Oakland Raiders: 5 things that must improve against the Arizona Cardinals

The Oakland Raiders had a successful 2019 debut but that doesn’t mean all was perfect – here are a few things that must improve as they head to Arizona to take on the Cardinals.

The Oakland Raiders played what is likely the franchise’s final home game in the stadium now known as the RingCentral Coliseum on Saturday, beating the Los Angeles Rams 14-3. There were some fantastic moments in the game but overall, it was — well — a preseason game.

Yeah, it’s a little hard to get too geeked up about a preseason tilt but it’s just good to have football back, isn’t it?

For the most part, the Raiders’ second and third-stringers acquitted themselves pretty well against Los Angeles’ second and third stringers.

Guys on the roster bubble and vying for spots on the practice squad or perhaps trying to put down some tape that will catch the eye of other teams played hard and played fairly well for the most part.

Oakland’s backup offense rolled to 407 total yards while the revamped defense held the high-flying Rams to just 190 total yards.

It was good to see some of Oakland’s rookie group like Johnathan Abram and Clelin Ferrell not only get some work in but look pretty good doing it — which is good to see since Oakland will be leaning heavily on them to help right last season’s 4-12 sinking ship.

In the grand scheme of things, these preseason games mean next to nothing though, except to give the rookies a chance to gather some experience and give other guys a chance to prove they deserve to be one of the final 53 left standing when the season opens.

With the first game now in the books, the Raiders are going to need a short memory as they gear up to take on first overall pick Kyler Murray and the Arizona Cardinals. The Cards will be coming off a week’s worth of rest while the Raiders play on a short week making the grind a little bit tougher on the Silver and Black.

The Murray era in the desert got started off with a win over the Chargers and Murray playing a solid if unspectacular game. Arizona will provide some different challenges for the Raiders than the Rams did and are going to need to clean up a few things if they hope to move to 2-0 in the preseason.

Let’s take a look at just a few of the things the Raiders will need to tighten up before they take on the Cardinals.