They said it: Raiders, Cardinals answer questions after game

The Raiders suffered a 29-23 overtime loss to the Cardinals in their home opener Sunday at Allegiant Stadium.

Here’s what was heard after the game from both locker rooms:

Question: What is your takeaway from the loss?

Raiders coach Josh McDaniels: “First of all, it is two games. Every game is important, so we have a lot of things we’re going to be able to learn from. We have to start learning and winning at the same time; that’s important for us.”

Q: Are you worried there will be a lingering effect?

McDaniels: “No, we have a lot of veteran players that have won a lot of games. The reality of the National Football League is that the game is never over until it’s over. They have good coaches and good players, and they’re going to continue to fight and play. We did the same thing last week; we were behind and kind of tried to catch up. I thought that was a theme this week in the NFL. You have to learn to play with the lead, you have to learn to play when you’re behind. It’s not the same feeling on the sideline, but you can’t relax and hope that we have enough. I didn’t sense that we were like that at halftime, but we certainly didn’t coach and play as well as we could have and should have in the second half.”

Q: How do you move on?

Raiders defensive end Maxx Crosby: “There’s going to be ups and downs. But it’s just rough right after the game. Emotions are everywhere, but that’s just a part of it. You can’t dwell on it. We’ll watch the film three or four more times tonight and watch the game copy and do my thing. But that’s just really all you can do. You try to improve from it. We have to play again next week, so you have to flush it and keep getting better.”

Q: What happened?

Crosby: “Honestly, I don’t know. I feel like we played really well in the first half. Things just got away. Honestly, I have to watch the game again to kind of understand what went down.

It’s tough. Right after the game, you have a lot of emotions. We just have to watch the film. It’s super frustrating, but you can’t dwell on it. It’s the NFL. (Expletive) happens. You just have to keep improving.”

Q: How do you move on from this loss?

Raiders safety Duron Harmon: “It’s a race to improve. We were better than we were last week, we gotta be better next week than we were this week. That’s all it is. How much better can we get over these games. Still a lot of games left. Not in a panic, but there needs to be some urgency.”

Q: Does a loss like this hurt more than others?

Raiders running back Josh Jacobs: “They all suck. They all sting. I hate losing.”

Q: What happened in the second half?

Jacobs: “I feel like we controlled the game in the first half. I feel like we came out and didn’t have the same intensity.”

Q: What is the lesson today?

Raiders cornerback Nate Hobbs: “It just shows you gotta keep that mentality until all four zeros are on that clock. If not, then there’s the potential you can lose the game. We got to finish. Finish has to be the word of the week.”

Q: In the fourth quarter, you took the game into your own hands. Did you think you needed to do that to get the win?

Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray: “Yeah. At some point, enough is enough. Again, it is not about the toughness and how hard we play; that’s never the question. It’s just about executing, playing faster, getting our tempo going. You can tell the difference between the first half and second half. They (Raiders defense) definitely got tired; they were winded. The pass rush slowed down a little bit. Obviously, they’ve got two bookends over there, great players. When you are tired and you’re not getting pass rush and you are playing zone, for us that is a recipe for success.”

Contact Vincent Bonsignore at vbonsignore@reviewjournal.com. Follow @VinnyBonsignore on Twitter.