Arizona Cardinals-Oakland Raiders pregame

The Arizona Cardinals and Oakland Raiders are preparing to kickoff at 5:00 pm on Thursday in a nationally televised preseason matchup

Just a little over an hour away from the Arizona Cardinals hosting the Oakland Raiders at State Farm Stadium on ESPN.  The parking lots are already open and expect another decent preseason crowd.

The Cardinals made some new today by hosting free agent defensive lineman Corey Liuget today.  He last played with the Los Angeles Chargers.  The Cardinals released another former Chargers player last weekend in Darius Philon.  Liuget has also visited the Seattle Seahawks, New York Giants, and Jacksonville Jaguars.

The talk again is around quarterback Kyler Murray.  He will get the start and play a little longer than last week.  Hopefully the offense will show a little more than they did last week.

The main thing will be to learn from whatever mistakes are made.  Take chances but hopefully they don’t give away too much of what they want to do starting September 8th against the Detroit Lions.

Rookie receiver Andy Isabella will play for the first time after a brief injury.  Also rookie defensive end Zach Allen will get his first start, starting in place of Philon.

The Cardinals also need to focus on missed tackles, as in reduce them.  That was a huge part of why they gave up 179-yards rushing against the Chargers last week.

It’s the preseason but certainly the closer we are getting to the start of the regular season, the better you want to see it all come together.  That not only includes the defense but on offense, we need a stronger effort from the offensive line.

There is not only a receiver battle going on but also a running back competition.  T.J. Logan, D.J. Foster, Dontae Strickland, and Wes Hills are all fighting for spots.  The Cardinals may only keep one of those guys depending on how many receivers and tight ends they want to keep.