Las Vegas Raiders vs Santa Clara 49ers: Preseason Week 2 Preview | BATTLE OF THE BAY?

Las Vegas Raiders vs Santa Clara 49ers: Preseason Week 2 Preview | BATTLE OF THE BAY?

What is up, R nation? It’s your boy Smor back at it again with yet another pregame preview for this week 2 matchup between our Las Vegas Raiders and the Santa Clara 49ers in the battle of the Mandalay Bay. Now, I know that this is just preseason and usually I will say that preseason really doesn’t matter, but when it comes down to these two teams, it’s just win, baby. The Raiders have to win this. Not because, you know, we’re going to win a Super Bowl or whatn not, but we have to win this for bragging rights. And this is like the only time we get to play the 49ers. And I know that there’s going to be a lot of faithfuls coming over here to Las Vegas for the very first game of the 2025 season here at Allegian Stadium. We got to send Leas back home with their tails between their legs. That being said though, if this is the very first time you guys are coming across this channel and you love Raiders content just like this, then don’t forget to hit that subscribe button and don’t forget to hit that notification icon button to notify you guys when I upload more videos like this. Now, you guys already know the deal. We cannot start a pregame preview without giving you guys your Nation news. Now, first bit of news. I know it’s going to be kind of a sad one. Uh, but my condolences to Cheryl Nichols family, the Raiders released a statement earlier today saying that the Raiders family is deeply saddened by the passing of Cheryl Nichols, a longtime employee and administrator whose career spanned over five decades with the Silver and Black. An intricral part of the team’s front office, Cheryl was instrumental in administering the organization’s facilities for many years, including the team’s current headquarters in Henderson. An amazing teammate with talents that shine throughout her years with the Raiders, Cheryl was the most loyal friends and will forever be a loved and cherished part of the Raiders family. The prayers of the Raider Nation are with her children, Kimberly and Mark, and the entire Nicholls family during this difficult time. As I said before, nothing but prayers and I wish nothing but the best for her family that is mourning her loss. If there’s anything that we know about being Raider fans and supporting this team is there’s nothing closer than family and she definitely was part of that family. So, my condolences. Moving on to some other bit of news though. Rich Ganon was seen at Raiders training camp yesterday and we got to see him. I I was like, damn, my boy look a little bit old out there. Almost looking like Pete Carol. But it was great to see him around, you know, just seeing the team and just having his presence there. Now, he did get to sit down and speak to the Raiders and he kind of gave his two cents on how he feels about Gino Smith, and he does believe that Gino will have a successful career with the Raiders quite like he did years ago. So, you know, it took him a while to kind of find his rhythm, but he has settled in. He’s played some great football the last couple years. I think he’s on the right trajectory and I just think, you know, those experiences, the adversity that he that he went through early in his career, I think have benefited him. I think he I think he brings a lot The thing I love about Gino, he brings a lot of physical and mental toughness to the position. He’s a tough guy. I think he’s a great leader. Uh I I think he’s a guy that could be really really good late in games where it matters the most. And I hope for that same success because we all know that Rich Ganon had some of his best years with the Oakland Raiders. Heck, he had even an MVP season. So, if we could get somewhat of that out of Gino Smith with this team, then that means we’re going in the right direction. Heck, just getting into the playoffs, I I feel like would be a huge win for this team. And Gino Smith is going to be the guy that we hope can pioneer that. And since we’re riding on a high, I want to talk about another player that’s been getting some love out there in the silver and black. That guy is newly acquired defensive tackle Thomas Booker. Now, according to Shawn Reed, it seems like in his short time with the Raiders, Thomas Booker has impressed so far since being traded from the Eagles for quarterback Jakorium Bennett. Now, the coaching staff has also praised Booker for being a quick learner and an immediate contributor for the team on the defensive line. Not only that, Max Crosby has even said that Booker has been flying since day one and hasn’t slowed down yet. Booker remains to be on a steady pace to earn himself a starting job next to Adam Butler on the defensive line. Now, this is definitely some great news to hear for a guy that just joined the team. And heck, even in his first game, he was a guy that stood out to not only me, but the rest of the Raider Nation, and that was just with a couple of days with the team. Now, what does this mean for other guys like Tyreek Wilson or even Jonah Lulu, who I’m rooting for to go out there and ball out, well, it means that it’s going to be a competition no matter what. Even though Jonah Lu is a real close friend of mine, I don’t think that he really showed out in the first game. But, you know, that that could possibly be first game jitters. Well, we will see how Thomas Booker looks in this next game and see if he can creep into