The Mendoza Pre-Season Film Is Stunning...

So a day removed from the first preseason game, a lot of takes going around, and a lot of love, honestly, from the national media talking about Fernando Mendoza, Kirk Cousins' first take, or not first take, um, excuse me, First Things First did a segment called Deep Sleepers. And it was like, essentially of all the really, really, really bad teams. Who do you think is most likely to make the playoffs, and Mangini and Nick Wright both said the Raiders, so that's nice that they mentioned us. And of course, you're going to have the doom and gloom people that said, oh, we lost the game, the defense, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I think I made it pretty clear that to me, nothing yesterday about the game, except for Fernando Mendoza, mattered. Including the third team defense not looking great, or some of the young guys not looking great on defense. Um, I'm not going to get into why it doesn't matter. If I think I need to explain it, then that's kind of an on-you thing. It's not really an on-me thing. The best way I could describe it is this. What we need to see yesterday was Fernando Mendoza play well, regardless of anything else. The poise that he showed, the pocket presence, and we'll get into the film, because we're going to break it down with him and Jack Besh. It was very impressive, and I just realized that that doesn't say has arrived, it says has arrived. So we probably should change that. And, uh, now it says has arrived. If yesterday, the defense shut out Arizona, they didn't score a single point, but Fernando Mendoza was horrible, I don't think anyone would care about how the defense played, because it would all be, oh my god, Fernando, oh my god, Fernando. You see what I'm saying? Now that he's played well and the defense was bad, who cares? They're not running anything. I don't care. The defense could suck all season. If Fernando isn't the guy, then none of this matters. It doesn't matter if you have a good defense. The focus needs to be on him and him alone. We'll hear about the joint practice coming up in three days. That's where you're going to hear about Max Crosby and this first-team defense, whether they're making an impact or not. And whether Kirk and Fernando are able to break through that very impressive top-tier Texans defense. Because in the preseason, nothing matters. Call-in show is returning. It has not returned yet in this video. But if you don't know what that is, the number below, 725-253-0264. You can call that number any time, day or night. You'll hear me in voicemail mode. You can leave a voicemail question that has the potential to be answered live on one of my shows. If you are, excuse me, a $5 or $10 patron or YouTube member, which you can join down below, or go to patreon.com backslash allaboardraiders, you have the ability to call in while I'm doing the show. It's a pre-recorded show. They know when I'm recording, so they can call in every now and again. It's completely free to leave a voicemail, but if you want to become one of the people that can call in, join. Fernando Mendoza got some first team reps because of the Max Crosby, I don't know why I quoted Max Crosby, Max Crosby-Kirk Cousins fight. That's what the air quote should be. And, you know, he did okay with that opportunity. Now, was that the only time he was going to get first team reps? Well, interestingly enough, Ryan McFadden says that today, Clint Kubiak was asked in his morning after press conference, if Fernando Mendoza has earned more first team reps after last night's performance. And the quote was, we are going to put a plan together this week, and that's something we're talking about as a coaching staff right now. Whether it's Aiden, Kirk, or Fernando, all three of those guys deserve first team reps. We've got to put the plan together on how we're going to split them up. You know, I think they're being a little diplomatic with the Aiden O'Connell of it all. He didn't really play that well yesterday, although, you know, he was the best player on that field. He was just playing with a bunch of third and fourth string linemen and wide receivers. He was literally doming the ball off people's heads because they didn't know it was coming. I think that's sneaky a way to softly mention the fact that Fernando Mendoza has earned, through his practice and preparation, and his ability to play under center, he's earned some first team reps. And I think that's pretty exciting if you're Raider Nation. Now, again, it would take a lot for him to push Kirk Cousins to start week one. We'll see how he plays in the second and third preseason game. Kirk Cousins also looked very good. Again, nothing really matters. We're going up against a bad Arizona Cardinal team who wasn't doing anything but base defense. We weren't doing anything but base basic offense. But Kirk looked efficient, had some decent zip on his ball right down the field, scored an easy touchdown. With the improved offensive line with the running game, maybe there's a world where we start 2-1 with Kirk Cousins, and then it pushes Mendoza a little bit farther down the line. In an ideal world, you want him to sit. We all know this. We've talked about this, to wear blue in the face. But Mendoza looked very