The Las Vegas Raiders finished the preseason after winning 23-6 against the New England Patriots on Friday.
This is the first time in the Raiders’ history to finish undefeated in the preseason. Coach Josh McDaniels commended that both teams got a lot better after having joint practices with the Patriots this past week.
“I think both teams got a lot better this week, we found out a lot of things about ourselves, and that is what the point of it was,” McDaniels said. “I’m very appreciative of the guys’ effort tonight. They put a lot into this week.”
The Raiders preserved their most defensive effort of the preseason for the Patriots. They earned four sacks, intercepted two passes, forced three fumbles, and recovered one.
Throughout the preseason, the Raiders did not commit a turnover. They finished with 13 penalties in four games and only had one on Friday’s game. At one point, McDaniels emphasized minimalizing mistakes by saying “You can’t win until you learn how to not lose.”
Raider starting quarterback Jarrett Stidham was 4 of 6 for 72 yards and is set to back up Derek Carr in the regular season. Running backs Zamir White and Brittain Brown each managed to score a touchdown. Meanwhile, kicker Daniel Carlson was 3 for 3 and attempted to score field goal. He finished the preseason with 9 of 9.
The team’s sixth-year defensive end Tashawn Bower also played well with five tackles and two sacks. He finished the preseason with a total of 12 tackles and four sacks.
“I feel like I did a good job, definitely some things to clean up still, but overall think I did a good job,” Bower said.
Patriots’ preseason struggle
The Patriots starting quarterback Mac Jones and the starting offense finished the game with four possessions. Two of them ended in a three-and-out, one with an interception, and one with a field goal.
He was 9 of 13 for 71 yards with only one interception. During the turnover, he failed to see Raiders linebacker Luke Masterson in zone coverage after scrambling to escape. Regardless, Patriots coach Bill Belichick said that Jones was one of the most consistent players in the team and was prepared well.
“Mac’s had a great attitude every day,” Belichick said.
“He comes in early, ready to work. We go to work, end of the day we talk about what happened, make corrections, make adjustments, and then to it the next day. So he’s one of our most consistent workers and prepares very well, so I haven’t seen anything other than that.”
However, Belichick also acknowledged Jones’ frustration, saying that it’s common to occur and was part of the process.
“You come off the field, there’s always things that you need to talk about or straighten out or fix, and there are things that you’re going to feel good about. Just grind through it. It’s training camp.”
Belichick said that it would take after more than a month of regular season games to fully know how good his team actually was, although they were likely more in line with how the team has played so far for several years.
Regardless, he still admitted that their practice session went much better than how they actually played that night.
“We didn’t have a real good night tonight in any phase of the game, that’s obvious,” Belichick said.
“Might have left it on the practice field Tuesday and Wednesday, certainly practiced a lot better than the way we played out there tonight.”