LAS VEGAS -- Las Vegas Raiders interim offensive coordinator Scott Turner has seemingly found the key to unlock the Silver and Black's offense.
The Raiders turned in one of their best efforts of the season against a stout Kansas City Chiefs defense on Friday. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers will pose a challenge in Week 14, and Turner sounded off ahead of the contest during his Thursday presser. We have the whole video right here:
Below is a partial transcript from his presser:
Q: It's seemed like there were a few more long balls that you guys were throwing against the Chiefs on Friday. Was that a concerted effort, or was it sort of how the game played out? And what are some of the things that you're looking for to maximize that kind of a play?
Coach Turner: "Yeah, I mean it was a little bit of both I would say. I think to be a successful offense in the NFL, you’ve got to throw the ball down the field, you’ve got to use the field. I think our guys, they did a great job of getting off the ball and really attacking the secondary. I thought our front did a great job in protection, and then Aidan [O'Connell] did a good job of getting the ball out of his hand, first off, and then accurately where guys could go make plays. It's always, it's not just the quarterbacks, not the receiver, it's a combination of everybody. But yeah, that's how we want to play on offense. Not every team is going to allow you to do that. If you want to be good in this league, you’ve got to win different ways. So yeah, but that was something that we felt like we could do, and the guys did a really great job of playing fast and executing the plan."
Q: I'm not asking you to give away secrets, but on any given pass play, is there baked in a long threat all the time?
Coach Turner: "No, not on any given pass play. But there are some, where whether it's your first read or whether it's an alert that you get if you get a certain coverage. But no, it's not every play."
Q: You talked about getting the ball out quickly, and that seemed to be when you had the most success, really the most success came when back foot hit the ground, first read was open, hit it. Like is that how you want the offense to kind of operate, to be able to go that way?
Coach Turner: "Yeah. I mean, I would love to get the first read open every single time, but it's difficult, but yeah of course. When we spend a lot of time designing plays, we're trying to make it as easy as we can on the quarterback and the offensive line, and that's for him to get the ball out quickly. And a lot of times, like quickly, it might not be seconds on a clock, but it's like what you're saying, maybe it's a longer drop, but when the back foot hits timed up with the protection, the ball is coming out. That's ideal. And then I think Aidan [O'Connell] did a really nice job on some of those plays where we didn't get the desired look and it got out of his hand, and we got some completions. Some guys, we had a hot throw to DJ Turner, where he got the ball in space and made a couple guys miss and that ended up being a chunk play. So when you kind of design things to go a certain way, but then we have a plan if it goes bad and the guys execute it, it makes you more willing to continue to call plays like that."
Q: Brock Bowers was named Rookie of the Month this morning. Knowing that teams are putting their best defender on him a lot of times, can you talk about just his growth potential on how he's handled that, and where he could go from here?
Coach Turner: "Yeah, his level, his standards for himself are very high, and he approaches it that way. So, he works really hard. He doesn't think anybody - he would never say this, and he never said this to me, but I don't think he thinks anybody can cover him, and he gets frustrated when that does happen. I'm sure you guys have talked to him, you're not going to get a lot out of him, but he's a very competitive guy. You see his emotions come out on the field when he makes plays. We're going to try to continue to move him around, he's capable of that obviously. And then it opens stuff up for other guys, which we've seen in the last couple weeks. And Brock [Bowers], he made a couple plays in the first half, but they did a good job. And then he got some plays in the second half of that game, and obviously got the big day."
