Detroit Lions lose close one to Raiders in preseason opener, 16-10

Closing comments

Overall, this was a sloppy game played with too many penalties on both sides. Between both teams, there were 17 penalties that racked up 144 yards worth of penalty yardage.

The Lions gave up many chunk yardage plays on the ground and through the air and Sam Martin had a couple of very strong punts on the night.

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Stafford didn’t play so there’s no real evaluation of the first team offense. The running game had a few flashes of Kerryon Johnson’s game-breaking abilities but the consistency wasn’t there as often as you would have liked. Kerryon also had some nice catches out of the backfield as well.

In my eyes, the offense was a bit stagnant with Cassel at the helm but Jake Rudock was able to string some completions together, convert some third downs and move the offense with more confidence. If the rest of the games play out similar to this one, I would expect Jake Rudock to remain as Stafford’s understudy.

There was little if any pressure generated by the Lions’ defense and the multiple, shifting defensive fronts typical of Matt Patricia led defenses didn’t really impact the game.

To me, the biggest win of the night was that both teams steered clear of any significant injuries. There have already been several players throughout the league to suffer major injuries and it is a good thing for fans of Detroit and Oakland that their teams escaped this week with their teams intact, ready to move forward to another week of practice and preparation.

All in all, there wasn’t really a lot to write home about in this one. The biggest byline of the night was that Matt Patricia made his debut as the Detroit Lions head coach and Jon Gruden returned to the helm of the Oakland Raiders over a decade-plus after his initial run as Raider head coach.

The game plan for the night seemed to be pretty bland with no real big push by the offense or defense.

I wouldn’t read too much into this one. It was the first preseason game and it will now serve as a baseline to show what more Detroit has to work on.

Nothing super exciting put on tape by either team but both showed flashes of what they could develop into later on down the line. Click here to view the box score from this game.