Oakland Raiders: 7 Things To Watch For In Second Preseason Game

Jun 9, 2015; Oakland, CA, USA; Oakland Raiders coach Jack Del Rio (left) and offensive coordinator Bill Musgrave at minicamp at the Raiders practice facility. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

6. Will OC Bill Musgrave Open Up The Playbook A Bit?

This early in the preseason, you would expect things to be kept a bit vanilla. Teams want to work on the basics, work on their cohesiveness, as well as working on slowly incorporating the complexities within the playbook. And given what Musgrave has said he plans to do with the offense this year, there are plenty of complexities.

Working with what they had though, the Raiders looked crisp against the Rams. Carr completed plenty of short passes – notably, several to Cooper – and the pair appeared to be in a solid rhythm together. Though one of Carr’s passes to Michael Crabtree went nowhere, he did hit him with a solid 15 yarder later in the first quarter.

It was certainly vanilla and lacked a lot of fireworks, but the Raiders got some solid offensive work in. The offense seemed to be in a rhythm – even when backups Christian Ponder and Matt McGloin were under center for the Raiders.

Given Carr’s 4.8 yards per attempt, it will be interesting to see if Musgrave opens up the playbook and lets him take a few more shots downfield. Carr has a cannon for an arm, and is fairly accurate. With field stretching talent within the receiving corps, Oakland should take some more shots deep to allow Carr to get his timing and touch down.

Hey, it’s the preseason, it’s not like it counts for anything.

Next: 5. Under Pressure -- Hopefully