that starting lineup and if he can be that diamond in the rough for this team, then that’s a win-win. As long as we have the best players out there, we’ll have the best results that we can get. Now, moving on to the next segment of this video, I’m going to be going over the top storylines going into this game. Now, the first story line will be how will this offensive line hold up? Now, I know that last week the offensive line kind of struggled early on in the game, especially when we had Ashen Jensy in there. And we know that if we want the Raiders to succeed or have any type of success this season, the offensive line has got to step up and definitely block for Gino Smith and whoever is going to be running out of the back field, of course, Ashton Jensy. I know that the Raiders have been shuffling around some of their offensive lineman. I know Jordan Meredith, JPJ, you know, we still got DJ Glaze out there. Of course, we know that Colotton Miller and Dylan Parham is going to be starting on the left side of the line, but Pete Carol has already said that he’s going to be working with a lot of these players and seeing what lineup is going to be the best going into week one. So, definitely offensive line has got to step up in this game, especially against a defensive line that could possibly cause some pressure on Gino Smith. That said, going into my next storyline is going to be looking at the first team unit. Again, like I said before, the first team unit didn’t really look good last week coming out the gates. Gino Smith only played in one drive and we didn’t really get to see much out of that. Ashton Genty played in two drives and we didn’t really get to see much out of him. P. Carol has already stated that the starters will be starting in this game, but we don’t know how long they’re going to be playing. So, I hope that if we get one drive out of them that they look explosive, that they look good, that we could drive down the field and maybe score a point, touchdown, whatever it may be, something better than what we had last week. That’s all we’re asking for. This is going to be the first time that we get to see Pete Carol’s Raiders here in Las Vegas in front of the Raider Nation at Allegiance Stadium. So, I want to see if they could keep that energy going into this game. You know, of course Pete Carol is going to bring that energy. Of course, guys like Max Crosley is going to bring that energy, but with the Raider fans intact with the quote unquote homefield advantage over here in Las Vegas, can they live up to the hype that we’ve been hyping them up to all offseason long? So, I definitely definitely want to see this team, especially this first team unit, come out swinging. I know we started off slow last week. like I said before, but looking at what this team did in the second half, that’s the team that I want to see. That second half energy from the Seahawks game, go and start off the game just like that. Heck, when the Raiders got their together in the second half, we scored 20 points. We only scored three points in the first half last week. We scored 20 points in the second half last week. Now going into this game and seeing how explosive this offense looked at joint practice with Gino Smith finding guys like Brock Bowers, Trey Tucker, Ashton Jenty, can we at least see some of that in the first half of this game? Heck, whenever the starters are out there. And speaking of the offensive side of the ball, another big storyline is going to be who will come out as the quarterback, too. Now, we know that it’s kind of like a close race. We know that Aiden Okonnell, I think on paper, is the quarterback, too. But Cam Miller really showed out last week in this little time that he had more than Aiden Okonnell. And we know how much Aiden Okonnell struggled in the last game throwing two interceptions in the first half. But I will give Aiden Okonnell some credit. He came out in the second half and looked a lot better. Now I know that the Raiders are going to be going into this game like last game with a basic vanilla offense. So even with that, we’ve seen a better team in the second half of last week and we seen the offensive line kind of hold up a little bit better in the second half. So, even though I’m not the biggest fan of his, I’m not going to give up on him entirely, especially just after that last game. Now, if he does the bed in this game again, then that’s when I feel like the questions will definitely skyrocket. But Cam Miller is definitely going to be a guy I’m really excited to see. And if he could keep that same energy from last week going into this week, then he’s going to give this team a really tough time in picking who the QB2 will be moving into week three. And the last big storyline going into this game is will the defense step up? Again, going back to last week, we seen how bad this run defense was, and it was really frustrating and really had me feeling like, damn, man, when can we get anything right over here? And we know the defense has always been the Raiders Achilles heel. Max Crowsby can’t do everything out there. And the missed tackles have got to be cleaned up in this game. And there is no excuse for that. No matter if they’re playing their first, second, third stringers out there, we have to tackle. and seeing the joint practice yesterday with the Raiders and the Niners, our defense was lacking. And I hope and pray that they at least go into this game looking a lot better than they did against the NerS because Brock Party was lighting