Oakland Raiders head coach Jon Gruden seems to be high on quarterback Nathan Peterman. It's something quite a few people have poked fun at, since Peterman has had two disastrous seasons in the NFL.
Peterman has three touchdown passes compared to 12 interceptions (including one touchdown and seven interceptions last year). He also completed just 52.3% of his passes; on 130 attempts, he has just 548 yards passing.
That's really bad.
Peterman had his first chance on Saturday night to show that Gruden wasn't crazy for believing in him. He definitely made a strong impression for the Raiders against the Los Angeles Rams.
Overall, Peterman went 9-for-12 for 66 yards and one touchdown with no interceptions.
What was the craziest moment of his game on Saturday? It was this scramble below.
You can only hope to contain him.
Nathan Peterman takes OFF for 51-yard scramble. 💨#LARvsOAK pic.twitter.com/IhOkhGlHc6
— Las Vegas Raiders (@Raiders) August 11, 2019
That's right, Nathan Peterman picked up 51 yards on a single run. He had 50 rushing yards (on 10 carries) all of last year. In his career he has 73 yards on 17 carries. Those aren't bad numbers, but not the numbers of someone you're expecting to bust loose. Michael Vick or Kyler Murray? Sure. Peterman? Not at all.
This was a great run too. Peterman noticed the pocket collapsing and took it outside. Then he saw he could pick up the first down and made that unnecessary pump fake every QB does before turning on the jets. Once he got the first, Peterman surprised everyone by cutting back inside and almost taking it to the house.
A side note about that pump fake: I know sometimes it makes sense. A quarterback sometimes gets a DB to jump a route. Yet, QBs do it every time they scramble like this, even when it's completely unnecessary. Tell me whom he tricked with that pump fake. You could argue Darious Williams (number 31), but he was clearly already getting blocked. It's just muscle memory for QBs to do that move at this point.
That's beside the point, though. The real point is that Peterman did everything he could on Saturday night. He definitely gave Jon Gruden some validity to his claims that Peterman is showing him something.
At this rate, it wouldn't be surprising to see Nathan Peterman start of the season as QB2 for the Oakland Raiders. Maybe at some point he'll get to show those wheels again. For now we just have to wait until their next game to see what Peterman will do to top this effort.
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