Josh McDaniels Says Preseason is Crucial For Special Teams

Preseason is important for a number of reasons, and a big one is for special teams to experience the live contact they don't practice in training camp.

The lack of live reps in practice was evident in the Las Vegas Raiders' 26-20 win over the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday when the Silver and Black allowed a 56-yard kick return early in the third quarter that downed Minnesota in Vegas territory.

Raider Maven's own Hondo S. Carpenter Sr. asked Raiders coach Josh McDaniels about special teams in the head coach's postgame press conference on Sunday.

The video can be viewed above, while the transcript can be read below:

Q: For somebody that is as detail-oriented as you are, is it difficult in preseason when in training camp, you can't do a lot of live reps on kick and punt coverage?

Josh McDaniels: "Yeah, there's nothing more important than the health of the players and so, those plays are certainly the ones with the biggest collisions. So doing those live in practice isn't something that I would say is for the betterment of the team. With that being said, I thought we had some really good plays in the kicking game, and then we lost the contain on the one kickoff return there, which is probably the play of the night that if we had to take any of them back in the kicking game, that would be the one. But I thought we did a good job in the first half. We were kind of winning the field-position battle as it went and then gave up the return there in the second half. But I think that's what these games are for. You have to get them in these games because you really can't simulate that kind of contact, that kind of space, and that kind of speed in practice."

The Raiders will look to continue cleaning up their special teams play when they take on the Miami Dolphins at Hard Rock Stadium on Saturday.

Las Vegas will also be seeking to build on its 2-0 preseason record. Saturday's contest begins at 4:00 p.m. PST.

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