Josh McDaniels tells AlbertBreer about how the Raiders are “climbing the mountain” after Sunday’s win over the Broncos, plus more in this week’s Ten Takeaways
I think there’s greater meaning to the Raiders’ win over the Broncos than meets the eye for Josh McDaniels, and it hasTo me, it’s how it happened. Coming from behind. On the road. With the season on the line. And in a way in which it looked like, finally, everyone was on the exact same page.
“The first two or three plays of the drive were man-to-man, and then we were able to catch them with the clock running in the same call, and they had the linebacker matched up on him,” McDaniels said. “In two-minute drives, you try to find some chunk plays. And if you’re able to do it with a ’backer on a back and just make one move and get down the sideline, then obviously that’s a simple way to do it.
Now, does this mean there’s been some revolutionary breakthrough in Vegas and the Raiders are about to tear off eight straight, get to 10 wins and make the playoffs? It does not. But I think there were a bunch of little victories in this win that, if McDaniels and GM Dave Ziegler wind up winning in Vegas, those guys may look back on this game as the point when they turned it around.
And in that leadership group is Carr. We’ll have more on him from McDaniels in the MAQB column in a few hours.
And that it’s happening on defense, too, after the catastrophic start the Lions got off to is also really important with young guys playing key roles all over the place. Aidan Hutchinson, the second pick in the draft, had another pick. Rookie safety Kerby Joseph, a fourth-rounder, had an interception, too. And there are young guys on top of those two, such as Alim McNeill and Jerry Jacobs, playing major roles to help the unit overcome its growing pains.
Patterson, you’ll remember, came into the league a decade ago as a positional anomaly—a big, fast, athletic marvel without a real spot on offense or defense to call home. So his home with the Vikings—in the early years—became the return game, and that bought him time to develop other parts of his game and find a home, eventually, as a running back .
Over the past week or so, Patterson told me he’d been messing with Atlanta’s equipment manager, telling him to be prepared, because he was “getting ready to store some s---.”“It’s crazy that it happened,” Patterson continues. “I had to get my team a spark and I just tried to go out there and do it. I just gotta give my hats off to those 10 guys. They blocked their f---ing ass off, man, and they did everything they can to spring me loose, and I just appreciate those guys.
”When I went in the huddle, it was let’s just do it,” Mahomes said afterward. “Everyone had the mindset of take it one play at a time and get it when it counts.”The Ravens’ defense is coming alive, which is a sign that 35-year-old coordinator Mike Macdonald is settling in and Roquan Smith is fitting in.
If I’m the Jets, I’m really concerned with how Zach Wilson handled his press conference postgame after an anemic offensive effort in Foxborough. One of those things definitely came to mind Sunday, and that’s that he wasn’t elected a captain as a returning starting quarterback in 2020. A lot of people waved that off before the ’21 draft. It seems relevant now.The third-year pro outpunched the Steelers in Pittsburgh with 355 yards passing and four touchdowns, while overcoming the absence of Ja’Marr Chase and the in-game loss of Joe Mixon in a 37–30 win.
That’s on Downing. One-hundred percent. And now he’s put his team in a tough spot. No excuses at all.
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