Raiderstation

Training wheels come off, it is time to make this a reality.

Welcome to the NFL Mendoza, and welcome to being the leader of the Raiders Klint Kubiak. Let's get this thing going. And yea, as always, I sipped the Koolaid.

It’s rare one can get any valid insights from pre-season games for teams as a whole. Art Shell’s 2.0 team ended pre-season undefeated as far as I can remember and we all know how that went.
Mendoza looked ok and that’s what matters most right now.

Other Raiders after the game.
Heyward


Bech


Nailor

RaiderandBulldog wrote: Thu Aug 13, 2026 8:44 pm I’ll give him a Chance to get the players wants for his system. I accept the defense will more than likely be bad this year.

This^.

It's not just the offense that needs fixing. When the scariest types of situations are 3rd and 12 and you're biting your fingernails over whether or not the D is going to be able get off the field, it says something----something really bad about the D.

Right now we're running a 3-4 defense with 4-3 personnel.

Besides, it's reasonable to think we're going to be running something more complex than a Tecmo Bowl defense when the season starts.

Sir Raider Duck, OMS wrote: Thu Aug 13, 2026 7:42 pm Remember that we're clearing off the bench at this point. Half these guys will be bagging groceries this time next month.

true but, these our supposed depth pieces and they look loike shit while on their last legs

Marzan wrote: Thu Aug 13, 2026 11:04 pm It’s rare one can get any valid insights from pre-season games for teams as a whole. Art Shell’s 2.0 team ended pre-season undefeated as far as I can remember and we all know how that went.
Mendoza looked ok and that’s what matters most right now.

Yeah it was evident Kubiak wasn’t concerned about the score when he brought out the Toe down 27-14. Also, calling all his TOs at six minutes left, Coach K just wanted to extend the game reps. A good handful of these guys are going to get cut within the next few weeks and he’s wanting to see what they have and give them as much chances to show out as possible.

Marzan wrote: Thu Aug 13, 2026 11:04 pm It’s rare one can get any valid insights from pre-season games for teams as a whole. Art Shell’s 2.0 team ended pre-season undefeated as far as I can remember and we all know how that went.
Mendoza looked ok and that’s what matters most right now.

Art Shell played the starters for two and a half quarters every preseason game. If anything, that example proves that Pre Season does tell you some things, because our starters struggled against the 2nd/3rd string that year.

As far as this game, our defense is NOT going to be good this year. I'm just going to go ahead and call it. Until we have a true NT, and until we can stop the run, our defense will always be bottom tier.

There's going to be growing pains with our secondary, but Adam Butler WOULD NOT start for 31 other teams, and he SHOULD NOT be starting for us.

They don't give out rings for one preseason win and the draft order is not made based on one preseason loss.

We knew this whole franchise was going to be on a huge learning curve, so I don't think we should be surprised that we looked good in some areas and not so good in others. But that's why we have preseason games.

Our 2 best players did not even play and many of our starters only played a little bit so I'm not going to just have a knee jerk reaction and contemplate jumping off a ledge because of last night's game.

Even though it was the first pre season game I think it’s fair to say the offense looked solid. Defense looked bad. The defense in whatever form failed to stop them for several drives. This doesn’t reflect how it will continue or how anything fits but is a fair assessment. Also the penalties need to be cleaned up.

That’s what these games are for. To get live action tape and correct mistakes. Arizona has 1 more week of practice and 1 more game than we do. I expected them to be more in tune

Let’s not let the defensive struggles over shadow the good.

Mendoza throwing darts
Bech stepped up
Washington Jr (with a great block by Grant)
Benson coming around
1st team offense- Linderbaum, Jeanty, Cousins, Mayer, Tucker
Walker a beast against the run

These guys and unit looked solid.

Mendoza is going to be fine once he catches up to the game. I watched the game last night but also recorded it. I will spend some time going back to watch more about his footwork and the rest of his mechanics. Not really prepared to say much else on that at this time. Second drive based on just one viewing was pretty sweet though. TD pass was nice to see, he needs to get those small victories early on.

O'Connell was utter crap out there. Those who think he is anything at all are simply lost. He is surrounded by superior QBs and yet he not only looked like crap again, he regressed. Cousins in a brief outing looked sharp.

The defense was garbage but it was good to get the bad performance out of the way early on. I expect some quick and sharp improvement. Slone looked good though. Not sure if he can make the final cut since he is really just a camp body but he did do what you want guys like him to do and that is work your ass off and let your play do the talking. Probably not big enough to really make it but he had a decent motor out there.

Play calling was as expected. Pretty vanilla on both sides. Not going to bring out the tools during preseason. Kubiak did OK though with the flow of the game.

Special teams is a work in progress. The "Toe" experiment may have died on the vine though. Sorry to all the "Toe" fans, hope you had not ordered your jersey's yet.

No idea what the season will bring with a very tough schedule but there were some positives last night.

One thing I’m not doing is losing my mind like some posters around here.

I mean what the Hell?

I especially liked that Mendoza didn't get happy feet when the pocket got congested. That isnt everything, but its something that if you have (early panic, happy feet tendencies) its hard to change, and is very bad.

Mendoza's slight of hand was impressive. He already has the play action out of the pocket down.

The only thing I care about besides Saint Fernando is having as many kids as possible carving out a role on this team. Having these kids and Fernando humming (on rookie contracts) would be HUGE to building up this roster. Every year there are camp heroes and proclamations about them never come to fruition once the season starts. This year seems different. Time will tell. GO RAIDERS!!!!

powski wrote: Fri Aug 14, 2026 5:38 am I especially liked that Mendoza didn't get happy feet when the pocket got congested. That isnt everything, but its something that if you have (early panic, happy feet tendencies) its hard to change, and is very bad.

Yeah, he had that trait in college too and it appears to have translated to the NFL...kid just doesn't get rattled.