Arizona Cardinals/Oakland Raiders: How The Non Starters Did.

By now everyone should know that the Arizona Cardinals won their preseason home opener, beating the Oakland Raiders thirty-one to twenty-seven.

The starters were part of that equation, but on the other side, the non starters played a good amount of time on both sides of the ball. Hit the jump to see how each unit did.

On the defensive, the Cards are starting to develop nice depth.

For the DLine, David Carter got pressure on the QB, dropped into pass coverage and defended the run. 6th round gold mine! Teammates Ronald Talley and Ricky Lumpkin also defended well against the run. Lumpkin however, did have a costly roughing the passer penalty. Veteran Nick Eason also played well in few snaps, showing solid run stopping technique.

The linebackers also have developed nicely. Reggie Walker gets mention here, but this week he saw first string snaps. Another ILB to pop this game was Quan Sturdivant. He had numerous run support plays where the contact was stopped at or behind the line of scrimmage. He dropped into pass coverage and looked good. Colin Parker and Marcus McGraw also added a stop in run support defense. At the OLB spots, Quentin Groves notched a sack and was solid in run support while Brandon Williams was active as well, defending the run and playing the pass.

Into the secondary we hop. CB Jamell Flemming was solid again in run support, and is a sure tackler, but his completion percentage gives me some cause for concern. There was also a couple of flags tossed his way, but the calls were questionable, and I feel he made good plays. A.J. Jefferson contributed a nicely defended pass to save a touchdown. FS Justin Bethel blocked a punt, a FG, and was solid in run support. SS Rashad Johnson also had a good night in both the pass and run game, making plays near the line of scrimmage. Blake Gideon was another name to stand out from the game, showing nice run stop support from the SS position.

Now we head over to the offensive side of the ball.

At QB, there is the man behind Lindsanity. And he looked mortal last night. Taking a strip/sack, throwing a pick. Rookie QBs are works in progress. The he settled down behind a run game and finished 5/10 for 84 yards.

The RB crew was busy, but leading the way was William Powell, who averaged over five yards per carry, and scored a TD in the process. Javarris James also broke off a few nice runs, but missed on some blocks in pass protection. Thomas Clayton hurt his chances by coughing the ball up. Alfonso Smith had a quiet night, with two carrier for four yards.

The WR group with first round Michael Floyd was rather quiet. Stephen Williams and DeMarco Sampson each pulled down a reception of thirty yards. Floyd was targeted only once. Jaymar Johnson touched the ball for an eight yard end around. Overall, the pack remains tightly bunched.

For the TE grouping, Rob Housler looked sharp in both the receiving and run aspects of the offense. He finished the night 3/4 for 26 yards. The only time Jim Dray came to mind is when he was called for a holding on a special teams play.

On the OLine, the second stringers showed push off the line of scrimmage for the run game, and in pass protection other than the strip/sack of Ryan Lindley, looked decent as well. With the injury to Levi Brown and the play of D'Anthony Batiste last night, look for some tinkering to be done to the line. Rookie Bobby Massie looked steady at RT, when he was plugged into the lineup.

Overall, I saw promise from the second wave of depth, as well as from some of the rookies and undrafted free agents.