After the Oakland Raiders first preseason game, questions still linger.
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I know, every win matters Marcus! Wins are not what the preseason is all about, it’s about evaluating personnel and trying to find the best 53 men for the roster.
With that in mind, the player that most improved their chances to make the team is none other than legacy Raider George Atkinson III. “I didn’t make the squad the last two years, was on the practice squad, and he’s like, ‘You gotta really buckle down now”. So this year he was like you gotta buckle down now. “You have this fire inside and you just can’t let it out”. His game was overshadowed by Atkinson’s heroics, but he was very solid, with a yards-per-carry average of 5.4 – 0.1 higher than Murray’s on the night. When receiver Joe Hansley took out another defender with a block, Atkinson had reached the right sideline, the expressway. “Overall, it was OK, but we want points”.
The next play was a short pass out of the backfield to DeAndre Washington that the fellow rookie took 32 yards downfield.
“I thought our good players played well”, he said.
In his first game action of any kind in an Arizona Cardinals uniform, the former fourth-round pick completed just eight of 24 passes for 121 yards with one interception in Arizona’s 31-10 loss. Hopefully that is a sign of things to come, and not just the Cardinals being bad in their own special teams unit. Nelson fumbled a punt return and Johnny Holton recovered for Oakland at the Arizona 19.
The Edwards situation aside, we didn’t learn anything about the Raiders that we didn’t already know. In fact, the whole team worked out nicely and many individuals could be given a lot of credit. The guys inside also did a nice job of creating a clean pocket for Derek Carr. Williams was beaten downfield by Amari Cooper twice later in the first quarter, though Williams was fortunate that both passes were incomplete. “I say it all the time, but “C-Wood” (Charles Woodson) always told me, from Year 1 to Year 2 is the biggest jump, and then when you hit Year 3, you’re just playing ball again”. We still have nearly a month before the Cards play for real. As soon as the Cardinals got the ball back, they gave it back just as quickly with Drew Stanton being intercepted by safety Nate Allen on first and 10.
The most notable occurrence was a hip injury to starting defensive end Mario Edwards Jr., who needed help to make it off the field and was carted to the locker room.
It is good news for the Raiders that Edwards’ injury is not considered serious, but a delicate approach to the rest of his preseason can be expected as the Raiders will turn their focus to getting the defensive end ready for the regular season. After battling back from that injury it would be awful to see him hurt again so soon, we will have to wait and see how he heals from this latest issue. However, their over aggression still left them very vulnerable to screens and they consistently had trouble with tight ends, two problems that were huge for the team past year as well. He looked sharp in the preseason opener, directing the Raiders’ offense. The Cardinals are one of the best teams in the National Football League and Oakland’s depth looked far more impressive yesterday. “Obviously, our learning curve wasn’t as step for our veteran players”.
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Rookie Evan Boehm hasn’t done enough to seriously challenge for the starting center job, but made the most of a large chunk of playing time against the Raiders. Oakland backup quarterback Matt McGloin threw a pair of first-quarter touchdown passes after the Cardinals committed two turnovers in a span of about 30 seconds. Arians said Barkley forgot to send a wide receiver in motion on at least three plays.
