Las Vegas Double-Down: Patriots Improve During 2nd Practice Against Raiders

After a rough Tuesday against Las Vegas, New England bounced back Wednesday to get the best of the Raiders.

You win some. You lose some. Even, for the New England Patriots, in joint training camp practices with the Las Vegas Raiders.

After clearly being dominated in Tuesday's workout at Raiders Headquarters in Henderson, Nevada, the Patriots fought back and leveled the preseason playing field on Wednesday.

In 11-on-11 drills, the offense - which was mostly stonewalled the first day of practices - bounced back to move the ball on the ground and through the air. Although it wasn't perfect, quarterback Mac Jones recovered from a rocky first period of team drills. Jones was at his best in the Red Zone, completing touchdown tosses to Jakobi Meyers (twice), Ty Montgomery, and tight end Hunter Henry.

Without the deep threat of injured rookie speedster Tyquan Thornton, New England's offense was more dink-and-dunk. The Pats' drives were more methodical, with Jones relying on the running backs out of the backfield, the tight ends, and Meyers working the underneath coverage.

Defensively, the best element to the entire Patriots operation over the two joint practices was the defensive front. New England's pass rush generated consistent pressure on Raiders quarterback Derek Carr in both practices.

As on Tuesday, Matthew Judon, Josh Uche and Christian Barmore found their way into the Raiders backfield on a handful of plays, while the starting secondary was more competitive against Las Vegas receivers Davante Adams and Hunter Renfrow. Most of Vegas's big passing plays came against New England's second-string cornerbacks.

The Patriots and Raiders play their final preseason game Friday in Las Vegas.

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