Las Vegas Raiders quarterback Jarrett Stidham (3) is sacked during an NFL preseason game against the Minnesota Vikings at Allegiant Stadium Sunday, Aug. 14, 2022.
Monday, Aug. 15, 2022 | 2 a.m.
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Jarrett Stidham stood safely in the pocket to march the Las Vegas Raiders right down the field in their second offensive possession of Sunday’s 26-20 victory over the Minnesota Vikings. A few minutes later, on the third possession, there was virtually no pocket as the quarterback dealt with a swarm of defenders on three straight plays.
Such sudden swings are life in the NFL preseason, where inconsistency reigns supreme as teams try out different strategies and personnel in an attempt to find out what works best. It’s all just felt extra amplified with the Raiders in the trenches through two games this year as they’ve constantly rotated in different combinations of players series by series.
“It’s not like we haven’t discussed why we’re doing it,” Raiders coach Josh McDaniels said after the game. “There are different reasons for what we did, and we have more time still. We don’t play a regular season game for a while…The competition is real, and it’s ongoing.”
Las Vegas improved 2-0 under McDaniels and has yet to trail in either exhibition game. The Raiders have thrived in perhaps every area except up front, where they seem to be winning in spite of not controlling the line of scrimmage.
Pass protection was the lone black mark on a 27-11 victory over the Jaguars on August 2 when the Raiders gave up five sacks, and it might have been worse against the Vikings. Las Vegas trimmed its sacks allowed total to four, but that was partly because of a less pass-heavy gameplan.
When Stidham, who's in the lead to serve as Derek Carr's backup in the regular season, and current third-stringer Nick Mullens dropped back to pass against Minnesota, they seemed to be under even greater pressure than they were against Jacksonville. On the few occasions where they got into a rhythm with one group of linemen, another would check in and the progress would halt.
“I have confidence in all those guys and in practice we’re getting reps with all those guys as well so it’s whoever is out there is out there,” Stidham said. “We’re just trying to execute and get the ball down the field.”
McDaniels praised the team’s offensive-line depth after the game, but the unit’s effectiveness noticeably dipped the deeper he dug into the bench.
Just like in the first game, left tackle Kolton Miller was the only offensive linemen who did not play for rest. Las Vegas know what it has in Miller; it’s everyone else that still needs more seasoning.
Center Andre James, right guard Lester Cotton and left guard John Simpson started in the interior for the second straight game. Instead of Brandon Parker (now injured) and Alex Leatherwood at the tackle spots like the first game, however, the Raiders went with Jermaine Eluemunor and Thayer Munford.
The Eluemunor-Simpson-James-Cotton-Munford group might have looked like the Raiders’ best combination. They gave Stidham time to direct the offense down the field on each of the first two drives.
Las Vegas settled for a field goal on the first, with Daniel Carlson hitting a 23-yarder. On the second, and the first play of the second quarter, Stidham took advantage of strong protection blocks by James and Simpson to scramble up the middle for a 4-yard touchdown and make the score 10-0.
The Raiders’ blocking performance waned from there as they mixed in different players. Rookie third-round pick Dylan Parham had a rough afternoon at guard in contributing to a pair of snaps via missed blocks, and Eluemunor was less effective when moved away from left tackle and paired with different partners.
The Raiders had a built-in excuse for the struggles with all the movement, but they all said it wasn’t a factor.
“We’re all close-knit and we all work together all the time so it’s not like super hard but there are things that are different when you play next to certain people,” Simpson said.
Eluemunor added, “My entire career, I’ve always had to know left tackle, left guard, right tackle, right guard. Me being able to do all those things gets the team more comfortable into the season. It’s just me giving the team the flexibility we need.”
The Raiders constantly changed offensive linemen, but they were even more aggressive switching on the other side of the ball. Interior defensive lineman swapped in and out on every play, and consistency similarly emerged as a problem.
New defensive coordinator Patrick Graham was having the most animated yelling-into-his-headset moment of his young tenure in the second quarter as the Vikings gashed the Raiders both on the ground and in the short passing game. Second-year players Kene Nwangwu at running back and Ihmir Smith-Marsette at receiver got Minnesota to the one-yard line before the defensive line bore down.
Veteran free-agent acquisition Andrew Billings then knocked a blocker into the back field and stuffed Nwangwu for a loss of one yard, helping to hold the Vikings to a short field goal by kicker Greg Joseph.
“I thought we played a little soft in lateral on the second quarter in the running game,” McDaniels said. “That’s a different type of scheme. We’re going to see plenty of teams that do that, the stretch and cut type running game, we were running laterally a little more than knocking them backwards and we’re going to have to fix some of those things.”
Minnesota got back inside the 5-yard line with little resistance on their next drive, but pressure by Kendal Vickers on third down led to another short Joseph field goal. That pair of stops proved the difference in the game, as Minnesota moved the ball more efficiently than Las Vegas overall — the Vikings had 298 yards on 50 plays while the Raiders had 300 yards on 70 plays — but only scored touchdowns on two of four trips into the red zone.
Both were in the second half when quarterback Kellen Mond found Albert Wilson for a pair of touchdown passes.
Las Vegas, on the other hand, converted two of three red zone trips into touchdowns with rookie running back Brittain Brown plunging in from one yard early in the fourth quarter to pair with Stidham’s rushing score. The Raiders’ other touchdown came when Mullens got D.J. Turner the ball in space and the second-year receiver went 34 yards down the sidelines in the third quarter to put the home team up 23-13.
Winning can mask everything in the regular season, but that’s less true in the preseason where the objectives are more varied. The Raiders’ spirits were high after another victory, but they knew there was more work to be done.
And they know it’s going to need to take place on the line of scrimmage.
“There’s certainly going to be some things we see tomorrow (on film) that we need to fix but a good day overall,” McDaniels said.
Case Keefer can be reached at 702-948-2790 or [email protected]. Follow Case on Twitter at twitter.com/casekeefer.Case Keefer can be reached at 702-948-2790 or
