With the preseason officially in the books, some of the Raiders roster questions have been answered,

but there's been a new one created. That plus more on Monday's edition of the Locked On Raiders

podcast for August 25th, 2025. You are Locked on Raiders, your daily Las Vegas Raiders podcast,

part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome here, Raider Nation, to another edition of the Locked-on Raiders podcast. Thank you so much for making the show your first list of the day. Definitely appreciate you. If you're catching the show, wherever you find your favorite podcast, or you're checking us out by way of the YouTube page. You know, we appreciate both. The show continues to grow each and every day because of your consistent support and the great job that my man already does behind the scenes, making sure we look good and sound good each and every day.

We shout him out.

We appreciate him he does a lot of fine work he's on twitter at r ari produces you can hit me up as well at your boy Q254 and we got the locked on raider podcast voicemail line for you 707 654 4669 3 a lot of, a lot of great texts. We'll close out the show hearing from you.

A lot of it has to do with the game on Saturday and just the team in general, right? What you've seen, what you've heard from training camp in the preseason. So we'll close out hearing from you as we normally do. Segment number two, we'll talk about the ones that did and the ones that didn't. Going into the game on Saturday, I was focusing on a handful of guys.

We talked about it on Friday's show.

Wanted to see if they were going to show up and show out some guys showed up and showed out some of them are the guys that I was focusing on some guys weren't so there were some guys that did some good things we'll talk about that we'll give them their props and there were some guys that well they could be on the outside looking in when it comes down to the 53-man roster

that must be identified by Tuesday at 1 p.m. Pacific time. So we'll talk about that coming up in segment number two. Here in segment number one, we'd like to call it news and notes of the day, and it really just has to do with the recap of what we saw on Saturday as the Raiders lost to the Cardinals 20 to 10 and they end up there preseason 0 2 and 1.

So let's go ahead and jump right into it.

Off top, I love the decision by Higgins. lost to the Cardinals 20 to 10 and they end up their preseason 0 2 and 1. So let's go ahead and jump

right into it. Off top, I love the decision by head coach Pete Carroll. The Raiders won the toss and they decided to kick off. They deferred to the second half. I love that. Set the tone defensively. I wish they would do that each and every time. I know that there's a method to the madness and Sometimes they might not want to do that, but set the tone with the defense is what I prefer.

And the tone was set by every time. I know that there's a method to the madness, and sometimes they might not want to do that, but set the tone with the defense is what I prefer. And the tone was set by the defense. The first team defense went out there and handled their business. Now, you know, the Cardinals weren't playing their starters, so remember that these are the Cardinals' backups that were playing, but you only play who's out there. And so the Raiders' first team defense went out there forced the three and out. Max Crosby looked like he was in midseason for him. So all is good there. Get the ball to the offense. They end up going down the field and scoring a touchdown. Beautiful pass from Gino Smith to the rookie Dante Thornton Jr. 18-yard pass, back shoulder, just a perfect pass, perfect catch, perfect feet placement by Dante

Thorne Jr. I mean, everything was great on that drive. It really was, and it's funny, the drive

almost didn't happen. They started out, the first three plays really didn't do anything, but they got a

defensive pass interference penalty on the Cardinals that extended the Raiders drive and then that

ended up turning into a touchdown which happens to the Raiders more often than not but not on the good

side not like that normally they're the ones that have the penalty and then extend someone else's

drive and they end up scoring so I thought that that was really good but really great to see Dante

Thornton Jr. get into the end zone and Gino Smith get on the same page with them. They've been trying to work that connection for a while and they just haven't quite been there. I've been telling anyone who will listen once they get on the same page and they get familiar with each other, watch out. That could be a dangerous one-two punch between the quarterback and the wide receiver. As a matter of fact, you can hear how excited Dante Thornton Jr. was just to get that first touchdown and get on the same page with Gino. After the game, he talked to Paul Guterres from Raiders.com and Vinnie Bosnia from the Las Vegas Review Journal on Radio 920. Here's a few seconds of them talking in the Raiders locker room following the game. How good did that touchdown feels? That felt great. It was amazing.

That was like an amazing feeling because of course, it being my childhood dream of the NFL play, having my first touchdown was definitely a great feeling. You're able to use the body to kind of ward off the defender, keep your eyes on the ball, get your feet on the ground. What's going through your mind having to do all three of those things? I was just worried about catching the bar, really.

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