OPENING STATEMENT: “As far as the injuries go, (Tershawn) Wharton tore his ACL in his left knee, (Bryan) Cook had a concussion, (Frank) Clark was sick, (Chris) Lammons hurt his right hip, came right out and (Rashad) Fenton had cramps, came out. Listen, what a good win. What a good win to get against a rival. (Raiders Head Coach) Josh (McDaniels) has done a phenomenal job there with the Raiders. They played us very tough. Our crowd, man, our crowd was tremendous tonight, digging in for four quarters with us and hanging right there. As far as players that stood out, listen, our D-line we had to reach down deep at the D-line and Khalen Saunders played a heck of a game. (Malik) Herring played a nice game stepping in, he got a ton of snaps. (Nick) Bolton was off the charts with his tackling – I mean, it’s going to be hard to find another guy in the league that tackles better than Bolton; he’s unbelievable. And then, (Darius) Harris stepping in at the linebacker spot, but I could keep going with that. Offensively, Mecole (Hardman) just had some tough yards for us. (He) stepped up there. They were trying to take (Travis) Kelc(e) out of the game – and he had 25 yards and four touchdowns, that’s a pretty good day, but a weird number. Marquez (Valdes-Scantling) had some big plays for us, JuJu (Smith-Schuster), Skyy (Moore) stepped up at the end (and) had some big catch and runs for us. (Nick) Allegretti stepping in and doing a nice job at the guard spot for us. So all in all, it was just a tail of halves – we played a lot better the second half, or at least the second part of the second quarter there and then through the second half than we did the first half. But, it was a nice win to get for sure.”
Q: What did you see when Chris Jones hit the quarterback?
REID: “I thought he had the ball, so I mean, that’s what I thought. But that’s their job, so they do that.”
Q: You don’t want the play to go that way, but it seemed to have lit a fire under you and the team. Did you see it that way in hindsight?
REID: “Yeah, I mean listen, it’s an emotional game. So, what I thought wasn’t – I guess – wasn’t right. But, it is what it is.”
Q: Did you feel that sense though? Some type of energy coming from the locker room?
REID: “The guys felt the same way that I did, so yeah. I think it gave us a little juice probably.”
Q: What was your message to the team at halftime?
REID: “‘Keep fighting. Keep fighting.’ We were getting that momentum going the right direction. And ‘battle.’ We were getting the ball the second half, (so) make sure the offense does a good job and then defensively, just keep after them, man. Just keep attacking and fighting, was the main thing. That was important.”
Q: You seemed to have better rhythm in the third quarter. What did you need to get going?
REID: “Yeah, the first drive I thought was good. They were playing some man coverage on us. The run game was just kind of going ok that first half – or at least the first quarter and part of the second quarter, but we felt like we could bear down with the run a little bit more and get some positive yards there. So, we started with that, then kind of built in some more play pass and quick game off of that. (We) had some big plays. Marquez had a couple of nice grabs.”
Q: At what point did you say, “Jerick McKinnon has it going. Let’s keep him in.”?
REID: “Yes, well he was doing well. I mentioned that it’s that veteran leadership that he brings to the table and also being patient, so he kind of pumped the brakes and waited until the line took care of business and then he hit it from there. So, he showed great patience there.”
Q: Why go for two points?
REID: “Well, I thought it was the right thing to do. I would have liked to have completed it, but we didn’t get that done. I thought it was important – points are important, period. But I thought going for two was important.”
Q: What went into the decision to punt?
REID: “Trust in the defense there. So, yeah.”
Q: With the situations that have happened the last couple of weeks (Falcons DL Grady Jarrett’s hit on Buccaneers QB Tom Brady, Dolphins QB Tua Tagovailoa’s hits), what concerns do you have about how roughing the passer is being officiated?
REID: “Yeah listen, I’m in the league, I’m on a couple of committees there, so I understand protecting the quarterback – that’s important. It is important. There’s a fine line, we just got to sort that out. But these guys – I mean they worked their butt(s) off to do a good job for us out here. And the league spends time doing it and looking at it. Sometimes there’s a point where you got to let guys play and we just got to find where that happy-medium is.”
Q: As a point of clarification, we were told it would not have been roughing the passer if Chris Jones did have the ball. Did he not have the ball?
REID: “He said that – no – it was the weight that he put on the quarterback. That he slammed him. That he slammed his weight on the quarterback’s body.”
Q: On the ability to rely on Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce’s connection.
REID: “Yeah, they work so well together. And how they play off of each other, I think, is big. That doesn’t always happen in this league where you find a guy that you have that mojo with there – or whatever you want to term it.”