BRADENTON, Fla. -- Jack Del Rio said "mojo" five times in his 15-minute media conference on Monday. No, the Oakland Raiders coach was not referring to any of the Austin Powers movies.
Rather, Del Rio was talking about what the Raiders need to reclaim if they have any designs on saving their season after going 3-5 in the first half. If Oakland is to make a run, it has to start Sunday night at the Miami Dolphins.
Then what exactly are the players hearing when Del Rio says "mojo" and the Raiders needing to get it back?
A sampling from the Raiders locker room following Tuesday's walkthrough at the IMG Academy.
Pro Bowl free safety Reggie Nelson: "Just get back to doing us -- winning. Playing fast and do what we do best. He don't expect nothing less from us. He's got high expectations of us and, obviously, Coach Jack is a defensive coach, so he's going to be harder on us than anything. We just, we've got a lot of work to do and that's what we plan to do and try turn this thing around. We're running out of time.”
Offensive lineman/fullback Jon Feliciano: "Just going out and doing what we know what we're supposed to do. Last year, we ... always pulled out the close games. And this year, we know we can do it and everything just hasn't added up yet. There's something missing. That's what he's talking about, bringing that mojo back, that intangible that we had last year. We've got to bring it back this year."
All-Pro left guard Kelechi Osemele: "I don't know, man, I need to see that interview, you know? But I just think we just got to stick with the process, man, we just got to work. Guys need to make plays, we can't turn the ball over ... you can't really win with four turnovers. It's kind of hard to overcome that, you know what I mean? So I think what we need to do is we need to get ahead and we need to stay ahead. And we need to stop playing from behind and protect the ball."
