They Said: Raiders savor season’s first victory

The Raiders beat the Broncos 32-23 to win their first game of the season. Needless to say, it was a happy Raiders locker room.

Here is a sampling of what was heard from the Raiders.

Q: This was Josh McDaniels’ first win as the Raiders coach. How important and special was it for Josh McDaniels’ to get is first win as the Raiders coach, especially against a team he once coached?

Raiders QB Derek Carr: “I think for him, he’s trying to preach the right thing. He’s trying to teach us how to do it and the way that he’s seen success. I think now it validates some of the things he emphasized, and I would let him talk about what he emphasized. But the things he emphasized in the game, we did it in practice and then we did it in the game, and we won.

“I think it validates it for him. I didn’t even think about it being against his former team, but I gave him the ball at the end. I kept that for him and I said, ‘I know that you got a lot of wins at the other place, but it’s your first one here.’ I was able to do that, and that was a special moment for me to be able to hand that to him.”

Q: Did you try to take the game over individually?

Raiders DE Maxx Crosby: “I try to do that every week. I take every day personal. Whether it’s in the weight room or the practice field, no matter what. I just try to set the example and set the standard every day, so once it gets to game day I can just go and have fun. It’s hard when it’s 6 a.m. and I’m running by myself and pulling guys along doing extra cardio and in-between periods and stuff like that. It’s tough, but this is what it’s all for. I work year-round to be the best player I can be and I try to put that on display and inspire my teammates to be their best as well.”

Q: It seemed important for you to congratulate Josh McDaniels on his first win as coach of the Raiders.

Crosby: “There’s been a lot of pressure on us. We’re just all trying to make it work. On the outside, people don’t really see that. There’s a lot going on. There’s new philosophies and everyone is just trying to do it right. Especially when it’s not going our way, the pressure and all that starts adding up. I felt like Josh did an incredible job bringing the team together this week. We had great conversations and they were nothing but positive. We were focused on solutions and that’s it. The energy in the building was great and we put that on display today. It wasn’t a clean win, it wasn’t beautiful. But I feel like we’re on our way.”

Q: Any thoughts on the touchdown drive to put it away?

Raiders RB Josh Jacobs: “We had to be aggressive in nature and move the ball down the field and score to win this game. After they had scored to get (to within 25-23), our mindset was to go down and finish the game the way we needed it to be finished. We had no choice.”’

Q: Derek Carr made some plays with his legs, your thoughts?

Raiders coach Josh McDaniels: “We’ve talked a lot about the way we’ve been being played, sometimes they try to double-cover certain players offensively and he becomes the sixth skill player. And there’s just nobody with a set of eyeballs on him other than the four guys that are all trying to rush, but we’re blocking them.

“So, he took advantage of some opportunities that I thought were very timely. I don’t know how many of them were on third down, but it had to be a couple, or two, or three of them, where he made the right decision.”

Andre James (first game in three weeks)

“It felt good, man. I definitely missed it. It was really good. I was just excited for the opportunity to be back out there.”

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