The Oakland Raiders won their first game under the new regime of Dennis Allen and Reggie McKenzie, but all eyes were on Terrelle Pryor and his terrific performance against the Lions.
Pryor turned a number of heads with his athletic play, including himself. Here is Silver and Black Pride's Levi Damien with the commentary, discussing how Pryor himself felt he played and just where he could fit into the playbook this season.
Pryor took his new reps and made the most out of them. He finished the game with three completions for 137 yards and two touchdowns. He also ran five times for 90 yards and a touchdown...This performance comes out of nowhere after Pryor's abysmal performances in the first two preseason games. Pryor says it has everything to do with his presence in the huddle.
"I think the biggest thing was [my] time management. The first thing that my coach, Flip (John DeFilippo), said when I got upstairs was ‘man, your huddle presence was 200,000% time better.'
...[Pryor] still was not very excited about his performance. He had two touchdown passes in the game, both to Juron Criner. After the game he said both were bad passes.
This was definitely a coming out part for Pryor. It may just have the coaches considering putting in some TP specialty plays in for him during the season.
Pryor brings a completely different set of skills to the table than Carson Palmer, being a much more athletic player who can cause problems with his feet much more than Palmer can. It certainly won't cause a QB controversy as Palmer is undoubtedly the starter, but it may have opened the door for him to get more playing time.
"He's still a work in progress," Raiders coach Dennis Allen said of Pryor. "But I thought he made some strides today. He's not where we need him to be. He's not where he wants to be. But he made some progress."
Can't ask much more from a developing QB than that.
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