The Oakland Raiders and Detroit Lions conducted the first of two joint practices Tuesday in preparation for their preseason opener Friday at the Oakland Coliseum, allowing players on both teams to get a new perspective after practicing against teammates for the past two weeks.
“It was nice to see some new coverages, some different stuff,” Oakland quarterback Derek Carr said. “It was good for us. It’ll be good film. A lot of things happened today, good and bad things that we needed to have happen that we haven’t had happen in practice yet.”
The practice was conducted in a controlled environment after Raiders coach Jon Gruden met with first-year Detroit coach Matt Patricia in the offseason. The two friends mapped out the workouts well before the Lions arrived in Northern California.
Patricia said the joint practices offer an opportunity for rookies and young players from both teams to make an impression.
“For a lot of the young guys that haven’t stepped onto an NFL field with anyone except for their own teammates it certainly brings a different element from the standpoint of competitiveness and an evaluation standpoint,” Patricia said. “Even the veteran guys, it’s good to get out there and compete against somebody else. You kind of get into that rhythm and that mentality of going against the same guy every day.”
Unlike in previous years when the Raiders have held combined practices with the Dallas Cowboys and San Francisco 49ers, there were no fights and only a few minor scuffles.
Oakland linebacker Tahir Whitehead was at the center of one after hitting a Lions player who was getting up after making a long catch near the end zone. Whitehead, who played six seasons in Detroit, including the last four as a starter, also exchanged good-natured ribbing with Lions running back Ameer Abdullah during a goal line drill near the end of practice.
“It was fun getting a chance to catch up with the guys even though we’re chirping and everything going back and forth,” Whitehead said. “When I was there we did the same exact thing. We were going back and forth. It’s all competitive and we’re just trying to get each other better. This time I’m in the black and silver and it’s just a different feel.”
The teams went through individual position drills on separate fields before coming together on both fields for team scrimmages.
Fans filled the east stands while members of the military and a handful of youth football teams sat on the west side Chris Conley Jersey , adding a livelier feel to practice.
“The fans made it even better,” Detroit running back Kerryon Johnson said. “Everybody’s tired of hitting each other for however many weeks we’ve been going against each other. It’s a new face, a new venue. It made it fun and it made it like a real game and we really enjoyed it.”
Detroit quarterback Matthew Stafford looked crisp while leading the Lions’ first unit. At one point he completed a deep throw to Marvin Jones Jr. for a touchdown after Jones raced past Raiders cornerback Antonio Hamilton.
Carr was equally sharp but threw his first interception of training camp when he was picked off by Detroit’s Darius Slay.
“On a stupid scramble drill, too,” Carr said. “I was bummed.”
Notes: Lions defensive end Ziggy Ansah made it through his second practice after coming off the physically unable to perform list earlier in the week. “There’s certainly some different things for him that we’re going to have to learn this year to be able to do,” Patricia said. “Just getting him on the field is one step closer.” . Raiders running back Chris Warren provided the play of the day when he leveled Lions linebacker Jarrad Davis and sent the former first-round draft pick flying back.
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GLENDALE, Ariz. — The Anaheim Ducks and Arizona Coyotes will end the NHL regular season the way they began it, by playing each other. What’s interesting is how that first game back on Oct. 5 set the stage for both teams’ seasons to follow.
The Coyotes, in their first game under new coach Rick Tocchet, led 4-1 at the Honda Center following Christian Fischer’s goal at 13:50 of the second period, only to give up four consecutive Ducks goals and lose 5-4, with Rickard Rakell scoring the game-winning goal at 16:30 of the third period.
Arizona (29-40-12) went on to lose its next 10 games Anthony Hitchens Jersey , going 0-10-1 to start the season, and never recovered despite a respectable second-half surge in which it has gone 20-13-7 this calendar year. The Coyotes still haven’t reached the postseason since 2011-12.
Anaheim (43-25-13) took that first game and built its sixth consecutive playoff season, with its opponent and its playoff seeding to be determined by its final regular-season game Saturday night at Gila River Arena.
The Ducks moved into third place in the Pacific Division, one point ahead of the Los Angeles Kings, by beating the Dallas Stars 5-3 Friday night behind right wing Jakob Silfverberg’s goal and two assists.
They trail second-place San Jose by only one point, so if the Ducks beat Arizona and the Sharks lose Saturday to the Minnesota Wild, Anaheim will claim second place and home ice for the first round of the playoffs. However, should the Ducks lose and the Kings beat the Stars at the Staples Center, Anaheim would fall back to being a wild-card team.
“It’s a long season, and we worked hard to make it,” Ducks defenseman Francois Beauchemin said. “Now that we’ve made it, we need to take the next step and we’re going to need everybody going. … Everybody in here is hungry for more. Now we’ve got to take that next step.”
The Ducks will head into the postseason as one of those teams no opponent really wants to play. They’ve won four in a row and are 9-1-1 in their last 11 games Kerry Wynn Jersey , 16-5-2 in their last 23 games and 24-10-4 since their bye. They’re 2-1 against the Coyotes.
“We felt if we played the right way and gave ourselves a chance, this group was capable of putting together a longer string of wins and qualify for the playoffs,” coach Randy Carlyle said. “Now the goal changes.”
And it all began with that momentum-shifting win at the Honda Center six months ago.
That’s not to say the Coyotes will go into the offseason without any significant positives.
Goaltender Antti Raanta proved to be a true No. 1 goalie once he was fully healthy — he is 21-16-6 with a shiny 2.24 goals-against average — and was rewarded this week with a $12.75 million, three-year contract extension.
Reliable backup goalie Darcy Kuemper also is locked up for multiple seasons, giving the Coyotes strength at a position that was remarkably weak when Raanta was hurt at the start of the season – contributing to the terrible start.
Clayton Keller, the 19-year-old center, started strong with 11 goals in his first 16 games and is finishing strong, too, with five goals and 12 assists in his last 14 games – giving him 23 goals and 65 points for the season.
Center Derek Stepan (56 points) had a solid season in his first year with Arizona, especially from a leadership standpoint. Oliver Ekman-Larsson recovered from a slow start to have a typical season for one of the Western Conference’s best two-way defensemen.
Defenseman Kevin Connauton has scored 10 of his 11 goals since Feb. 1.
Still, the Coyotes’ 4-3 loss Thursday at Vancouver was another defeat that summed up their season, despite their 6-3-1 record in their last 10 games. They led 3-1 in the third period Armani Watts Jersey , but didn’t get a shot off the entire period and went on to lose in overtime on Daniel Sedin’s second goal of the game, set up by brother Henrik in the soon-to-retire twins’ final game on home ice.
“I’m embarrassed for us we couldn’t get a shot on net,” Tocchet said. “A couple of guys showed up, but that was about it.”
Now, for the sixth consecutive season, the Coyotes won’t show up in the playoffs. And, for a sixth consecutive season, the Ducks will. And the roots of both streaks go back to that Oct. 5 game.
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19.09.2018 07:34
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