Raider coach Pete Carroll is greeted by Patritos coach Pete Carroll before Sunday's game at Gillette Stadium as Raiders offensive coordinator Chip Kelly of Manchester looks on. (AP photo)

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – Pete Carroll doesn’t act his age in the NFL.

But on Sunday he became the oldest to coach a game in the NFL as a head man, as he turns 74 next week.

Carroll’s Las Vegas Raiders beat one of the four teams he’s been the head coach of, the New England Patriots, 20-13 at Gillette Stadium, thanks to an offense that got the job done. And he credited Manchester’s Chip Kelly, his offensive coordinator, for that.

“Well, they still got under the run,” Carroll said of New England stopping the Raiders ground game. “They were getting fired up and hyped up about stopping it. I thought Chip [Kelly] called a great game to take advantage of that. Their aggressive style at the line of scrimmage allowed us to get a few plays out of them. And that’s just kind of how we play. Hopefully we can keep that going. But we’ll need the running game a lot more formidable than that.”

Carroll says he wants his Raiders to adapt a never-day-die attitude.

“That is the essence of why it’s the central theme in the program is so that you never call it at any one point,” he said.”You just keep competing and you just keep battling, play after play after play. We don’t pass judgment. We just keep rolling. And these guys were talking like that at halftime. They were talking like it on the sidelines, and they keep talking about just keep doing the right thing, and we’ll work our way out of it.

“That is the conversation that we’re trying to develop on a regular basis so there ain’t nothing that we can’t handle. So, it was a good illustration of that.

CAMPBELL’S DEBUT

Patriots top draft pick and rookie left tackle Will Campbell wasn’t exactly a happy camper after the game, talking about his mistakes allowing a sack, and feelings about a loss.

“I just had to block, nobody else other than me,” he said. “Got to get better, we’ll watch the tape and learn from it and fix it.

“You look over what we could have done better. As a standpoint from up front, what I could have done better and what we could have done better collectively as an offense. Our defense played their balls off and we got to help them out, so that’s what we’re going to do. We got to get in the film room and find ways to get better.”

Nothing was unexpected in his rookie debut.

“It’s the NFL, you expect a good team,” he said. “You played a good team. Whenever we don’t play up to our standard, it doesn’t go our way and that’s exactly what happened.”

DIGGS RETURNS

Patriots receiver Stephon Diggs was one of three Patriots with six receptions, (6 for 57 yards).

“Decent, it was my first game back, I was just happy to be back,” he said. “It is a lot of plays out there, we got a lot of players too. So, doing my job is important to me, and I am continuing to do that.”

Nothing yesterday surprised Diggs.

“No, I’ve been doing it for a little while now,” he said. “If it was my first couple years, it probably would be. I had a conversation with TreVeyon [rookie Henderson, who also had six catches], ‘It is a little faster than the preseason.’ He said yeah, but he is a fast guy so he is getting adjusted. For me I just missed it. I had a couple in there where I got tackled. I miss getting tackled. You know I hate getting tackled, but I missed it.”

BOWERS HURT

Vegas tight end Brock Bowers was injured in the fourth quarter, had to leave the game and did not return.

“They’re looking at his knee,” he said. “He wanted to go back in and they wouldn’t let him go back in. They thought, let’s watch the game, see how it goes; we didn’t have to do that. But he’s an incredible player. So, yeah, we need to have him.”

INACTIVES

Patriot inactives included rookie free agent receiver Efton Chism III, as well as veteran linebacker Anfernee Jennings and OG Caedan Wallace. Obviously corner Christian Gonzalez (hamstring) was out,and the other inactives were corner Charles Woods and nose tackle Eric Gregory. Tommy DeVito was the emergency third QB.

NOTES

The Patriots started three rookies yesterday: Campbell, left guard Jared Wilson, and safety Craig Woodson. Some 23 of the 28 new players on the roster saw action…

Receiver Kayshon Boutte had his second straight 100-yard receiving game, as he closed out 2024 with 117 yards and had 103 yards Sunday…

Next Up: Patriots at Miami next Sunday, 1 p.m.