The Las Vegas Raiders have their first practice back in Henderson, Nevada, on Tuesday night, and some players who performed well in Saturday’s season opener should take note.
They will be included in the squad during training.
“Some guys showed up who weren’t so good in practice. They put on the protective gear and played at a different level,” Raiders coach Antonio Pierce said Sunday. “But that’s not pro football. Pro football is about meeting rooms, walk-throughs and practice. That’s how you build trust and accountability with your teammates and the coaches.”
Otherwise, they will never make it to a regular season game.
“It’s great that some of the guys did that in the game,” Pierce said, “but if they don’t keep it up all week, we can’t trust them to do that in the game.”
The backup linebackers, defensive linemen and running backs have two weeks of practice and two more preseason games to showcase their skills, but for the two quarterbacks, it looks like they’ll only have one. Pierce said he’d like to decide on a starting quarterback after Saturday night’s game against the visiting Dallas Cowboys.
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Gardner Minshew entered the game in the second quarter and completed 6 of 12 passes for 117 yards and a touchdown before halftime, while Aidan O’Connell completed 7 of 9 passes for 76 yards in his only drive with the first team.
Pierce was pleased with the performance of both quarterbacks and the offensive line on Saturday against the Minnesota Vikings.
“Both guys did their part and put us in scoring positions,” Pierce said. “I think our O-line did a good job in the first group of really protecting the quarterback and stepping up like we talked about.”
It was a friendly and evenly matched contest, with Minshew and O’Connell cheering each other on from the sidelines.
“We’re competing for the role of helping the Raiders, and that’s what we want,” Minshew told reporters after the game. “We want to help this team win. I’ve never been on a team where a quarterback plays all the time. There’s going to be a chance. We’ve both got to hang in there and lead the offense when we’re in it. It was a lot of fun (on Saturday) competing with our whole group.”
Minshew led two touchdown drives, the first capped by a 20-yard over-the-shoulder pass to DJ Turner that capped off a great training camp in Costa Mesa, California.
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“It felt good,” Turner told reporters after the game. “After two and a half weeks of playing against teammates, it’s always good to go against a different team, get different looks and not run the same routes every day against the same guys.”
“I beat the guy at the line and ran into the daylight. As soon as I looked at Gardner, he looked at me and I knew I was going to run into the end zone.”
Pierce, meanwhile, wasn’t so happy with his defense. His first team allowed some big passing plays, and the Vikings were able to run the ball all day (6.5 yards per carry).
“It’s all about avoiding blocks,” Pierce said. “It’s different when you’re in training camp and you’re playing against your own guys. You’re not throwing anybody down, there aren’t a lot of brutal blocks.”
“But we have to take tougher action again, break blocks and use the second-level defenders correctly. We can’t fall behind too early.”
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There was too much open space.
“Too many open lanes where the running backs were coming at full speed,” Pierce said, “down to the second level and even up to our safeties, and obviously creating big plays.”
Pierce praised his starting secondary — “Tre’von (Moehrig), Jack Jones, Marcus Epps, JB (Jakorian Bennett) all did a really good job in their appearances,” he said — and there were a few backup linebackers who stood out. More so than in practice.
Amari Burney, a 6-foot-2, 220-pound sixth-round pick last year, had three tackles, one for a loss of yards, and the athleticism of a former college safety was evident.
“I thought Burney did a really good job,” Pierce said. “I thought he was physical coming down the hill, making some plays in zone coverage and breaking in. I mean, you can see the progress and he just needs to keep it up. But it was a really good first game for him.”
Amari Gainer is an undrafted rookie free agent from North Carolina who had three tackles and ran deep to intercept a pass against the Vikings. The 6-foot-3, 235-pound Gainer pushed the quarterback a lot before transferring to Florida State and is still fairly inexperienced.
“Amari has done a really good job,” Pierce said. “He’s a physical, good-looking linebacker, man. He can run and just needs more playing time at linebacker. He played all over the place in college. Once he settles in and plays linebacker, he’ll give himself a chance.”
At the end of Saturday’s game, Pierce confused many by calling timeouts as the Vikings were heading for a late, game-winning field goal. He said it was a mistake.
“Yeah, lesson learned,” Pierce said. “(Game management coach) Matt Sheldon … I think we all have to go back and evaluate it. It’s the preseason. There were things we want to do differently in the preseason than in the regular season.”
Pierce also gave an injury update, saying left tackle Kolton Miller (shoulder) and rookie guard Jackson Powers-Johnson (concussion) are expected back in a week. Receiver Davante Adams returned to the team on Sunday after the birth of his son.
(Photo: Jeffrey Becker / USA Today)
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