Analysis: Raiders looked good on both sides of the ball in Arizona win
The Raiders showed a little bit of everything they hope to be Thursday night in a 33-26 road win over the Arizona Cardinals.
Keep it mind it was against an opponent which in no way resembled a Los Angeles Rams team the Raiders practiced and played against a week ago. The Raiders were up 26-0 in the second quarter and the outcome was never in doubt, with the Cardinals getting two touchdowns in the last 2:49 to make it cosmetically close.
Some takeaways as the Raiders (2-0) reached the midway point of the exhibition season:
1. Cover better, blitz a lot: With better speed on the back end, defensive Paul Guenther can dial up a pressure or two without being fearful of having someone running free in the secondary.
The Raiders came hard after Arizona rookie quarterback Kyler Murray (3 of 8, 12 yards), the No.1 overall pick in the draft.
Johnathan Abram came early on a safety blitz. Vontaze Burfict and Tahir Whitehead both blitzed over the middle. Lamarcus Joyner rushed from the slot and recorded a safety against Murray, By midseason, Murray may be wondering what life would have been like to have instead spent the summer playing center field for the Midland RockHounds, the Athletics' Double-A affiliate.
Using Guenther's game plan as a blueprint, go ahead and assume Murray will be blitzed frequently.
“We're going to blitz. Guenther's going to blitz,” Gruden said. “Sometimes he shows blitz and doesn't blitz. When you're playing spread teams, you've got to take some gaps away. You've got to present some different looks. Otherwise, they'll dice you.”
There was also some good work done by Arden Key and Clelin Ferrell, when the latter wasn't getting called for illegal hands to the face, which happened twice early in the game.
The Raiders finished with three sacks, including one in the fourth quarter by Ethan Westbrooks. That equaled their entire 2018 regular-season total of fourth-quarter sacks.
2. Derek Carr's perfect cameo: Coach Jon Gruden opted to start Derek Carr at quarterback , and didn't need to see anything else after one possession. The Raiders drove 75 yards in six plays, with Carr hitting Tyrell Williams on a 27-yard jump and catch and an uncovered Ryan Grant for a 13-yard touchdown.
“There was no lobbying,” Carr said. “He said, after the touchdown, ‘You're done.' There was no conversation. I saw it in his eyes.”
Carr's passer rating? A perfect 158.3. Carr may play a series or two against Green Bay in Winnipeg. He may not. He'll most certainly sit out the exhibition finale in Seattle.
“We accomplished what we wanted to accomplish,” Carr said. “We wanted to get Josh (Jacobs) rolling. He's going to be a feature back for us and it was his first game. We wanted him to get hit more than I threw the ball. For the first time going out, it was nice.”
3. Ditto Josh Jacobs: The first-round draft pick out of Alabama carried four times for 21 yards with a long gain of eight. Jacobs didn't face the Rams, and it's impossible to tell in training camp how good a running back is with no tackling to the ground.
Jacobs' first three carries were for 6, 8 and 6 yards He showed subtle inside moves and a good surge of power and like Carr, sat out the rest of the first half and perhaps the rest of the exhibition season.
“He wanted to stay in, but I think we'd seen enough,” Gruden said.
Gruden, who is constantly asking players their favorite plays to find out what they like best, applied that tactic with Jacobs.
“He actually asked me what plays I wanted to run,” Jacobs said. “He made it fun for me.”
4. Backup battle: Mike Glennon replaced Carr and put up impressive numbers for the second straight week, this time completing 11 of 14 passes for 175 yards with a 53-yard strike to a wide open Rico Gafford and a fade to Derek Carrier for 2 yards with perfect touch. And this time, no interceptions of the type which drew Gruden's ire in the Rams game.
Glennon missed an open Darren Waller in the end zone on one play, forcing the Raiders to settle for a 25-yard goal. Other than that, not a lot to be critical about. Glennon's superior passing ability already had him in the lead against Nathan Peterman. Avoiding the bad plays against Arizona was equally as important as converting the good plays.
Peterman, labeled a “house mouse” by Gruden on “Hard Knocks” because the coach wants to see more assertiveness, took the Raiders on a 15-play, 80-yard touchdown drive in the second half and even lowered his shoulder to run for a first down.
In all, Raiders quarterbacks were 21 of 24 for 256 yards.
“I think Derek kind of set the tone and went right down and scored and we were able to kind of carry that momentum,” Glennon said. “I think it was a good day for the quarterback room.”
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