What Josh McDaniels and the Raiders are saying about the Patriots 

Patriots

The best of what McDaniels, Davante Adams, and Derek Carr had to say about New England this week.

With matchups against the Bengals, Bills, and Dolphins looming, the Patriots could use another win to boost their playoff hopes.

This week’s game against the Raiders is the likeliest opportunity for a win left on New England’s schedule.

There’s also the intrigue of former Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels coaching against New England for the first time since leaving in the offseason to take Las Vegas’ head coaching job.

The game got flexed out of the Sunday Night Football primetime spot, but remains an important one for the Patriots.

So, what did the Raiders have to say about the Patriots this week? Here are three things that stood out.

McDaniels described relationship with Belichick as ‘invaluable’

Josh McDaniels was two years removed from being a graduate assistant at Michigan State when he began his NFL coaching career with the Patriots in 2001.

He said that he practically grew up in New England and wouldn’t be coaching in the league if he didn’t have Bill Belichick’s guidance.

“He’s been invaluable to me in a lot of ways. It’s hard to measure all of them,” McDaniels said. “Obviously, football background, understanding how this league works. I got to see firsthand how to try and do it the right way. His philosophy on everything — offseason, training camp, in-season, post season, evaluations, draft, free agency. He gave a lot of his time to me.”

Davante Adams has some takeaways from joint practices

The Patriots and Raiders held joint practices leading up to their preseason finale on Aug. 26.

Some may argue that there’s not much to learn from preseason practices. Raiders receiver Davante Adams would disagree.

“There’s a lot of stuff you can take from it, just based on the 1-on-1’s you had,” Adams said. “I don’t think that they were scheming necessarily to stop a certain player at that point. They were just kind of running their calls that they usually run in practice. It’s going to be different now because obviously they’re going to take the proper steps. There’s not going to be as many 1-on-1s as I had in August.”

Patriots defensive front presents ‘tough task’, said Derek Carr

The Patriots have the third-most sacks in the NFL behind only the Eagles and Cowboys.

Matthew Judon is tied for the league lead with 14.5 sacks. Josh Uche, who was named AFC defensive player of the week, posted three sacks on Monday night against Arizona.

New England’s pass rush has Las Vegas quarterback Derek Carr’s attention.

“They’re very powerful inside,” Carr said. “They do a great job setting the edge on defense, trying to take away those edge runs and those kind of things. They do a great job in the 2-gap world taking on double-teams. Powerful guys on the inside with quick, twitchy, strong guys on the outside that can set an edge and get to the quarterback.”