Raiders Blog and Q&A

The conference call with Hue Jackson included some recurring themes (needing to improve scoring in the red zone, cutting down on penalties) along with some praise for the three quarterbacks and the offensive line.

Here's Jackson on the O-line:

"I think when I go back and I watch the tape, I really thought that Sammy Satele played good, I thought (Stefen) Wisniewski did an excellent job, I mean, unbelievable job. I thought that Stephon Heyer did some really good things. I thought that even Joe Barksdale was in there battling. I thought our second group, 'cause they played more football, obviously than the ones, those guys really showed up. They did a good job. I mean, our quarterback, there was one sack that we had, which was a communication issue and the other one was right before the half, which never should have been a sack. So for the most part, they kept the quarterback pretty clean. And that was good to see. Do we need to continue to get better? No doubt. But I think our guys, that front, is really starting to come together."

If Satele and Wisniewski continue to play well with the first and second teams respectively, it should be a matter of time before Satele and Wisniewski take first-team snaps together with one at guard and the other at center.

Jackson added this about left tackle Jared Veldheer when asked if he played well against Arizona's outside linebacker Joey Porter.

"There's no question, and I feel remiss to not mention him. He did a great job, too, I mean, Stephen, Jared, Sammy, Barksdale, those guys all did a real good job, and obviously Heyer. I thought those guys battled last night and I think they'll get better as we go."

*I touched on the competition between Kyle Boller and Trent Edwards for the No. 2 quarterback spot behind Jason Campbell in the notebook for tomorrow's paper.

Of course, if I were rooting for someone, it would be the Cal grad (Boller) and not the guy from that school in Palo Alto (Edwards).

Edwards showed well for himself Thursday playing with backups all night and being newest to the Raiders.

Jackson on all of the quarterbacks:

"I was impressed with all of them. Obviously Jason did a fabulous job of running the first team and getting the ball to different people. That's what we were trying to do last night is get everybody an opportunity to touch the ball. Got Kevin Boss involved real early, tried to get Marcel involved real early, got Darrius Heyward-Bey involved early and Jason did a great job of spreading the ball around. Kyle came in and he lit it up, (7 of 8), he was spectacular. That's what I expect from him. Obviously Trent, who hadn't been here very long, I was so impressed with him because here he is getting the information from me and trying to figure it out in his mind and then going out and executing pretty flawlessly. I thought he did an excellent job. There's a couple of throws he wish he had back but I thought all three of those guys showed me the poise, showed me the hard work they put into this and they have the ability to lead this football team."

Jackson said at some point Edwards would have a chance to play with the second group and Boller with the third group.

*There was no update on injuries to wide receiver Chaz Schilens (knee) or safeties Zac Etheridge (knee) or Hiram Eugene (dislocated knee).

I think we can assume Eugene will be out for a while. Jackson said there should be an update on Schilens and Etheridge in the coming days.