Pete Carroll, Aidan O'Connell and Daniel Carlson Postgame Presser | Week 18 vs. Chiefs

SPEAKER_1 (0:01)

Welcome to the Raiders Press Pass. Your credential to all things silver and black.

Pete Carroll (0:11)

That was fun.

There's nothing better than winning on the last play of the game, we're all but, there's a couple of seconds left, but it's a great finish for our guys. And you can imagine, I hope, how they feel now that they did something special like that. And we really wanted to get rid of the AFC West thing, we've been wanting a while. And so we want to know. So that was somewhat of an accomplishment in that regard. It's been a long haul.

I thought that we played, it was a really tight game, both sides. It was a defensive game to kind of hang on to and see what was going to happen there at the end. It wound up going the whole, through the whole gamut of the game, and defenses had to come through. And our guys had sudden changes, and they did it a number of times again. When we were backed up, we had the fumble off the kickoff return. And I mean, there was just a number of really difficult situations that were in, and the guys never wavered. They just kept battling and came through and got a win to end the season on a good note. We can't not talk about the kicker. What a great day, man. And the kickoff, too, you know, he had just a freaking great day to hit 60 yards, you know, and with plenty of room to spare, as what I was told, huh? It was pretty cool. So a lot of really good things. It was really positive. We had a lot of fun in the locker room finally.

SPEAKER_3 (1:31)

Pete, I know this has been a trying year. Would you like to come back next year and do you expect to be back?

Pete Carroll (1:36)

Of course. I would.

SPEAKER_4 (1:40)

On that note, real quick, Pete, just on that note, there have been some reports that you're considering retirement or walking away.

Pete Carroll (1:46)

Are those accurate? No, nobody's talking to me about that. I haven't said a word to anybody.

SPEAKER_5 (1:52)

Oh, you're on the right. You had mentioned the other day that you said it's opportunity time. There are a few guys, especially the rookie DTs, that made some plays today. Can you just talk about the guys who seized their opportunities today?

Pete Carroll (2:04)

Yeah, I thought Charles did a pretty nice job. He played a lot. And that was good on the offensive side. The big guys up front did a nice job. Everybody on the team played today. I think that was a goal. We get everybody on the field to be part of this game. So, I mean, I have to look at the film to really come on individual guys' plays. But I thought there was some guys, in a sense, Tyree had a big chance today. You know, with Max not playing, and he and Malcolm, I thought they brought a lot of heat. Malcolm had some really good rushes, but Tyree gets the two big sacks and one for safety. It was fantastic. I think we had eight sacks today, which is huge. You know, it's a huge accomplishment. And in a tight game, you know, you need plays like that. I think we wound up in the plus, did we not? Yeah, yeah, see, when you're plus one, you win almost 80% of the time. And that's something that's really key to us, the way we try to play it.

SPEAKER_3 (2:55)

What else? Talk about the defensive line, like you said, the season-high eight sacks. Tonka Hemingway had a couple of sacks as well. What does it say about the defensive line today to have that kind of effort, especially without Max Crosby?

Pete Carroll (3:07)

Yeah, well, they came through and made big plays. The sack that Tyree has on the safety was just a perfect fricking sack, and it happens to be for points too as well. But the heat was there and we had a chance. The running game, I don't even know what they got on the ground today, but we felt like we were in control of that so we could cut our guys loose. And Pat and Robbie got those guys rolling, so it was a nice day for them.

SPEAKER_6 (3:32)

Considering how the season went going into this last week, do you think there was a certain player or players that were able to rally the team and really get your message across? Or do you think it was just a collective effort?

Pete Carroll (3:41)