The San Francisco 49ers tied the all-time series against the Oakland Raiders at seven wins apiece and collectively played their best game of the season in a 34-3 victory over their cross-town rivals. The 49ers defense held the Raiders to just a field goal on their opening possession and 140 total yards passing on the night.
Here's what the Raiders locker room had to say about the 49ers following the loss.
Head coach Jon Gruden on the Raiders display against the 49ers:
"I would just like to say that it wasn't good enough tonight. I thought we got off to a good start. We lost some linemen on offense which really restricted a lot of things that we could do. Again, we struggled defensively, we gave up too many big plays. We fell behind and given the circumstances, it was tough. I take full responsibility for it and I'll answer any questions I can."
Gruden on is Nick Mullens performance came as a surprise to the Raiders:
"No, he's a guy who's athletic and he can throw the ball. He had a couple of wide-open receivers early and inexcusable errors by us. But, when you can run the ball like the 49ers ran it tonight, it makes playing quarterback a whole lot easier."
Gruden on his message to the team while being down 15 points at the half:
"We knew the defense was up. We needed a three-and-out. We needed the ball back. It's been a similar message in a lot of the games this year. We just don't come out of the locker room and generate stops. You don't need to say a lot. We have to come out of the locker room and when we're on defense, we have to get a stop. We have to create some momentum and we weren't able to do that again tonight."
QB Derek Carr on his complications in the pocket:
"Those guys will tell you when they're in their spots and they've seen the games and the blitzes all from that spot, it makes it harder on those guys when they got to go to a new spot because of an injury. And that's not a knock on anybody. If somebody gets banged up or things like that, they have to move and that makes it harder. Again, we don't make excuses but it does make it harder. He takes every rep, I'm not saying anybody, I'm talking about left guard, and now he has to go out to right tackle. Even left guard to right guard, the difference is so drastic that it's not even funny. So, I felt that obviously they were trying to do their best and a couple times we got edgy, I was able to get outside the pocket and hit some plays and those kinds of things. But, when those kinds of things are happening and they're shuffling, we're just trying to figure out the right thing to win the game. I give credit to the coaches. They just said, 'Hey we're going to figure out how to protect you,' but they know what they're doing. I know that. It's not easy for them either, whenever they have to keep shifting guys that haven't even taken a rep, not even one rep in one spot, let alone a couple of guys."
Carr on his frustrations following Thursday's loss:
"Yeah. Very, very frustrating. A very frustrating night. I mean, that was terrible. That's not good, and I wish I had more to tell you about the details of things, but I've got to watch it. Wish I had more for you, but very, very frustrating. To go out there the first drive, move the ball, see what they're doing, blitzes, throwing hots, doing all that stuff. Then, for stuff to not go that way anymore, that hurts."
TE Jared Cook on the performance of the 49ers defense:
"We just got outplayed. Period. Offensively, we didn't put up enough points. We didn't stay on the field long enough. Time of possession was clearly in their favor. A bad game offensively."
OL Kelechi Osemele on the Raiders struggles on offense:
"That's how it is. It's life. Sometimes, things just don't go your way. We didn't get any breaks this game. We have to make our own opportunities and we didn't do that. We hurt ourselves and gave up some pressures. We just weren't creating anything on offense and we had penalties. We just really hurt ourselves."
S Reggie Nelson's assessment of Mullens' first NFL start:
"Whatever game plan they put in for him, they made it easy for him. He made his plays and that's that."
Richard on the play of his ex-college teammate, Nick Mullens:
"I hated that he had to do it to us. I'm proud of that guy. He worked hard. I've seen him, I played with him for three years. He worked hard every single day. I knew he was going to come out here and perform well. I was just hoping it wasn't good enough to get him the dub and that we walked out of here with the win. We were supposed to trade jerseys, but we talked after the game and I told him, 'Bro, you've got to keep that one!' First start, first dub. I'm happy for him. It's a next-man-up type league, and for him to come in as a third string quarterback with the injuries they've had and give them the performance that he gave, I'm pretty sure that organization is going to want to keep him around for a good while."
