Raiders vs Cardinals preseason week two: Four winners, four losers

This was a fun one. An early 26-0 Raiders rout started to look a little like a game when the Cardinals came back to score a couple times before the half. But that was all backups, so it didn’t mean nearly as much. Meaning even less was the Cardinals touchdown as time expired for the final score of 33-26 Raiders.

Winners

Derek Carr

Carr was feeling like a winner before the game even started. In pregame was throwing to top weapon Antonio Brown who was in full uniform WITH A HELMET. Then he came out and led the Raiders on an opening drive touchdown and his day was done. It doesn’t get any better that. It also doesn’t get better than Carr’s 158.3 passer rating having gone 2 for 2 for 40 yards and a touchdown.

Mike Glennon

After throwing two picks in his first preseason game. Then he got ouplayed by Nathan Peterman simply by not turning over the football and having a 50-yard run. This week, Glennon wasn’t shying away from pushing it down the field and, like Carr, had a perfect passer rating of 158.3 going 11 of 14 for 175 yards and two touchdowns and most importantly no picks.

Brett Hundley

He came in for the number one overall pick ahead of him on the depth chart and gave the Cardinals something to think about. He led them on two consecutive scoring drives to end the first half — the first for a touchdown on a long bomb and the second for a field goal — and then led them on a third straight scoring drive to begin the second half. If the Cardinals are smart, they’ll give Hundley a legit shot to be the starter to begin the season.

Lamarcus Joyner

Joyner started for the Raiders at slot corner and was one of the best players on the field. He made one of the biggest defensive plays of the game when he came on a well disguised blitz to sack Kyler Murray in his own end zone for the sack. You see, Joyner was there to send a message. He wants to run the Cardinals’ Air Raid offense back to college football. Smacking their starting QB in the mouth sends a strong message. Then he went and vocalized it in a sideline interview. Joyner won this round.

Losers

Adam Schefter

Schefter will do fine. But if you’re not sure where the talk of Antonio Brown retiring if he didn’t get the helmet he wants came from, it was from this tweet (and some follow-ups from him about his future riding on it).

We are less than a week since this tweet was sent and Antonio Brown took the field for pregame WITH A HELMET and looking like here very soon he will be back on the field ready to play. Schefter’s tweet has over 17.5 thousand replies. A lot of those from people who were having some fun mocking Schefter’s report. What sucks is I have no doubt his source was a good one. A trusted one. Maybe even someone whose name rhymes with Blue Chosen mouse. But no matter. Schefty has survived worse.

Kyler Murray

That opposite end of the spectrum from Carrs perfect day was that of rookie Kyler Murray. He could get nothing going. He had just three completions on eight attempts for 12 yards. He was also sacked twice for a loss of 10. Toss in his four-yard rush and he had a net six yards of offense. His passer rating of 45.8 doesn’t really quantify how bad his day was.

Nathan Peterman

It doesn’t matter that Peterman was a perfect 8 for 8 in this game. He still averaged just five yards per completion. That will not win him the job, not while his main competition throws for 175 yards, 2 TDs and doesn’t turn the ball over.

Marcell Ateman, Hunter Renfrow

There’s a tough battle going on at wide receiver for the Raiders. One is at slot receiver and the other is for a roster spot. Renfrow seemed to have the edge in the battle in camp, but through two preseason games, Ryan Grant has caught up and now looks to be pulling away. He caught the touchdown pass from Carr to end the opening drive. Renfrow came in later and finished with two catches for 26 yards — his first of the preseason.

Ateman is fighting for a roster spot. His main competition has been JJ Nelson and Keelan Doss. Nelson has been outstanding in camp and added a big catch last week. After Doss scored a touchdown on his first catch last week, the undrafted rookie caught five passes on five targets for 38 yards tonight. Ateman had one catch on one target for 14 yards after posting one catch on one target for 19 yards last week.