The Las Vegas Raiders opened up their preseason slate on Saturday with a game against the Minnesota Vikings at U.S. Bank Stadium, which was also the Raiders' latest opportunity to assess the quarterback competition between Aidan O'Connell and Gardner Minshew.
Head coach Antonio Pierce stayed true to his word, giving O'Connell and Minshew a quarter each. However, with the way things worked out, that amounted to just one drive for the former and three for the latter.
In what was a change from the offseason program and training camp, both signal-callers played well, with O'Connell putting together a strong showing in his lone drive of the game, and Minshew leading the Raiders on a pair of scoring drives.
Unfortunately, if you were looking for more clarity on the situation, we didn't really get it. Granted, Minshew had the flashier stat line (6-12, 117, TD), but O'Connell (7-9, 76 yards) looked good as well and got the Raiders to the three-yard line before getting blown up via a sack that Andrus Peat was responsible for.
After pulling his quarterbacks at half time, Pierce had a positive review of both.
"Thought they both did a good job of making those chunk plays that we really want to emphasize," Pierce said, per ESPN's Paul Gutierrez. "Good job taking care of the football. Pretty good operation here in the two-minute drill as well. Good first half."
You can probably make the argument that Minshew has a small lead after this game, but the two signal-callers remain very close in their bid for the starting job. We'll see if either one can create more separation in preseason Week 2, when the Raiders take on the Dallas Cowboys on Saturday, Aug. 17.
