Raiders’ quick slants: Preseason opener edition

Secondary depth may be a primary concern for Las Vegas

For as much as Maxx Crosby wrecked the offense during practices for the Las Vegas Raiders, cornerback Jack Jones has been equally disruptive as the team’s elite edge rusher.

There hasn’t been many practices where it’s been reported Crosby has sacked or touched a quarterback or Jones has come up with an interception.

And the Silver & Black’s top corner carried that over into the team’s first preseason clash against the Minnesota Vikings this past Saturday.

While the Raiders defense remained largely vanilla during the first exhibition contest, on Minnesota’s second drive, Las Vegas defensive coordinator Patrick Graham dialed up a blitz on 3rd and 8 and middle linebacker Robert Spillane’s pressure (he steamrolled Vikings running back Kene Nwangwu) forced Minnesota quarterback J.J. McCarthy to move right and evade the defenders. His throw to wide receiver Trishton Jackson was expertly intercepted by Jones, thwarting the Vikings’ drive.

The takeaway carry over from practices to a game — even a preseason tilt — is encouraging to see and must continue if Las Vegas is to boast an ascending defense instead of a doormat version the team has been known to deploy before an impressive 2023 season.

But with positive signs, there’s plenty of areas of opportunity from the preseason opener — also from the secondary. The defensive backs were made too look foolish by McCarthy and the Vikings as the game went on.

The 10th overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft dropped dimes to Jackson and fellow wideout Trent Sherfield Sr. of the 45-yard and 33-yard variety, respectively. On both plays, Raiders defensive backs were left huffing and puffing trying to catch up after being beaten so soundly.

On the 45-yard strike, Raiders rookie corner M.J. Devonshire was burnt by Jackson with second-year safety Chris Smith II drifting over with too little, too late help.

On the 33-yard touchdown pass, Sherfield and McCarthy took advantage of busted coverage as the wide receiver was all alone and Smith was too late realizing the miscommunication and unable to catch up.

The Raiders will have plenty of film session to go over Saturday’s game and there will need to be lessons learned to avoid the mistakes that led to explosive scoring plays. Fortunately for Las Vegas, it’s still preseason so adjustments can be made.

Let’s hit the quick slants as fast as Vikings wide receivers got past Raiders defensive backs:

• The final score of Saturday’s exhibition was 24-23. Why not mention the tally higher in this game review? It’s preseason and the score hardly matters. However, Raiders head coach Antonio Pierce admitted using timeouts on the Vikings’ eventual game-winning drive was a mistake.
• After getting ran through by Spillane, Nwangwu got his measure of revenge against the Raiders defense with a 48-yard touchdown run where he sliced through the second-team unit.
• While both Aidan O’Connell and Gardner Minshew played well for the Raiders (the fight for the starting quarterback role is still neck-and-neck), Anthony Brown Jr. struggled mightily completing only one pass (for 24 yards) and getting sacked three times.
• Rookie tight end Brock Bowers finished with two catches for 25 yards (long of 16) while fellow second-year tight end Michael Mayer hauled in one pass for seven yards. Both lined up at their traditional spots and at fullback as the Raiders tinker with formations while not having a true fullback on the roster.
• Wide receiver Tre Tucker led the Raiders in receiving with two grabs for 73 yards. His 44-yard driving catch helped shake off a drop filled training camp thus far.
• Wideout D.J. Turner hauled in Las Vegas’ lone touchdown pass of the afternoon by burning Minnesota’s secondary on a crossing route for the 20-yard grab from Minshew.
• Starting free safety Tre’Von Moehrig led the Raiders defense with six total tackles (all solo). Which is impressive considering the limited snaps the starter saw.
• Tyreik McAllister got the opportunities to return kicks amongst the trio of Ameer Abdullah and rookie Dylan Laube. McAllister field two returns for 59 yards (a long of 35) while Abdullah and Laube got one (28 and 16 yards, respectively).
• McAllister and Tucker got work in as punt returners with the former fielding two for 31 yards (long of 18) and the latter one for 23 yards.
• Kicker Daniel Carlson and punter AJ Cole are in midseason form with the placekicker going 3 for 3 on field goals (long of 56 yards) and his tag team partner booming six punts for 312 yards (52.0 average per boot, long of 60 and three punts inside the Vikings’ 20-yard line).

Quote of Note:

“I think they’re going to keep growing. You’ve got two young players, a rookie and a second-year player. I’m not going to put any expectations or limits on them. I just think as our offense goes, so do our tight ends.”
-Raiders head coach Antonio Pierce on tight ends Brock Bowers and Michael Mayer