comfortable. We're going to get into the film right now, but he looked comfortable, he looked poised, and I think there actually is a world where maybe before the final preseason game or the second preseason game, it's, you know, 60% of the first team reps are going to Kirk, 30% are going to Mendoza, and then 10% for Aidan O'Connell to let him get some runs with the ones there, because again, he wasn't playing with anybody of note in that last quarter. It was kind of tough for him to get going. I do think it's worth noting that Clint Kubiak said that there is a plan for that as of right now, and I'm interested to see how that, how that comes to fruition. So it is now time for the Fernando Mendoza film session. You know, I'm assuming a large chunk of my viewing audience, the Raider fans, the athletes, the former student-athletes, whether that's high school and college, as you've gotten older, have shared the same experiences I have, and that experience being looking back on the student-athlete schedule and thinking, how in the world was I able to function on four hours sleep after going to school, playing basketball, practicing, eating dinner, doing homework, and going to bed? Because now, if I don't get six to seven or eight hours of sleep minimum, my body is a nightmare. And I think one of the most underrated aspects of getting a good night's sleep is the mattress that you're using, which is why I'm so, so, so excited to say that this video is sponsored by B.E.A.R. B.E.A.R. reached out to me, and I absolutely jumped at the opportunity to work with them because I think sleep is very important. They sent me a new mattress, and I just need to tell you a little bit about it. Boom. Rodney here from the future, about a month after B.E.A.R. sent me that mattress, and it has absolutely transformed my sleep. And you know, it's funny, the mattress that I had before B.E.A.R. was good enough. I didn't have any sleep complaints. I didn't think about getting a new mattress until they reached out to me. But now, having made the switch, I realized how much better the B.E.A.R. mattress was than a mattress that I already had that was already pretty decent. The mattress that they sent me is the perfect blend of soft yet firm, so I don't feel like I'm sinking into the mattress, and it feels like I'm being held, gently nestled to sleep, and it feels amazing every single night. So if you want to transform your sleep like I did, and like a few subscribers that I know actually bought mattresses did, by the way, let me know if you bought one and tell me what you think. Head over to B.E.A.R.mattress.com and use the promo code ALLABOARD. Also linked in the description below to get 40% off your B.E.A.R. mattress. 40% off. And when you get your mattress, leave a comment that ALLABOARD Raiders sent you. It helps the channel out tremendously, and it tells them that they came from here. Thank you so much B.E.A.R. for sponsoring the video. Now let's get back to it. It is film time. I do want to quickly shout out the hashtag FLAPJACKNEWS in our Discord for providing the footage of Fernando Mendoza's all 22 attempts and completions and all his plays. I am not an expert. I'm not Chase Daniel or... Oh, what's my guy? J.T. O'Sullivan. Is that who it is? Is it J.T. O'Sullivan? Who breaks down the film, blah, blah, blah. But it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure some of this stuff out. And I do think this is kind of a fun thing that you guys like when I do. I only did it a couple times last year, and we're going to hop right into it. I think it's going to be super fun. So let's do it. So let's just talk about the good and the bad, because it wasn't perfect. Let me just make sure that my camera is not covering. Okay, it kind of is. So here's what we're going to do. We're going to move this slightly over here. You'll see some of my desktop files that don't mean anything. And then we'll move my face. Oops, that's that. We'll move my face down here. Perfect. Okay. You know what? We'll get rid of this as well. Okay. So, some good and some bad, obviously. Nothing's perfect here. But what I do want to point out is something that I don't think a lot of people talked about. So if we watch this first play here. Okay. I know the offense is kind of vanilla. But I do like the kind of two- to three-layer work here from this play. So you've got Malik Benson and Jack Besh. It's Mendoza under center. And I kind of like how everything kind of shuffled to the left here. You've got Benson over the middle. Wasn't there. Mendoza's looking. That's his first read. Not there. Jack Besh. Blanketed. Checkdowns are kind of blanketed. The only problem that I don't like here is this little hitch that Mendoza has. Because when you're playing against top-tier competition, you've got to get it out right now. He kind of waits a little bit. Gives the linebackers a little bit of time. Watch the hitch here. Okay. He's going, going, going. Hitch. There. He's got to see that Besh isn't there pretty fast and get to that checkdown faster. He looks at Malik. It's not there. Besh isn't there. Check it down. Okay. Not bad. Not a bad start. We continue on here. Next play. Kind of a hospital ball. Now here's the issue. Nothing was really there. You don't want to take a sack, obviously. Nobody