After a rough couple of days over the weekend, the Raider offense seemed to have come out better off on the other side. Bruce Gradkowski was practicing again for the third straight day since coming back from his groin injury that kept him out for a couple weeks and into the first preseason game. Rolando McClain was also back after his excused absence to attend to a ill family member.
But the most notable return to the field was certainly offensive efficiency.
The receivers were making the catches they should make and Jason Campbell shook off his poor play in practice yesterday and looked like his old self again. The offense was working a lot on their redzone offense and they seemed to score in just about every instance.
Alex Daniels was carrying the ball some with short yardage success as was Michael Bush who scored on a 1 yard touchdown in the first series. Jonnie Lee Higgins was making quite a few nice catches that were reminiscent of his play at the end of the 2008 season. Zach Miller was having his way with the linebackers and safeties as per usual. And Jason Campbell was making all the throws on target and with nice timing.
Although, one good day of practicing doesn’t cure everything so tempering expectations might be a good idea at this moment. If Thursday’s game and the following practices are any indication, the success and confidence of this offense is fragile. It should not be too much to ask for these receivers to pull in every catchable ball. And while the quarterbacks can’t be expected to make every throw perfectly, a certain level of consistency from a starting NFL quarterback is expected as well.
Both Gradkowski and Campbell have proven at different points in their careers that they are capable of maintaining a high level of consistency. It is not a question of “if” but “when” we will see it on the field of play. Hopefully for the team’s sake and coach Cable’s blood pressure, we see it during the preseason.
The passing game would not engender a great deal of confidence in the coaches and fans if the team was to head into the regular season opener against the Titans without the first team offense having put together a few nice drives. And they have about 5 quarters of football to do it. That should be about a half in the Bears game this Saturday and 3 quarters in the preseason home opener against the Niners. The final game of the preseason will be played almost entirely by backups and bubble players.
But for now the good news is that morning practice today ended as a mirror image of how it ended yesterday. Yesterday’s practice ended with 3 of 4 plays going the defense’s way, capped by a failed endzone heave. The morning practice ended with five straight completions by Jason Campbell in the hurry-up offense. He hit Zach on a slant, then had two straight completions to JLH, followed by a nice pass to Murphy along the sideline and punctuated by a leaping touchdown grab by Zach Miller in the back of the endzone.
And in case any of us wondered if that was a one-practice fluke, the passing game was on fire again in the afternoon session. Jason Campbell was making all the right throws and for the most part, the receivers were catching everything in sight. Louis Murphy looked especially good. The only time any of the receivers had any real difficulty getting the ball is when Nnamdi was defending them– he knocked several passes down incomplete. But he was the only member of the secondary that was having consistent success in stopping them. Oh how the tables turned today. We’ll see if they can keep it going.
Your move, defense.
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