Q. From the press box, there are some open guys and Kenny’s not pulling the trigger on. Are you seeing that?
MATT CANADA: We’re not executing well enough. When a play doesn’t work, it’s all of us that are going to fix it. We’re going to keep going. We’re going to continue to fight, get those completions better, the runs better, all of it.
Q. You’ve been doing this a long time, Matt, but did you hear the cheers from the crowd?
MATT CANADA: I’ve been made aware of it. Obviously, I was working on the play. There’s not one ounce of lack of confidence in the players that I have or lack of confidence in the coaches that I have. We’re going to play better and get it right.
We’re not putting on the field what we expected to in the first two games. The fans want us to win. They want us to play better so there is nothing wrong with their passion and those things. Obviously we're not going to -- Mike T. says it all the time. We're not running away from it. We expect to be better. We're going to be better. I firmly believe that.
Until we do that, obviously there's going to be frustration. Most frustration is with our guys because we're not happy with what we're putting on tape and we're putting on the field. We'll continue to work. We'll get it right. We'll get it better. I firmly believe that.
Q. What do you think is the first step to putting something better on the field and on tape?
MATT CANADA: A lot of things. We've got to be more consistent. We've got to be better -- every facet of our game could be a little bit better. There's no magical answer to this, I don't believe, other than I'm very proud and excited about where our players are at with it. There's nobody pointing fingers. There's nobody throwing in the towel.
We're 1-1. We're fortunate to be there. Great job by a lot of components, but we won a game against a really good team. It's much easier to do that when you win a game. We're going to just keep fighting until we get it the way we had it in the summer, the way we had it in camp. We've got to get ourselves back to that.
It's a challenge for all of us, and we're working really hard to find what that is. I don't have an answer for you.
Q. Talked about that the other day, trying to get the preseason mojo back for the offense. How do you do that?
MATT CANADA: I don't know. If you've got the answer, you can let me know or tell somebody else. Like I said, when you're playing good on offense or doing anything good -- when you're doing anything in life that's good, obviously you stack it. You talk about stacking days and stacking games.
We've just been misfiring a little bit, and it's compounded, and we've got to play fast and loose and get back to those things we're doing. We've got the players to do it. We feel like we're in the right spot.
Like I said, I think our coaches are awesome, and we're working really hard. We've just got to find it. Until we do that, there's no magic thing to say. There's nothing for me to tell you that's different. We've just got to put it on tape.
The biggest thing I would point to is our players coming back in and it's a short week, and they're working hard and they're ready to go.
Q. You just said it, fast and loose. Coach Tomlin put it fast and fluid.
MATT CANADA: I can use fluid then.
Q. Literal tempo, how much does that help in that regard?
MATT CANADA: Tempo is somehting -- I see what you're talking about, going no huddle, fastball type.
Q. Yeah.
MATT CANADA: Yeah, I think that's something that's great. Our popcorn offense, mistake here, we had two turnovers and two penalties there in that game. You can't do those things and get yourself into a rhythm to get going in those type of fast -- you know, get going, put some pressure on the defense.
We've got to get there. Whether it's fastballs or tempo or whether it's just playing, we've got to apply some more pressure with the consistency of our play. That has nothing do with the plays we run. We have to apply more pressure with our consistency to allow us to do those types of things.
Q. On that third and short, what were you looking for in that play?
MATT CANADA: The play didn't work. I'm never going to sit here and tell you why. It didn't work. We've shown at times we've been pretty solid. Last year we were good. It wasn't a good play. It didn't work. We run it up the middle and it doesn't work, it's no good. If we throw a pass incomplete, it's no good. It didn't work.
I'm not running away from it. Obviously that was a critical play. Our guys have been really good at that. Last year if you look at our third and short up front, we've been really good. So that didn't work. We've got to own it. Our defense made a heck of a stop and got it done.
You know, it was a bad play. When a bad play happens, it's not what anybody wants. I'm never going to discuss that. In the room we talk, and we're cool, but just a bad play.
Q. Did you like the look that you had against them?
MATT CANADA: It didn't work, right? I'm not ever going to do that. It doesn't matter. If it didn't work, I called it, bad play.
Q. If you self-evaluate, what would you like to change from a play-calling standpoint?
MATT CANADA: I would just like us to have more production and score more points. How we're doing things as a staff and working and training and looking to what we can do better and finding ways to get guys to play a little better, that's all we're trying to do.
Q. What freedom does Kenny have to change the call out there?
MATT CANADA: Kenny has quite a bit of freedom to do things and get us where he wants to go. Kenny has been very involved in the offense and what we're doing. It doesn't just fall on Kenny. It falls on all of us. As a staff we've got to put him in position to make plays. We've got to get him to feel good about making plays. We have to get the players around him to help him make plays.
The quarterback gets all the credit and gets all the blame, and neither one is right and neither one is fair. We've got to play better as an offense. We have to do everything better. Until we do it, there's nothing else to say. We have to put it on the field. We know that. But I feel good about getting it done.
I feel really good about where this group is through all the work that they've put in, but we have to show it. And I certainly respect that.
Q. Matt, when you were made aware of some of the chants that they were saying, does that bother you personally at any point?
MATT CANADA: The answer is what it was. I've got great belief in where we're at and what we're doing. I'm in charge of the offense. It wasn't good. That's part of the deal. That's part of the chair. I can't be stronger in the fact that I believe in our players and coaches, and I have no doubt it's going to be better.
