The Oakland Raiders and Minnesota Vikings are playing live on the NFL preseason schedule on Friday and the game is live from TCF Bank Stadium and starts up past 8 pm ET for Week 1 and this will be the first look at Matt Schaub for Oakland and the new offense for the Vikes under head coach Mike Zimmer and the Raiders also signed a ton of free agents this offseason and are expecting improvements.
The Raiders had a tough season in their division last year and they only won one game against AFC West teams and that is one area where they need to improve. The team has a number of new names and faces and they will have a new leading passer and rusher this year, as Rashad Jennings is now with the Giants and Terrelle Pryor was traded to the Seahawks. The team opens with the Vikings on the road before returning home against the Detroit Lions and then the team faces off against the Green Bay Packers and their preseason finale is at home against the champs with the Seattle Seahawks coming to Cali.
Oakland has a tough schedule this season and the early part will tell a lot about this team, as they have four games ahead of the bye week. The team has winnable games against the New York Jets, Miami Dolphins and Houston Texans, but the biggest test comes in Week 3, as they will visit the New England Patriots. The Raiders know winning the division is unlikely with Peyton Manning and the Broncos there, but the team has enough talent to be a wild card team and that NE game will be a big test for the entire roster.
The Raiders are coming into the season after bringing in a whole host of players and that includes James Jones, Matt Schaub and Maurice Jones-Drew and they are expecting to be better on offense than last season. The team used Terrelle Pryor and Matt McGloin last season and now they have Schaub as the starter and they feel he can at least get the team on the winning side of things after winning just eight games over the past two seasons.
The Raiders come into this season after being 4-12 in each of the past two years and now jobs could be on the line and this comes amid rumors that the team could relocate as well. The Raiders defense needs to improve in a number of areas and bringing in Justin Tuck and drafting Khalil Mack will help the pass rush and in turn that could help the secondary a great deal. The team wants big things from DJ Hayden and they feel that if he can stay healthy he can be a great cornerback and so far he has been unable to do that.
The Raiders and Vikings won a combined nine games last season and now they both will be looking to win for Week 1 of the preseason and hopefully that will lead into the postseason, as the Raiders have been out of it for years now.
Check here for the Oakland Raiders and Minnesota Vikings live coverage for the NFL preseason game.