The Oakland Raiders played their second preseason game of the year on Saturday night when they played host to the Los Angeles Rams at the Oakland Coliseum. The story of the game for most Raiders fans was the poor performance by the defense, something that even Jack Del Rio noted in his post game press conference.
But while the defense is what deserves the most words, there were plenty of other things worth mentioning, even if not worth writing an entire piece on. Here’s a look at some of the other noteworthy things to happen in week two of the preseason.
-
It was only 10 yards, but the two runs by Marshawn Lynch gave hope that he is back to his old form. His first run had very nice blocking which made things easy for him, but on his run you got to see a nice burst of speed and solid vision. On his second hand-off, Lynch didn’t have much room but turned a play that looked like a no gain into four yards by being patient and churning his feet to keep moving forward.
-
It was his first live action since breaking his leg but Derek Carr looks ready for the regular season. After watching the Rams march down the field on the Raiders defense, Carr returned the favor with a touchdown drive of his own. He did have an interception, but it appeared as though something went wrong with Michael Crabtree on the route. Either he ran the wrong route, or was interfered with by the defender. Either way, he wasn’t where Carr thought he was going to be.
-
Speaking of Crabtree, if you haven’t seen him break ankles on his touchdown reception, by all means do as I did and watch this over and over again for 20 minutes.
do the stanky leggggggg pic.twitter.com/8AbAKM0HmP
— HLJ (@harrylylesjr) August 20, 2020
-
And Crabtree wasn’t the only Raiders receiver to make an impressive play. Amari Cooper had a very nice night including an incredibly catch where he was in triple coverage and went up to high point a Carr pass.
ISO on Amari’s release on Deep Reception pic.twitter.com/ra47IilyFT
— GipsySafety (@GipsySafety) August 20, 2020
-
The Raiders pass defense without Donald Penn actually looked pretty good. Reggie McKenzie has to be happy about that but we will see if Marshall Newhouse can keep this up.
-
Khalil Mack had a brilliant sack where he split a double team. Hopefully this is a sign that he won’t have a slow start to the season as he has in past seasons.
-
Jelani Jenkins flashed a few times giving a little bit of hope for the depth at linebacker. If he can stay healthy, that is.
-
Jared Goff probably isn’t as good as he looked against the Raiders secondary, but Cooper Kupp just might be. At least that’s the hope because if not, TJ Carrie just had a horrific night against a rookie.
-
Rookie running back Elijah Hood got some playing time after missing the first game but didn’t impress much. He had five rushes and averaged under three yards per carry.
no replies