Gino Smith and second half adjustments.

The two biggest keys to the Raiders success in week one.

That plus more on Monday's edition of the Locked on Raiders podcast for September 8th,

2025.

You are Locked on Raiders, your daily Las Vegas Raiders podcast, part of the Locked On Podcast Network,

your team every day.

Welcome at Raider Nation to another edition of the Locked On Raiders podcast. Thank you so much for making the show your first listen of the day. We definitely appreciate you if you're catching the show wherever you find your favorite podcast or you're checking us out by way of the YouTube page. You know, we appreciate both. The show continues to grow each and every day because of your consistent support and the great job that my man already does behind the scenes, making sure we look good and sound good each and every day. We shout him out. We appreciate him. You can find him on Twitter at AriProduces. You can hit me up as well at your boy Q254. And we got the Lockdown Raider podcast voicemail line if you want to be a part of the show 707-654-4693. Plenty of great calls and texts based off the game on Sunday.

The Raiders get the 20 to 13 victory over the Patriots and go 1-0 on the young season. So we'll hear from you, your calls and texts. We'll close things out. Segment number two, every time the Raiders win, we give out game balls. So we'll talk about obviously the game, the game flow, how it all shook out. but we'll give out the game balls in segment number two,

and I'll kind of go through why I'm handing out these balls to certain potential. the game, the game flow, how it all shook out. But we'll give out the game balls in segment number two.

And I'll kind of go through why I'm handing out these balls to certain particular players. So that'll be up in segment number two. Here in segment number one, news and notes of the day. And it really just has to do with the overall performance of the Raiders. We'll jump right into it after we tell you about the title sponsor of the show. And that's Game Time. download the game time app create an account use promo code locked on NFL for $20 off your

first purchase so off top big ups to Pete Carroll and company the Raiders win the game

20 to 13 over the Patriots they go on the road in a rainy environment they go west to east

and still find a way to come away with the victory.

And shout out to Pete Carroll.

This is by way of ESPN research, the first head coach in NFL history to win his debut with four different franchises. That's the Raiders, Seahawks, Patriots, and the New York Jets. And I'll tell you, a lot of us did not think it was going to be a victory based off what we saw on the first half, right? This is a really a great game and a great, I think, stepping stool for this Raiders team, Pete Carroll, Chip Kelly, Patrick Graham, everyone involved. I mean, look, the Patriots were leading at halftime 10 to 7. And it did not look like the Raiders were going to find a way to get out of whatever they were in. They were in some kind of a funk after their first drive offensively and their first defensive possession. I mean, their first time out there on defense, they looked really good, right? They were able to get the ball back to the offense, but for some reason, the offense bogged down after that, and the defense wasn't able to really step up. But with all that being said, as bad as it looked at times in the first

half, and it did again look bad at times. I had a lot of Raider Nation and panic. I had people hit me on Twitter already. See, same old Raiders. Same all Raiders. It's like, hey, it's not even halftime. Like, relax, let's see how this all plays out. And honestly, only being down 10-7 at halftime, I thought was very fortunate for the silver and black.

Even though the Patriots were going to get the ball coming out of halftime, I thought was very fortunate for the silver and

black, even though the Patriots were going to get the ball coming out of the locker room, I thought, okay, they go in there. Pete Carroll's very calm, cool, collective, right? Very chill. He knows that they just made some mistakes. They go in there and make some adjustments, then they can come out in the second half and play a lot better. The problem is, as you know, Raider Nation, we haven't seen the Raiders make adjustments in the years, right? I couldn't tell you the last time we saw second half adjustments. But in fact, that's what we saw on Sunday. And that was, man, what a welcome sight. To see the Raiders go into the locker room, understand what they did wrong, understand what the Patriots were doing really well, and find a way to adjust and come out and look a lot better in the second half. So again, Patriots were up 10 to 7 in half. In the second half, the Raiders won that second half 13 to 6, right? Score 10 points into third quarter. And that's a big deal, especially not getting the ball to start the third quarter, but immediately coming up with a turnover. Isaiah Polamow comes up with the big interception, gets the ball back to the offense, and all of a sudden, they're cooking with grease. So I thought that all in all, really good, like I said, adjustments, offense, and defense looked a lot better, got a lot more pressure on the quarterback. And that's the thing, even going into the interception, it was because of Max Crosby and his pressure that he was able to get to the quarterback. This Patrick Graham defense is based off of pressure on the quarterback. You have to be able to get home. If they don't get home, it's going to be a long day at the office for the defense. And look, we have all questions about the secondary, right? Is the secondary going to be able to stand up? And in the first half, those questions were very valid. Like, man, I don't know. Too many guys are wide open. And I still think ultimately for the whole game, there were still too many guys that were wide open. But I'd rather the Raiders have an opportunity to make adjustments and continue to develop and get better with a win under their belt as opposed to a loss. Right? It's a lot better to say, hey, we got to get back in a lab. We got to do this. We got to fix this, that, and the other. But we got it on a win. And that's exactly what they did. I felt like in the first half, Chip Kelly with his play calling was kind of feeling out the Patriots to see what they were going to do.

And in the second half, he felt really good and confident about what buttons depressed and how to get it done. A lot of us thought that there was going to be a lot of the run game, especially with it being rainy in Foxboro. Thought, oh man, the Patriots are going to try to run the hell out of the ball and the Raiders are going to try to run the hell out of the ball. Neither team went over 100 yards.

As a matter of fact,

the Raiders didn't do too much of out of the ball, and the Raiders are going to try to run the hell out of the ball. Neither team went over 100 yards. A matter of fact, the Raiders didn't do

too much of anything on the ground. 56 yards. Ashton Genti only had 19 carries for 38 yards at a touchdown, and a lot of those carries that he had at the very end were trying to salt the game away, which is fine, right? It's going to make his

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