NAPA, Calif. (AP) -Soon after Todd Watkins pulled in a touchdown pass from Jeff Garcia and the three horns rang out to signal the end of practice, the trucks pulled up and the Oakland Raiders started packing for home.
Their 31-day stay in wine country was officially over and the Raiders will now make their final push to the start of the season at their year-round headquarters in Alameda.
“I’m happy to go home,” Pro Bowl cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha said Thursday. “It was long. I think we are the only team that’s still in? Golly.”
rlier this month.
The Napa police and the NFL are investigating the attack, which is sure to make more news in the weeks to come. Cable said once again Thursday that he’s not concerned about it.
He’s more focused on the on-the-field issues that materialized in training camp. A big focus this offseason was upgrading a passing game behind quarterback JaMarcus Russell that has struggled mightily the past three years.
Russell started slowly in terms of finding a rhythm with his receivers in camp but perhaps had his best two days of practices this week with crisp passes that were thrown on time and on target.
After being somewhat coddled in his first two NFL seasons, Russell says the passing game might soon be able to carry the offense on days the running game isn’t clicking.
“We’re getting there,” Russell said. “It’s a process and we’re going through it together. It’s not like it’s one person’s job. Everybody’s job has to be done in order to get there. We’re on our way.”
The Raiders were dealt a setback in camp when one of this summer’s early stars, Chaz Schilens, went down with a broken bone in his left foot while running a route in practice. Schilens emerged late last season as a rookie and was becoming Russell’s go-to receiver before the injury, which could sideline him for the first month of the season.
With Schilens out, that puts more pressure on rookies Darrius Heyward-Bey and Louis Murphy. Heyward-Bey had problems holding onto the ball early in camp, raising even more questions about whether the Raiders made a mistake when they drafted him seventh overall ahead of more accomplished receivers like Michael Crabtree and Jeremy Maclin.
Heyward-Bey has only one catch in the first two exhibition games but has been much better of late in practice as more balls have been thrown his way.
Murphy, a fourth-round pick, has been a pleasant surprise since offseason workouts and has four catches and a touchdown in the first two games.
The Raiders also got a boost this week with the return of Javon Walker, the only receiver on the roster with more than 30 career catches. Walker missed the second half of last season with an ankle injury and then missed most of training camp recovering from offseason knee surgery.
“He’s going to help a lot,” Russell said. “He’s a guy. I know for a fact that you have to game plan for him. I think he’s going to do good out there. He’s looked good in practice. You can tell he’s running better. When he’s coming to catch it, he’s attacking the ball.”
g up a run defense that has allowed 201 yards rushing per game in the preseason and cutting down on penalties after being called for 21 the first two games.
As for the roster, Oakland still needs to settle on starters at running back, linebacker and cornerback and figure out which backups will make the team.
Cable singled out undrafted free agent defensive tackle Desmond Bryant and sixth-round rookie tight end Brandon Myers when asked about which players were the most pleasant surprises at camp. Bryant, who played at Harvard, is giving a serious push to make the roster, possibly ahead of Terdell Sands, who has been a disappointment since signing a $17 million, four-year contract before the 2007 season.
After being part of six losing seasons since entering the NFL with the Raiders in 2003, Asomugha is pleased with what he’s seen so far this year.
“We’ve grown a lot, I guess in our focus,” he said. “In previous years, we would leave camp and not quite know where we were as a team, but I think we’re a little more focused now and we are a little more confident than we’ve been in the past. So that’s going to help us.”
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