Football is back folks!
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Still, it’s hard to deny that in routing Arizona 31-10, the Raiders – led by their reserves – looked good. “At the end of the day, I’m just trying to make sure I’m fully 100 percent ready for that first game”. “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”. That’s every time, whether it’s preseason, regular season, playoffs, Super Bowl, whatever.
“That was my goal”, Joseph said of making the first team on the Raiders unofficial depth chart.
While the Raiders’ offense is built around the young duo of Carr and Cooper, the Cardinals are led by 36-year-old quarterback Carson Palmer. That it’s a lot higher than two years ago or a year ago? You gotta get down! He didn’t throw a TD, but he also didn’t throw a pick, which is more what you want to watch out for with rookies.
George Atkinson III, listed as Oakland’s fourth-string running back, scored on runs of 53 and 35 yards. But he showed nice game speed and an ability to cover, particularly when he shadowed running back Kerwynn Williams to force an incompletion.
Obviously we’ve seen most of these guys and we know what they can do and now we’re all together on one team. He also added eight carries for 43 yards while displaying his shiftiness with a couple of nice jukes on defenders. The former West Virginia standout may not play in Friday’s exhibition opener vs. the Arizona Cardinals Friday night. And to play devils advocate – something that feels like a misnomer in this context given the treachery the Raiders have allowed their fans to endure over the years – this is a good football team that still needs to become truly good. The receiving back was supposed to be Roy Helu Jr. but that never materialized and Latavius Murray had several gaffes receiving a year ago. They’re just trusting me with more control, at the line doing different stuff. “I was out there with the ones, with the twos and on special teams”.
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. That’s part of my game I’ve got to work on, just coming out, begin calm from the start.
From there the Cardinals first team offense and defense took the rest of the night off and the second team offense and defense had some struggles.
“They really let me get my feet wet”, Christian said. “They didn’t draft me in the first round to come in and sit down, but they definitely expect big things from me”. After battling back from that injury it would be bad 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. Penalties overall, offensively we had two on the first drive that put us in a hole. The Raiders depth is looking great.
No doubt Matt Barkley’s night Friday against the Oakland Raiders could have gone better. Of course, it’s a preseason game – the first preseason game at that – so it should all be taken with a grain of salt.
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The Raiders coaching staff was very receptive to the idea.
