Right out of the gate, the Oakland Raiders will have one of the toughest and most exciting games on the Week 1 slate in the NFL. The Raiders will travel to Nashville to take on the Tennessee Titans on Sunday. Kickoff from Nissan Stadium will be at 10:00 a.m. ET on September 10.
Both teams are entering their primes with serious playoff aspirations for this season. Oakland reached the AFC playoffs a year ago, but had its Super Bowl dreams cut short thanks to a season-ending injury to quarterback Derek Carr. While Tennessee did not make the playoffs, the Titans too lost their star quarterback Marcus Mariota to a similar leg injury on the same day, Christmas Eve.
Oakland and Tennessee are largely viewed as either the No. 1 or No. 2 team in their respective divisions. Though both teams are far from perfect, they have the feel of being playoff-caliber as the regular season is about to begin.
The Raiders have to travel East to take on a team that wants to be the 2016 Raiders in the 2017 Titans. For the Raiders to come out of the Music City with a big Week 1 victory, here are five players that will need to have a great game versus the Titans on Sunday.
Tennessee’s modus operandi offensively is to pound the rock religiously under head coach Mike Mularkey‘s Exotic Smash Mouth attack. He certainly has the playmakers to do so in a dynamic tailback tandem in Derrick Henry and DeMarco Murray, as well as one of the most gifted offensive lines in the game.
For that reason, Oakland has to play a great game in the trenches. It will be a huge task for the improving, but not-quite-there defensive line of defensive coordinator Ken Norton Jr. The Raiders seem to have gotten improvement up front during the preseason, but will need its best player along the line in defensive line to have a great game to win.
If he’s healthy, that would be defensive end Mario Edwards Jr. Though a defensive end, Edwards has the size and versatility to play in multiple techniques on the defensive line. He can play in both pass defense and run stopping. Expect him to get a ton of snaps on Sunday against an improving Titans offense.
Of course, the Raiders will need good games out of other defensive linemen like nose tackle Justin Ellis and rookie tackle Eddie Vanderdoes, but this would a great game for Edwards to set the tone for this defense. Oakland may not have the horses to keep up in the back-end, but nobody should be allowed to push the Raiders’ front-seven around on NFL Sundays. It’ll be tough, but hopefully he and the boys can do it.