The process is what it is. Our defense did a great job. Special teams did a great job. Offense did a good enough job in certain plays to get us to win. It's way more fun to sit here and talk to you with a win than a loss when we don't have a good performance.
We expect to have a better performance this week and moving forward the next 15 weeks.
Q. You played against a team that was renowned to be very good defensively on their own field in San Francisco, and you played against a team that Coach Tomlin said how good they were on the corners. What are you seeing are the defining characteristics of this Raiders defense?
MATT CANADA: We respect everybody we play, and it's a really good unit. The key to this defense and the guy everybody talks about is 98, Crosby. We've had probably three of the top whatever number you want to give them rushers in the league that we've gone against these first three weeks.
He makes them go. You have to know where he is. You have to know what he can do, where he's going to be. Obviously after that, we have to take care of everybody else.
They're a really sound defense. We've got to focus on us a little bit, not running from your question, but right now it's got to be about more on us being more consistent and being more efficient and executing better and doing those things.
We've got some explosive plays. That was obviously a big challenge, a big charge. We're averaging four a game, so that's something that's trending, but then we've got to get back to being consistent and doing the things we've got to do. So that's on us.
Q. When you watch the tape of Kenny throw, do you see anything mechanically, or what do you see from that standpoint?
MATT CANADA: Those are all things we talk about inside. We've got to get just a little bit different, a little bit better. It's a multitude of things and reasons. Like I said, nobody's working harder than Kenny. Nobody wants it more than Kenny. Nobody has more belief in Kenny than I do.
He's going to make those plays, and we're going to get in the right spot to help him make them.
Q. Your only possession where you're not getting the first down, you script those things out, is there something you're seeing there that had an effect? Do you see a theme in what's not working?
MATT CANADA: Obviously, if we saw a direct theme, we would have already fixed it. We're looking at it, talking about it, and we're trying to find what rhythm that is to get us going. Every week, it's not like you go out there and try not to do those things. We thought we had the rhythm in the plays that were going to be effective, but we didn't quite get it done.
Q. (Indiscernible) Is that something that he could use as a crutch?
MATT CANADA: I don't think it's a crutch, but I certainly think play action, as you get the run game going, play action becomes more and more effective, more and more of a real situation.
So that was a play obviously we had a chance to get off the run, and Kenny read it out perfectly, passed it to G.P. G.P. made the run. Yeah, there were some things there. I think our protection wasn't bad on some of those play actions. We took some shots. You mentioned the corners. They're pretty good.
We'll continue to try to do all those things to move the football to make us have an offensive balance and do all the things we want to do. We've got to get there. We've got to get to that point.
Q. George having the double digit targets on the seam, is that the way to kind of get this offense back, get the mojo going?
MATT CANADA: He had ten, and we were obviously sitting there saying we didn't have it, so that's not the only answer to it. Obviously George is a dynamic player and a guy we have great confidence in. Again, some teams play man. Some teams play zone. Some teams know where the ball goes.
G.P. is a guy we want to touch the ball. We want him to have a chance to make explosive plays, and Kenny has great faith in him. I can't ever predict how that's going to play.
Q. Is Broderick in a position where he can help you with the third tackle if you wanted to go jumbo? Is that something you think you could bring?
MATT CANADA: I think that's certainly a possibility. We've explored that in the past. I think Broderick did a nice job last week. You guys weren't aware, but it wasn't known coming out where he was going to be. Broderick had a great week playing right tackle in practice and did a great job of that.
Broderick is coming along and doing a great job, and we certainly want to use him. In that capacity or another capacity, we want to get him involved here. Certainly that's a point we're looking to do, but also happy with where we're at with the guys that are playing.
Q. You were talking about the quarterbacks and saying the quarterbacks get all the credit and all the blame. Imagine your position, you get none of the credit and all of the blame. Why do you like this job?
MATT CANADA: It's an awesome job. I wouldn't -- you love your job, right? I wouldn't want to do it. I wouldn't want to do something else. I enjoy it, and I'm sure that's part of the chair. We've got to be better. I'm well aware of that. We're going to keep fighting and keep doing it.
We've got great players, like I said, great coaches on offense. I feel like we're pushing in the right direction to get there. We'll keep going. We're not going to blank. We're not going to run away from it. We accept and acknowledge it's got to be better, but I feel like we're right there.
That's how we do it. You keep asking these questions, but I firmly believe we're going to do it.
Q. You said you feel like it's there. What gives you that feeling?
MATT CANADA: We've seen it. We've seen it in camp. We've seen them against our defenses. We have seen those guys work. We don't have the answer. You said Mike T. mentioned get our mojo back. We don't have the answer to what it is, but we've got to find it. We will find it.
I just know it's going to happen. I know it's going to happen, and just based on our players -- players get all the credit. We're going to start playing the right way and get ourselves going and making those plays, and it's all going to kind of take off from there.
Obviously it's hard to win in this league. It's hard to score. Everything's hard. We're playing really good people all the time. We've got good players, and you're going to start to see that.
Q. With young players do you worry about, especially guys new in the league, do you worry about their confidence being rattled a little bit when success doesn't come?
MATT CANADA: I think that's a fair question, but with our leadership on offense and kind of where we're at, I feel like the guys are -- there's nobody running around saying there's a very clear answer. This didn't work because of this. This is why. Sometimes I'm saying it. Sometimes the coach is saying it.
But probably more times than not, a player that didn't maybe do it quite like he wanted to is saying it before we get to. Hey, that's mine. I've got to step like this, deeper on this, et cetera, et cetera.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports