The Las Vegas Raiders got a much-needed victory on Monday night as they defeated the Green Bay Packers. The contest meant a little more to star receiver Davante Adams as he got a victory over his former team and believes he put an end to a narrative. Now in Week 6, head coach Josh McDaniels is facing his former team in the New England Patriots.
McDaniels, of course, was with the Patriots organization from 2001-to-2008 and again from 2012-to-2021 before taking over as Raiders head coach. A meeting with his former team could mean a lot, but McDaniels has already been down this road before.
The Raiders head coach has no desire to look at this week’s game as anything more than the Raiders’ sixth game of the season.
“Yeah, I mean, the horse is dead. We’ve beat it enough,” McDaniels said after a recent practice. “I mean, it is what it is. Every week you got somebody that used to play there, or they know somebody on that staff, or whatever it is. So, yeah, it’s game six for us. We got to do a good job of focusing on what we can do to improve from yesterday and get ready for a team that presents a lot of different challenges.”
Maybe the answer might have been different if this was the first time McDaniels was facing New England, but it isn’t. The Raiders picked up a 30-24 victory over the Patriots in Week 15 last year, and that wasn’t even the first time McDaniels took on Bill Belichick and the Patriots.
Back in 2009, in his first season as head coach of the Denver Broncos, he took on and defeated New England 20-17 in overtime. So with this being the third time facing his former franchise, any extra motivation or luster surrounding the matchup is long gone.
As McDaniels said, the focus for the Raiders needs to be on themselves and continue to grow after their Monday night win over the Packers. While the defense held up well and forced three turnovers, the offense continued to struggle and failed to reach 300 yards for the fourth time in five games.
Getting back in the win column was great for the Raiders, and McDaniels certainly wants to build on that momentum. But any idea of getting extra motivation from facing his former team is not in the cards, as he simply focuses on getting the Raiders to reach their potential.
