‘We keep fighting and that is a great ingredient'

The Raiders reached their bye week feeling pretty good about their 3-2 record. A win over the defending Super Bowl champion Chiefs provided much of that optimism, but as head coach Jon Gruden was quick to point out, there is still plenty of room for improvement before Las Vegas can truly be considered a contender in the AFC. Then again, the win in Arrowhead might just be the key to getting the team on a more consistent path. Gruden talked about the victory over Kansas City and some of the Raiders plans for the bye week, along with other topics, during his daily meetings with reporters.

Q: What can you tell us about the NFL protocols for the bye week?

A: There’s a lot of protocols. Mike Mayock and our staff keep me abreast of all of those. They have to come in every day to be tested. That’s mandatory by the league and the players union. None of the coaches are allowed to leave town either. We have to be in town and be tested every day. We’ll open up our building for our players to come in and do that, obviously. We’re going to challenge our guys to be smart, wear the proper face shields wherever they go. Be very careful because we’d like to keep this group together and see what we can do the rest of the season.

Q: Is the win over the Chiefs validation of what is possible with this team?

A: We think we have been playing pretty good honestly. We played well in the opener. We played well against the Saints. Hell, we played pretty good at spurts in New England on a short week and I thought we played pretty good against Buffalo outside of some critical errors. We are getting better. We are finding ways to move the ball and we got some stops when we needed them, but we still have a long way to go.

Q: Is this part of the process of learning how to win when you are young?