Vikings 24, Raiders 23
Q. Most obvious question, talk about your first half quarterbacks. I think you had to be pleased there.
ANTONIO PIERCE: Yeah, it was good. Good reps there for Aidan. Backed up, got us drove all the way down the length of the field. It was close there, was thinking about going for the 4th down, negative play, we kicked a field goal and then Gardner came in, three good drives. Really for both quarterbacks, all four possessions led to points on the board for the Raiders. That was positive. There's a lot of things obviously we can learn from it. I'd like to see a little bit better in the running game for us, of course, but I thought the quarterbacks responded well.
Q. Overall impressions of the first 30 minutes where you had contributions in all three phases in that first 30?
ANTONIO PIERCE: Yeah, I thought it was great team play. Defensively, boom, they got the ball moving and we had a red zone stop down there. That was really big to see, and again, our offense responded. Later in the game we get a blocked field goal, we turn that into field position. AJ with his punting. Really good job by those guys, the vets in the first half.
But we talked about finishing, and we didn't do a good enough job of that in the second half.
Q. Talk about Jakobi Meyers and Brock Bowers both came up with two nice plays in that first drive.
ANTONIO PIERCE: I thought it was really good to see Jakobi. Wanted to get him going early. Really wanted to get the ball out to Brock, and I think everything we've been waiting to see we saw. Run after catch for both of those gentlemen, it's all going to be about YAC. They're going to get better as they go on, but really good film just to watch. Running game, as well, and our play action stuff. They showed up tonight.
Q. You said when Brock lines up at fullback, he can run it, block it or maybe catch the ball. Today he caught the ball. Can you talk about his versatility?
ANTONIO PIERCE: Yeah, just a dynamic player that's doing a good job just from a mental standpoint. Everything we're asking him to do he's doing and he's not blinking. Not a lot of mental errors, not a repeat offender. Going to get better each and every week.
Q. Other than the obvious, is there anything that stood out for you from field level that you were very pleasantly surprised with?
ANTONIO PIERCE: I thought we competed, to be honest. I asked them to compete, be physical in effort. The physicality part, whenever a team runs the ball, that's not good enough, obviously. But all the way to the end, those guy were fighting. It came down to obviously a field goal.
But what I liked, what I really liked more importantly -- let me back up. Was just how the team did everything together. I don't know if you saw an interception or a sack or a block. There's 50, 60 Raiders running down the field celebrating for the older guys, younger guys. We talked about that and just cheering on our teammates, especially in the preseason when guys get taken out, sometimes they forget about the game and not watching it, and that wasn't the case today.
Q. With red zone possession in the second quarter you brought Zeus back in to get him some carries inside the 10. How important was that for his development being running back No. 1?
ANTONIO PIERCE: Yeah, no fair dodging when we get down there. Zeus is a very powerful human being, and get him back here, get him going and just feeling that end zone again. It's really good for those guys in preseason. But more importantly for our O-line, I loved the surge and the get-off that they played with.
I thought in that first half we played with great pad level and got off the rock. It was encouraging to see.
Q. Five possessions in that first half, four scores. Were you curious coming in about what this offense could look like just against another team in a game setting?
ANTONIO PIERCE: I was, to be honest, because let's be honest, Max was destroyed in practice each and every day, so it was good to see our offensive unit go against another really good defensive team, well-coached team. They do a really good job defensively with their staff in preparing their players. Very sound, and I thought the execution was very smooth. The operation was smooth. I think we had one penalty with delay of game with Gardner, but other than that, everything we asked our offense to do and come out and do, and it wasn't a big game plan, they did.
Q. I know you guys don't game plan necessarily defensively, but what were your takeaways of the defense today?
ANTONIO PIERCE: Yeah, the main thing for us was leverage, keeping the ball, keeping the edges, keeping the quarterback in the pocket. We need to do a better job of our rush lanes and doing stuff of that nature.
But I'm going to go back to it. The disappointing thing is just the running game. We really wanted to establish that and make that team one-dimensional, and I don't think we did a good enough job of that tonight.
Q. In the first quarter Michael Mayer and Brock Bowers had a couple really good catches. Can you talk about how dynamic you think that tandem could be and what you saw from them today?
ANTONIO PIERCE: Yeah, I think we all saw it with our eyes today. We saw -- I think they're going to keep growing. You've got two young players, a rookie and a second-year player. I'm not going to put any expectations or limits on them. I just think as our offense goes, so do our tight ends.
Q. Eichenberg didn't dress out; is there anything --
ANTONIO PIERCE: Yeah, he's got some stuff he's dealing with back home.
Q. For you when you're defense gives up those yards but still only one score, can that be a silver lining on the day that maybe they didn't play the best of camp they still held them and they still were able to bend but not break?
ANTONIO PIERCE: Yeah, but we got standards, and those standards never change. But it was really good, really good job for -- down inside the 10-yard line. You guys know first thing we did in training camp was work on red zone, and that was really good for us to see that on both sides of the ball in the first half. Finish drives in the end zone or through the uprights and defensively keeping them out of it.
Q. You can't always predict how preseason games are going to go, but you've got an offensive drive that started inside your 5, you got a two-minute drill defensively. Was this what you wanted to see in the preseason?
ANTONIO PIERCE: Yeah, we were hoping we could force a couple of these situations that we've been practicing against with our defense against the two quarterbacks, and it happened. Some third, some short yardage there, some fourth downs showed up later, and there was a lot of things we worked on, and that's the preseason. Even with the kickoff stuff, how do we approach that and how do we game plan for that going forward. Really good teach tape and stuff for us to learn from.
Q. Can you walk us through the field goal block a little bit and talk about what you think about Phalen, the young man who returned --
ANTONIO PIERCE: I thought it was great penetration by the guys up front, and like we talked about, we'll knock those guys back, get them on their tails and then second-level guys get their hands up, we did, and when that ball is on the ground, scoop and score. We work on that every day in practice. Great job by the rookie. I wish he could have made a little cut back there, but heads-up play by him. Probably the first time he's ever had that situation, and he responded very well.
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