The 49ers Will Pose an Early Test for Carroll, Raiders

Following the Raiders' tie against the Seahawks, Pete Carroll noted how productive he expects this week to be.

"Yeah, I have a great respect for Kyle [Shanahan] and what he's done over the years. We've been battling for a long time, and his background, history, and all the coaches. He's got a great staff, so it's a really good opportunity for us to work against a good group. They'll be greased up and ready to go and it should be a good, physical practice that we have Thursday," Carroll said.

"And then, of course, the game coming up, it'll just be a chance to see our guys in a different environment. We won't be tackling in the practice, but that'll be a good part of the preparation to get to the game. Our guys just need to see the tempo and the speed of really good clubs. And you've got to play good teams if you want to get good, and so this is a great opportunity for us."

Early Gains, Challenges

The Raiders struggled to get going against the Seahawks before eventually fighting their way back to nearly win the game. The Raiders left Seattle with a tie and a clear list of things to work on in training camp.

In camp, the Raiders immediately addressed some of the most noticeable mistakes they made against the Seahawks, including the offense's timing and the defense's tackling.

The Raiders' first few practices after the Seahawks game showcased both the good and the bad of a team working hard to make progress. Las Vegas has had a great practice and a subpar practice since leaving Seattle, but even the subpar practice was proof they were earnestly trying to improve.

Although the Raiders undoubtedly need improvement, Carroll noted that his team kept things simple against the Seahawks and will continue to do so throughout the preseason for potential competitive advantages over early regular-season opponents.

"We didn't get going. We were real, real basic. We ran the most fundamental plays you could run in our format of going through the preseason. It will continue to be pretty basic just to keep our edge for the opener and the first three or four games. The teams don't know who we are and so they're going to have to find out as we go," Carroll said.

"So, we were real basic and we didn't get the kind of movement that we wanted. Like, Ashton [Jeanty] didn't get a chance. We picked up a little bit of an edge later in the game and you saw us hitting the line of scrimmage pretty well and I thought both [Chris] Collier and [Dylan] Laube did a really nice job hitting a line of scrimmage and moving the piles and things, so there'll be a lot of improvement there.""

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