Joint practice notes of a hardcore Raider fan posted by BobCarl...

Fascinating to read the Raider fan practice perspective...

Here’s BobCarl...

WEDNESDAY'S PRACTICE NOTES VS RAIDERS:

a Raider's Fan wrote:

Holy crap, childhood dream come true to be at Raiders Training Camp... Fortunate enough to have access to all bleachers and both the VIP and Player's Family tent viewing areas, so had the opportunity to move around to watch different parts of practice up close! Here were some 1st hand observations from .... (Wednesday August 7th - Rams joint practice)

- Packed house, every seat taken! Crazy buzz and excitement around the joint-practice!

- 1st joint drills of the day split the teams into 4 groups.....
Field 1:
1. Raider OL vs. Rams DL.
2. Raiders team offense (minus OL) vs. Rams defense (minus DL)
(We watched these two groups go head to head from the 50 yard line!!)
Field 2:
3. Rams OL vs. Raiders DL (didn't see)
4. Rams team offense (minus OL) vs. Raiders d (minus DL) (didn't see)

- GREAT NEWS: Raiders 1st team OL's dominated the 1v1's I saw!!! Kolton looked strong. Gabe got the better of Aaron Donald in a 1v1 (Donald didn't have many reps)! The 2nd team guys also fared well!!! The nice surprise of the bunch was BRANDON PARKER! He had two comprehensive wins, lined up at LT!!

- In the other group (the one most were paying all the attention to).... 1st play Carr goes deep to Tyrell over the middle into double coverage. Talib leaping pick, and gloats in front of the Raiders fans and high fives Wade Phillips. “Effing” gross.

- Raiders followed that up with a couple of runs that get blown dead after contact...

- 2nd team offense then comes in, and Glennon fumbles a snap. GRUDEN LIGHTS HIM UP. Raiders crowd loves it.... they needed it. Glennon then completes a few short passes. Raiders run a designed rollout fake-sweep, that goes left to Moreau, but he couldn't bring it in (difficult catch but hit one of his out-stretched hands running towards the sideline). Loved the play call / design. Surprised they showed it honestly!!

- Honestly, they struggled to get anything going. There was also one play where Clay Matthews came clean around the edge and would have BLOWN Carr up for a sack. It must have been a miscommunication between the TE and Trent Brown as he was completely unblocked. Might have been a delayed blitz.

- The 1st great play of note came from RYAN GRANT who came down with an awesome leaping grab on sideline despite early contact from Rams DB.

- Renfrow had a nice diving catch to move the chains on 3rd down... Josh Jacobs shreds a LB in coverage and catches a bullet for a big gain.

- Tyrell Williams has a check-down that went for decent gain against off-coverage.

- Fair to say the Rams D got the win in session 1.

- One thing to note: Marcus Peters managed to punch a ball out of Doug Martin's hands (play had long been whistled dead, but still drew jeers from Rams sideline) and then Talib punched the ball out of Tyrell's hands after a completion from Carr (ball went out of bounds, but still drew jeers from Rams sideline).... I'm really hoping our coaching staff see this in the practice film and make it a coaching emphasis tonight and tomorrow. Talib and Peters maybe the best in the game at this --- great reps and learning opportunity here.

- RANDOM NOTE: GRUDEN supervised the Raiders offense during the session, with Wade Phillips watching their defense. Sean McVay was on the other field watching the Rams offensive reps against Guenther and the defense. Olson may be the OC, but this is Gruden's offense. PERIOD. Advantage Rams.

- We went over to the other side of the field to watch the defense......

- Isiah Johnson had a really nice breakup

- Vontaze Burfict looked good. He was physical, and was in the right place to make quick tackles in coverage.

- Overall run defense bottled Gurley and Henderson up really well. Neither got loose.

- Worley had a few nice breakups including one in the endzone in 1v1. I didn't believe the CB1 talk, but I get it after seeing them play live. He plays with a swagger.

- Conley kinda disappointed me to be honest. He had a nice breakup on one play, but also gave up a few. He gives us too much of a cushion sometimes -- needs to be more aggressive and consistent. Robert Woods had a huge gain on him in 1v1 but got flagged for a push off. There was contact but it wouldn't have been called on other occasions.

- Arden Key would have had a blindside strip sack if it was a real game. He beat his guy around the edge. Great to see!

- Jelly had a nice interior swim move that got immediate penetration and would have got home, but play went the other way.

- Goff threaded the needle on a TD pass to TE Everett in the back of the endzone, right between Karl and Abrams. The two safeties both converged on Everett and you heard an immediate POP as they collided, but great pass from Goff. Everett got up and span the ball in the endzone, which Abrams didn't like. A few Raiders got in Everett's ear after that including Tahir Whitehead.

- Robert Woods had a nice diving TD in the corner of the endzone from Goff.... Didn't see who was closest in coverage, but the nearest guy was a good 6-10 yards away.

- Rams also had a designed reverse that was well blocked and went for a big gain up the left side against our D. Great practice reps -- surprised they showed it!

- Abrams was lined up 1v1 wide on Everett (literally 10 yard away from where we were sitting) with Cooper Kupp lined up in the slot. Raiders playing zone. Abrams with an aggressive jam to re-direct, then peels off, ball is immediately thrown to Kupp, who catches, turns and is immediately HAMMERED by Abrams swarming with another Raider. It would have been a big hit for a regular season game -- I thought it might start a brawl but no Rams really reacted.

- Raiders blitzed their Safeties a few times. Karl Joseph got stuffed by Gurley on one. Erik Harris almost got home, but got his hands up to deflect a pass on another.

- Joyner worked pretty exclusively in the slot -- he had a really good break up that got the whole d/sideline excited

- On the other side of the field Carr completed a TD to Tyrell Williams that drew a huge roar from the Raider fans over there. Other than that I didn't hear much about that side.

Overall.... badass experience as a fan. Can't “effing” wait to see Hard Knocks next week, although the Rams appeared to get the better of us on both sides of the ball, from what I saw (albeit did not see everything!!). That being said, I'm not disheartened at all by what I saw... There's no doubt this was an invaluable experience for our guys. They got damn good reps and a lot of regular-season-type plays against a well-oiled superbowl contender, stacked with some of the best individual players in the NFL. This was a good measuring stick. They've got work to do, but it seems very doable.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/08/2019 02:10PM by Rams43.