Score: AZ 3 OAK 15
Welcome in to a special halftime post of the Raiders' 3rd preseason matchup with the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday Night Football where the Raiders lead 3-15 heading into the locker room.
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Defense. The defense is making some noise in prime time for this game and they are firing on all cylinders, from the D-line to the linebackers, to the secondary. Nate Allen had some pretty good INTs. On his first INT, I thought he had that inbounds and it was a good challenge by Jack Del Rio to give the Raiders offense some good field position in their opening drive. Malcolm Smith made some nice tackles, Dan Williams and Denico Autry made some pretty nice pushes to generate pressure. But the main story here is Khalil Mack, 2 sacks against Carson Palmer. He is literally beating the Cardinals O-line like a bush. He has owned Jared Veldheer so far this game.
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Running Game. The rest of the offense are starting to pick it up, but the running game is not getting anything going. Latavius Murray, only 1 yard and lost a lot of yardage, Marcel Reece and Trent Richardson can get nothing. The Cardinals' run defense is pretty solid and credit to them for containing the Raiders' game. Based on observation, that right side of the O-line is getting exposed and Donald Penn looks like he's showing his age, constituting why some run plays blew up in front of the Raiders offense.
Bottom Line
Luckily for the Raiders offense, they get the ball back since they implemented their defense first. The first stringers get one more chance for another look to put together a solid drive capping off with a touchdown before they put the 2nd stringers in. The defense, hopefully they keep playing like this throughout whole game. I'm loving it so far. Let's see what happens.
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