Raiders vs Saints second half thread for preseason week 2

The first quarter was a perfect example of every Raiders fan's greatest fear. If we go through a season like that we will all be in a pretty foul move. Every Raiders fan watching got chills while watching that "football", and they were not the good kind.

QB Matt Flynn did not really do anything positive to speak about, Darren McFadden had one decent run, and the offensive line was overpowered and outmaneuvered regularly. Thats not even mentioning that Tracy Porter's coverage was annihalated and a new world record for Drew Brees standing in the pocket was created before he threw the Saints 2nd touchdown of the quarter. After all that, 158 yards for the Saints to 38 yards for the Raiders and a 17-0 deficit is about all that really needed to be said about the start of this game.

The second quarter started off with the Raiders ineptitude still on full display and the Saints continuing to dice through the secondary. Tracy Porter went down with an injury and David Ausberry also got dinged. Porter had a really hard time walking off the field and it did not look good. Kevin Burnett also left this game earlier on with an ankle injury.

Thankfully the Raiders woke up a bit and the defense finally got some pressure to stall the Saints first drive in the 2nd quarter. They held the Saints to a field goal after they got into the Raiders' redzone. Joselio Hanson made an excellent play to stop Darren Sproles on a screen pass to force the 3rd down play where Drew Brees overthrew his intended target. Of course the Raiders offense just punted the ball back shortly after again anyway.

The Saints once again drove right down the field on the Raiders defense but the defense held strong once the Saints got inside the 20. The Saints were driving at will so even just holding them to a field goal there was a victory.

Even though the offensive line was practically non existent Matt Flynn finally got something going in his two minute drill. He completed several nice throws on the drive including an absolutely beautiful throw to Denarius Moore over the top of Keenan Lewis. It was an 11 play for 82 yard beauty of a drive.

Good thing because he is going to need to show he can play despite the pressure from the signs of this game. The Raiders are in trouble without Jared Veldheer on the line, they gave up 5 sacks in that first half. They also didn't open up much in the running game as the Raiders only gained 34 yards on 9 carries.

Flynn finished with a surprisingly good stat line of 12-16 throwing for 124 yards and a TD, most of those stats came on that last drive. Brice Butler was his favorite target with 3 catches for 38 yards and Denarius Moore had 2 for 29 and the TD. Hopefully the Raiders can continue the momentum from that final drive of the first half into the second half.