Terrelle Pryor Not Only Made The Raiders Watchable, But Competitive

Terrelle Pryor didn't put away concerns of his starting capabilities in the last preseason game, but against the Colts, he seemed to have added some evidence as to why he rose to the top of Oakland's QB depth chart of sadness.

Not everything was great; Pryor made some big, dumb mistakes at the end of the game that cost the Raiders a chance at winning. He was sacked for a 16-yard loss on first down during the Raiders' final drive, which severely limited the play options that followed. Pryor also threw an interception on third and long to close out the win for the Colts, but then again, the team was getting desperate with not much time left. Before those two plays, though, Pryor was putting the team's offense on his back.

As of writing this, Pryor is this week's leading rusher with 112 yards on 13 attempts. He was the first player to break 100 rushing yards this week, and Adrian Peterson ran for 78 yards on his first touch. Pryor's running turned broken pass plays into substantial gains on the ground.

Pryor's passing wasn't abysmal, which was a nice surprise considering how he closed out the preseason. Yeah, he had a dumb early end-zone pick, but he was generally accurate, throwing 19 completions on 29 attempts for 217 yards with a touchdown on a quick, precise slant pass to Denarius Moore to give the Raiders a 17-14 lead. The offensive line did its job for the most part, too, only allowing Pryor to get sacked once. To be fair, however, the Colts defense is soft and the current pass rush even softer with the departure of Dwight Freeney.

Pryor's decent day doesn't change much about the Raiders' hopes this season, but it adds a little stability to an offense with no identity. Today, we found out that Pryor's running ability is dangerous enough to require quarterback spies, but he'll throw accurately, too. A healthy Darren McFadden could give that offense another dimension and keep opposing defenses honest. Rod Streater and Denarius Moore aren't top producers, but out of what's available, they'll usually catch what's thrown to them, which is good enough right now. Finally, although crying doesn't score points—as far as we know—we got a look into how much Pryor cares about a team many predict to be the worst in the league this season.