Raiders vs Vikings NFL Preseason Week 1

Head coach Dennis Allen is on the hot seat and despite the preseason won’t save his job, a win in the first preseason game of the year could only help as his Oakland Raiders take on the Minnesota Vikings, this Friday at 8 PM ET.

Allen will give Matt Schaub a few repetitions to get his confidence back after a bad 2013 season.

“I don’t have any problems with Matt Schaub’s confidence,” coach Dennis Allen said Thursday.  I think he’s in a good frame of mind. I think he’s very hungry. I think he’s excited about the new opportunity.”

“I think anytime you go into something new, there’s a little bit of, maybe it’s an increased focus, an increased intensity level, because it is new,” Allen said. “You kind of force yourself out of your comfort zone a little bit.

The Minnesota Vikings are excited to see rookie QB Teddy Bridgewater; he might see some repetitions with the first team and has a fair shot about winning the starting job.

“We need to play Teddy with the first line,” OC Norv Turner said. “We need to mix a lot of players. I think we’re still trying to work that out in terms of how we want to do it. I know Coach [Mike] Zimmer has a plan in place. It will be a number of plays, and we want to see Teddy play. He needs to play to get through that the first time going out.”

The NFL odds have Minnesota as the favorite by three points in the spread.