The big talk coming into the season for the Raiders, Defense. The team finished last season on a tear under, now official, Head Coach, Antonio Pierce, finishing inside the top 10 in the league. Oh, and Madd Maxx Crosby was playing hurt. Add in the addition of the big free agent signing of Christian Wilkins, you bet your ass there’s excitement with him and Crosby lining up next to each other.

That highly anticipated defense got off to a slow start on the first series of the game, with Sam Darnold getting the start for Minnesota. The Vikings marched right down the field, seemingly at will. Las Vegas nutted up when they felt that end zone on their asses. Tre’von Moehrig made the biggest impact on 2 plays in a row. The first, shedding a piss poor attempt of a block, by Jordan Addison, to stuff the run. The second, coming on a broken play with Darnold scrambling, getting a pass breakup. Vikings don’t complete the 4th down attempt. Good stand fellas, hell of a start to the season. Redzone defense has been absolutely terrible in recent memory.

Aiden O’Connell gets the start. With both him and off-season signing, Garner Minshew, both having a rollercoaster camp, this seems to me, AP is true to his word, Minshew is going to have to take the job. AOC has the early jump, Minshew is going to need to string some good showings together. If AOC can shake those Fred Flintstone, scared ass, twinkle toes that freaking Khalil Mack sacked into him, I’m cool with him. But you can’t ignore the fact that buddy WILL NOT SCRAMBLE. He sees pressure and panics. Minshew will get outside that pocket. He may make some ill-advised throws, but I don’t think I can take another season of watching AOC panic under the slightest pressure.

Luke Getsy! I’ll admit, I wasn’t sure of this selection. Maybe because I low-key wanted the Raiders to make a play for QB, Justin Fields, who’s in his own starter battle in Pittsburg. Hell of a freaking start to your Raiders OC duties. Nothing but quick 2 step drops for AOC, that’s the perfect way to counteract his MackTSD. He looked better than I can ever remember, yes, it’s preseason. Linked up with 13th overall pick in the 2024 draft, Brock Bowers whenever he wanted. Found Jakobi Meyers a couple times, and marched right down the field, but ends it with an ugly sack, didn’t feel the backside pressure at all. Daniel Carlson puts up the first points of the game.

All starters finish out the first quarter on defense before the line and Moehrig disappear to start the second, but DE, Janarius Robinson got off to a hot start. Him and his comrades put pressure on Rookie QB, J.J. McCarthy, who threw a pick to that dude Jack Jones. Minshew leads the team on a methodical drive, a few scrambles, and ending with a deep corner to DJ Turner for the tuddy.

McCarthy decided he didn’t like throwing picks. He tore the defense up the next couple series, the first ending with fade to the left, dropping a dime in his receivers hands for a TD. The next, drops a pass in on a corner route. Both times the second string showed exactly why they’re second string, receivers just running right by them, getting eyes stuck in the backfield.

Defense stepped up when Jaren Hall came in, he couldn’t do anything. Same for Raiders QB, Anthony Brown Jr. who had nothing but negative drives, it seemed.

AJ Cole was in midseason form, pinning the Vikings back around the 10 twice. With this first string defense, and AJ Cole, even if we struggle at QB, we should be in a lot of advantageous positions. Pick six’s, safety’s, plus starting position.

AP made some odd time management decisions to end the game, costing us a FG loss to end regulation, we’ll look forward to finding out what that was all about out in post game interviews or sometime through the week.

It was an optimistic start for the Las Vegas Raiders. Plenty still to work out the next couple weeks, but I like what I saw on the field today, especially from the 1s.