that were really important to the outcome, and so did they.”
The overall state of the AFC West likely means all of the divisional matchups for the Raiders this season will have a similar vibe. One where everything’s on the line, let’s face it, the West will be a drag down battle this year.
Next: Josh McDaniels is looking forward to Sunday
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