Head Coach Mike Macdonald Previews Week 10 vs. Raiders

Mike Macdonald (0:03)

All right.

SPEAKER_2 (0:07)

Are you going or are we going?

Mike Macdonald (0:11)

You guys should go.

SPEAKER_3 (0:12)

Okay. Well, thanks.

SPEAKER_2 (0:13)

You are going to be facing a quarterback that has thrown, I think, eight passes in the NFL. Where does preparation start with this matchup?

Mike Macdonald (0:22)

Well, I think we have to do a great job understanding how they operate by situation, probably at their core. And then I think it's one of those things where you talk about at the beginning of the season, too, where you want to use the information available to you, but you can't, I think, to put all your eggs in one basket on what's going to happen or how you think the quarterback is going to play wouldn't be wise.

Obviously, we're going to watch his plays and lean on our information we had from coming out of the draft process, but put our best foot forward. And I think really focusing on our details and making sure that we're aligned and on the same page. And we're executing at a high level and then go into the game and make the best adjustments we possibly can as the game starts to unfold.

SPEAKER_4 (1:18)

Because he's played no real games, do you look back to the Cowle and Indiana tapes on how he did things in order to?

Mike Macdonald (1:24)

No.

SPEAKER_4 (1:25)

Do the preseason games even matter in this case?

Mike Macdonald (1:28)

They do a little bit, but it's kind of do the best you can, you know? I mean, you can't make, I don't want to speak for Clint, but it seems like, I mean, we've been through personal changes in the middle of the season.

You can't make wholesale changes fundamentally and systematically off of what you're doing. I'm sure they're thinking the same thing. They're going to obviously tweak some things, and as you do every week, and, you know, you try to anticipate some of those things as best you can as the opponent, but, you know, you never want to just put all your cards on one thing, so to speak. So it does shift our focus in terms of, you know, how we're trying to game plan a little bit, but our process really remains the same, honestly.

SPEAKER_3 (2:19)

How similar is just what they're, with Clint being there from what he did last year here, how similar does it look?

Mike Macdonald (2:24)

There's a lot of parallels, I think, you know, to their credit, they've evolved.

They're building around the people that they have, and they're doing it at a high level. So respect how they operate, obviously, and they're great people and good players, and they're moving the ball and putting up a lot of points.

SPEAKER_6 (2:44)

You have to guard it all against, like, overthinking it, and like, okay, he knows, I think this way, I get in your own way.

SPEAKER_5 (2:52)

What stands out about Fernando, just his skill set and what you saw of him previously and all of that, the kind of quarterback?

Mike Macdonald (2:58)

Yeah, he's a really good player, and he's going to have a great career. You can tell that by the information we had coming out. He's got a great skill set.

You know, he'll focus on us and us making sure that we're on our brand of ball and try to apply as much pressure as we can on their offense.

SPEAKER_6 (3:22)

We saw Nick on McBride a lot last week, another good tight end obviously this week. What about, I mean, is it just obvious how big and fast he is, or what about Nick makes him particularly good at matching up with tight ends?

Mike Macdonald (3:34)

Well, yeah, I think not all tight ends run the routes equally. They run different route trees, things like that. In terms of timing of plays and how they get open, Nick has the ability to, he runs, he can run with anybody as we know, but the ability to stay connected at like the top of routes. Tight ends that are, the best tight ends are able to use like physicality to create separation, and Nick's able to either kind of fight fire with fire on that front or be able to absorb, we won't call them push-offs, but I have my own opinion about it.

Where you can absorb some of those tricks of the trade, so to speak, and still stay connected.

SPEAKER_3 (4:20)

How is Drew progressing with his health?

Mike Macdonald (4:24)

Drew's making good progress, so we have a plan. And similar to last week, we'll go from there, he's not gonna take every rep, not gonna make every throw again, but I think that's just trying to be as prudent as possible through the process to make sure that he's feeling his best on Sunday.