was really open because a good safety is going to get to this ball here that he's going to try to zip in. It's going to have to be a perfect pass. Down here, Tompkins. Is that his name? Not really open. Jack Besh is open, but the play's not designed for that. The pocket's also collapsing in this play. If you see right here, he's about to get hit. You can't make this throw, obviously, because you're going to get Mike Washington killed, so you just got to bury it or throw it out of bounds. This is an easy thing to fix. This is a rookie mistake. I'm not worried about this at all. That's a hospital ball. We can't have the Jimmy Garoppolo plays. But again, we're back to under center here, which is something that they said they were concerned about him doing. Nice play action. Can we talk about that for a second? Look, I love me some Derek Carr. One of the worst play action fakes I've ever seen in my entire life. Here, I'm going to give you the ball. Nope, just kidding. Mendoza multiple times faked out the cameraman here. Deep, heavy play action here. I'm going to give you the ball. Look, it looks like it's in his hands the whole time. He looks like he has it right there. Mendoza's hiding the ball perfectly. And now it's just a two-man route. Who's going to win? He sees Malik Benson's wide open here. He's going to stick it in between three defenders. And look at Jack Besh down here. This is something to put on film. If they're attacking a safety that maybe isn't the best. Hard pump fake. Jack Besh, touchdown. But this is an absolutely beautiful throw. No complaints whatsoever. That's perfect. We're going to see it from this angle as well. Good protection from a lot of the second string line here. JPJ's in there to maybe help him out a little bit. Again, I love the hard play action. We don't know who has the ball. They drop back a little late. Mendoza looking. Boom! Easy money sniper. First down. This one, some good and some bad here from Mendoza. Another hard play action. Looking, but here's the thing. Is it JPJ here? Somebody gets beat. Somebody gets beat, so he's got to move within the pocket. I like what he does here, stepping up. He's got to throw this ball right to Jack Besh. Throw it right here where only he can catch it, but that's it. Instead, he tries to scramble, throws it away. Now Mendoza didn't mention this play in particular, but he was talking about the fact that he was surprised that some of the edges were as fast as they were, meaning he thought he can get to the edge there and scramble. Now what I really like about this play is I want you to key in on how he protects the ball while he's moving in the pocket. Look at it. Hard fake. JPJ gets beat by a second stringer. Not good. Look at it. Two hands on the ball, two hands on the ball, two hands on the ball, two hands on the ball, two hands on the ball. Right there, he's got to be throwing it to Besh. He thinks he can get to the outside here and beat all these guys. He realizes really quickly, oh, this guy's way faster than I thought. There was a holding call too. Let me throw it away. You just got to throw it to Besh. Right here, you have to throw this ball. It's going to be a tough completion, but again, on film, you'll see that. I can't beat that guy, and we move on here. This is a perfect play. He knows that the pocket's collapsing pretty immediately. He sees that the defense is not in great position for what they want to run on the right side. He knows he has Malik Benson one-on-one. In a different game, this is going to be Brock Bowers, Trey Tucker, Jalen Naylor. Not saying that Benson didn't do what he was supposed to on this play. He actually did. It was just a hard pass interference, and they didn't call it. They didn't call it at all. It's a perfectly placed ball. The back-shoulder stuff with Mendoza is going to be absolutely elite. Again, he sends Ian Thomas in motion. He kills this first play, goes to the second play. Again, he feels... Again, JPJ not having a great game here, right guard. He feels that it's collapsing pretty fast. I got to go back-shoulder. Doesn't complete it, but that's okay. Next play here, deep out, Malik Benson. Perfect. Nothing to say there. That's not an easy throw. Good clean pocket here. He knows that he's going to have a lot of space down here. Nothing else really open besides the check down. If this was covered, he can go to the check down, but it's not. Perfectly placed. I mean, he puts the ball exactly where it needs to be. It's very, very impressive work from Fernando Mendoza. Again, the mechanics, the pocket presence. Looking people off, knowing exactly where to go. Boom. Easy money. Is this the sack here? Let's see. Yeah. Just holding on to the ball. Oh, no, no, no. That was after the sack. Again, still kind of holding the ball a little bit too long for my liking. Obviously, he wants to go here, not there. Maybe then just go right to here. I don't know exactly what the progression is. Nobody's open. I like extending the play here and holding the ball on a little bit, but I don't want to see him take a hit. But as he's getting hit, perfect ball placement. And this was the play that set us up for the touchdown. If we don't gain a couple yards here, we don't score this touchdown on the next play. Maybe take off right