our ass up out there. So, with that said, those are going to be the biggest story lines I have going into this game. Now, this next segment, I’m going to be looking at some of the players to keep an eye on in this game. Of course, we know that preseason is where a lot of these players are going to be fighting for, you know, a spot on the roster. Heck, even fighting for a spot on the dev chart to move up and maybe get some playing time once the season does come. So, that being said, players that I’m going to be looking out for, number one definitely is going to be Ashton Jenty. Now, last week he had three carries, negative one yards, didn’t look good. Some of that can be blamed on the offensive line. Some of that could be on Ashen Jensy for not finding the right hole. At the end of the day, we want to see a lot more out of our first round pick. And with all the hype that we have on Ashton Jensy, can we at least see him look a little bit explosive in this game? At joint practice yesterday, Ashton Jensy broke off for a huge touchdown run. And that was just a snippet of what we can possibly expect out of him this season. So, Ashton Jensy, he’s going to be playing. We don’t know how long he’s going to be playing. Will he be bending over or standing up like Michael Mayers? I don’t know. We We don’t know. Did I say mayor? I I mean Myers, but Ashton Jensy definitely I want to see him step up. Another player that I’m going to keep an eye on is definitely Trey Tucker. Yesterday, he proved why he still could be one of those top receivers on this roster right now. And with the speed that he has and with the quickness that he has getting off the line of scrimmage, he can definitely be a weapon for Gino Smith downfield. And we’ve seen it yesterday. A huge touchdown pass to Trey Tucker. Now, I know he’d struggle with a little bit of drops early on, but he definitely showed up when we needed him to. And with a crowded wide receiver room that seems to be all over the place outside of Jacobe Myers, he’s definitely going to be somebody to keep a close eye on. Another player that I really want to look at is Kyle Blue Kelly. Last week, he looked pretty solid. And then we’ve have been hearing nothing but great things from Kyle Blue Kelly at practices. He had interceptions and he’s been working his way up the dep chart according to multiple sources. So, I want to see how well he looks out there. Now, another player I want to see in this game that I hope can, you know, continue that that great play that he had last week is Jamal Adams. We’ve seen how explosive he looked last week against the Seattle Seahawks. Can he replicate that in this game? Even if it’s one, two, three tackles. Can he still show his presence out there and at least pass the eye test? If he’s as good as we all think he is, then I expect him to make a couple more plays in this game. And I definitely would love to see him be a starter once the season does come around. And the last player to watch in this game is defensive tackle Tonka Hemingway. Now, it seems like Hemingway has been turning heads at camp and has also caught the eye of our star pass rusher Max Crosby. Yeah, Tonka is I’m probably one of the highest dudes about Tonka. Like, every time I talk about him, I got none good things to say cuz he’s super quiet. Um, but he’s starting to finally like break out of his shell a little bit. Um, but his play speaks for itself. I mean, he’s getting better and better every day. He’s twitchy, he’s strong, he’s got moves, he uses his moves in in team and in one-on- ones and things like that. And he just continues to get better. So, I think Tonka is going to be a guy that’s going to he’s going to be in the rotation is going to help us a lot. We know the defensive tackle room is wide open outside of Adam Butler. Like I said, Thomas Booker is starting to, you know, rise up the depth chart. We know that Jona Lalu is going to be fighting for a spot. And now having a guy like Tonka Hemingway as far as the rookies kind of show up right now, maybe he could be the guy that could start once the season does come around. But it all depends on how well he looks in this game. I know last game he had some solid plays here and there. But let’s see if he could continue that energy going against the 49ers. So with that said, Raider Nation, who are some players that you guys are going to be keeping a close eye on in this game? Will you guys be over there at the game tomorrow? I’m definitely going to be over there. So you guys can catch me at Jayla. I’m gonna be vlogging, catching content. So come say what’s up, take a picture, whatever it may be, man. I would love to meet you guys. And I just hope that the Raiders can just go out there and win. We need this win just for bragging rights alone. So, I I’m just really really happy that football is finally back and back in the best city in the whole United States of America, Las Vegas, baby. So, Allegian Stadium, it’s it’s going to feel real good to be back with some Raiders football and just getting more content for you guys. I will be going live right after the game. So, when I get home, touchdown from the game, I’ll go live, get you guys’ reactions, and I will talk about the whole thing from there on out. That being said, until the next video, this is your boy some more Raider and your boys. [Applause]

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0:00 – Intro
0:56 – Nation News
4:41 – Top Storylines
9:10 – Players to watch

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