Our first preseason action in two years was quite an event for the Raiders as it was the first game at Allegiant Stadium with fans in attendance. They put on a good show, beating the visiting Seahawks 20-7 with a few standout performances along the way.
Ballers
WR Zay Jones
It was a bit of a coming-out party for Jones, who head coach Jon Gruden had been touting for his work ethic for the past couple of years. He got things started with a six-yard catch on the first drive. Two plays later on third and 8, he made a spectacular 28-yard catch on the left sideline. Then it was a 21-yard catch on the right sideline to set the Raiders up in first and goal from the four-yard line. Three catches on three targets for 57 yards is a solid game, let alone the first drive.
RB Trey Ragas
With Josh Jacobs and Kenyan Drake not playing in the game, Ragas put his stamp on this game right away. He picked up eight yards on his first run. Then after BJ Emmons and Nate Peterman couldn’t punch it in, Ragas finished it off with a touchdown on fourth and one.
On the next scoring drive, he had an eight-yard run on third and one to keep the drive alive and put the Raiders in field goal range. The next drive, he had two nine-yard runs and a six-yard run on third and one. He should’ve had a catch as well, but Nate Peterman missed him in the right flat and instead threw into coverage and was picked off.
He did have a couple of catches on the first drive of the third quarter to finish with 16 touches for 82 yards and a TD.
DT Darius Philon
The defense held the Seahawks scoreless in the first half and Philon was a big part of that. The big play was a hard sack from the blindside on Geno Smith. The sack was cornerback Nate Hobbs on a corner blitz, but Smith was too busy dealing with Philon bursting up the middle into his face to notice Hobbs. The result was Smith getting rocked and nearly fumbling the ball.
In the second quarter, he teamed up with Solomon Thomas on a run stuff for a loss. He helped end the next drive when he got pressure on third and eight and Clelin Ferrell cleaned it up to stop the QB for one yard on the scramble.
QB Nate Peterman
Solid game overall for Peterman. The two throws for Jones the first drive was impressive. He also had a sustained second drive that ended in a short field goal.
On his interception, he looked off Ragas open in the flat trying for more and ended up paying the price, as he got hit while he threw and was intercepted. But he recovered to lead the Raiders on another drive for a field goal to end the first half.
Peterman played all but one snap in the game, finishing 29 of 39 for 246 yards and the one interception.
WR Keelan Doss, WR DJ Turner
After the “starters” left, it was the Turner & Doss show the rest of the way. Doss had six catches on six targets while Turner had seven catches on eight targets. No one else had more than three catches in the game.
On the second and third scoring drives, it was a steady dose of Turner & Doss. That goes especially for Doss who, with 31 seconds left in the half, had a huge 17-yard catch along the left sideline to the 11-yard-line, getting out of bounds to stop the clock. He added a 13-yard catch on third-and-eight on the first drive of the second half.
RB BJ Emmons
While he wasn’t the workhorse in the game that Ragas was, Emmons had several big runs in the game. On the second drive of the game, the Raiders were in third and four from the Seattle 31-yard-line. Emmons went left, broke a tackle and broke off a 22-yard run to put the Raiders in first and goal from the nine-yard line.
The final scoring drive, with the Raiders in second and 11 from the 13-yard line, Emmons ran for 11 yards to set up first and goal from the two-yard line. On the next play, he went over the top to dive in for the touchdown. Safe to say his day ended happily.
CB Keisean Nixon
A solid overall game for Nixon. He never got burnt or committed a penalty in coverage. He also ended each of the last three Seahawks drives.
Early in the fourth quarter, on third and 14, Nixon made a fantastic open-field tackle on DeeJay Dallas to stop him at two yards. The Raiders got the ball back with great field position and drove for their final TD.
On the ensuing Seahawks possession, they went three-and-out. On third-and-nine, they tried to go for the long ball up the left sideline and Nixon stuck on his man and made a textbook pass breakup deep downfield.
The Seahawks would get the ball one more time in the game with 1:44 remaining. After driving into Raiders territory, they set up in second-and-ten from the 45, and Nixon stopped the play at six yards to end the game. Nixon finished second on the team in tackles (3). He keeps proving why the Raiders have kept the former undrafted free agent around.