there, have Jack Besch block. Again, something you can learn on film. Don't want to see him take a hit there. Might get that flag call at some point when he's a five-year vet, multiple-time Pro Bowler. Hard play action here. Checking it down. Pretty easy money. There's nothing really there besides just seeing him under center. Another hard play action. Perfectly timed. Perfectly thrown. I want to see the touchdown pass here. Okay, another play where you just got to get rid of the ball here. Again, it wasn't perfect. But these are the times you got to make these mistakes. Maybe he should have let that rip, to be honest with you. Because he was thinking about it. And again, in-game, that's going to be a better wide receiver. Maybe he should have let that rip. And there's a little bit of confidence that comes with, you know, making plays. And right now, he's a little bit gunshot. But you got to throw that away. We can't be taking hits like that. That is not a recipe for success. We need you to play on the field. This is just really good protection. Really good protection. Not a lot of people open at first. We're on sort of like a crosser concept here. Finally, we get somebody open. Decent game. Let's see. I want to get to the touchdown. Is that the end? Or did I miss it? Did I miss the touchdown? Oh, I did. Silly me. The best throw all day, I think. He knows this is the guy here. When he sends Ian Thomas in motion, he sees that the linebacker favors him. Watch. Look. One motion. A little bit of a shift. Oh, wait. Ian Thomas is already in motion. Hold on. Stand by. Well, I guess I missed it. But when Ian Thomas goes in motion from the beginning here, he knows that the linebacker is going to pick him up. Watch. Shifts a little bit to the right. He knows that's it. It's over. It's over for this guy. It's a touchdown. Literally perfectly placed. Right in between three people. Jack Besch has arrived. We'll get to that in a second here. But that's beautiful. And then the last throw here was a perfect throw. Is it on here? It was a perfect throw. It was just a little wide receiver. Timing not great. But he goes through all his progressions. Looking, looking, looking. Man. Again, if that's Brock Bowers, that's a touchdown. But, and this is another good angle. This was about as impressive as an incompletion can be. Look at this. Oh, so close. But a lot to like there. And there's some stuff that you didn't even notice the first time you watched it, which is the way he protects the football. The way he goes through his progressions. The way he understands the game. He was audibling. He was making checks. He knew, like I said, I kept saying Ian Thomas. When Mike Washington went in motion. And then Ian Thomas came out on his route. Linebacker's going to favor him. So let's make sure that we're zipping the ball right to Jack Besch. And speaking of Jack Besch. Not only did he get some praise from Clint Kubiak and Kirk Cousins who both said, he's got strong arms. It's like a power football and basketball. Strong arms, strong hands. They know that when they throw him the ball, he's going to hold on to it. He's just got to be able to find space in that field. But another reason why he's always a candidate to just be on the field is because of his blocking. And one of my favorite plays from yesterday was the Mike Washington run. I'm going to have to be like a little choppy with this because I don't want to get copyright banged here. But, you know, as they hand off here, Jack Besch, along with Charles Grant. Look at Charles Grant on this play. Pancake blocks it out. Now, Jack Besch springing this right here is the reason why, boop, I have to break one tackle and I'm gone. And if we look at it from this angle, okay, you have blocking all out the wazoo here. You got Seale here. Seale makes an alley there. Merrill Hodge. Look at Charles Grant. Sit down. And then look at Besch. Fullback here picks this guy up. Besch, huge block here to get this guy out of the way. So now it's cut back and break one tackle. Break one tackle. See ya. And it's all thanks to number 18 and Mike Washington and a bunch of other guys. But that is the last line of defense. And Jack Besch sealed him off. Right here. Look. One more time. Boom. Couldn't be better. Could not be better. Break a tackle. Darren McBadden. I was thrilled with what I saw yesterday. You needed to see improvement from the young guys. I could not care less about this defense. And what they were doing against twos and threes. And Jacoby Brissett with no playbook. We'll cross that bridge and we get there. We made improvements on defense. We'll see how they play. We'll see. There's a time to scream and yell. It's not today. A lot of positives to get out of that game. That's going to be it for me. Like I said before, 725-253-0264. Colin Show is returning. Make sure you write that number down. Put it wherever you need to put it. If you become one of these $5 or $10 patrons or YouTube members, you get a bunch of cool stuff. Name at the end of the credits. Video access early. The ability to use the phone while I am recording the Colin Show to be able to call in. Hit that like button. Comment away. And please be sure to subscribe. It's free after all. No charge to you. I love you guys. I'll see you next time.