By Joe Hawkes-Beamon

OAKLAND — The third preseason game is usually the “dress rehearsal” for most teams. It gives the fans, and the rest of the league, a good look at what first-team offenses and defenses for each NFL franchise.

When Oakland hosts Arizona Sunday at O.co Coliseum before a national television audience (the game can be seen on NBC) at 6:00 P.M. PDT, we should expect to see both the Raiders and Cardinals play their first-team offenses and defenses into the third quarter.

But maybe the string of season-ending injuries to stars like Green Bay’s wide receiver Jordy Nelson, has Raiders head coach Jack Del Rio rethinking playing time for both the first-team offense and defense.

“There are certain things you kind of expect about what you’re going to do and try to do (in preseason game No. 3), but I think you do have to take pause and make sure you think about it,” Del Rio said. “We’ll do that. We’ll see what is appropriate.

Oakland can clean up some things in this game against the Cardinals, most notably penalties.

In Oakland’s 18-3 victory against the St. Louis Rams in the preseason home opener, the Raiders committed just two penalties for 22 yards. In last week’s 20-12 loss on the road in Minnesota against the Vikings, Oakland committed a mind-boggling 13 penalties for 106 yards.

The Raiders had a whole football field’s worth (and then some) of penalties that it became ridiculous to even watch the game.

We already know that Raiders quarterback Derek Carr and fourth overall draft pick in this year’s draft, Alabama’s Amari Cooper appear to be on the same page (Cooper has four catches for 62 yards in two preseason games), but former San Francisco 49ers still needs to be heard from this preseason (two catches for 15 yards in two preseason games).

If Cooper is going to be the No. 1 guy where defenses are going to have to game plan for this season, Crabtree needs to be the reliable No. 2 wide receiver that will consistently move the chains.

Seriously, Oakland can have a legitimate offense this season and Sunday night against the Cardinals, Carr and the first-team offense should be showcased.

Running back Latavius Murray appears to be the bell-cow for Oakland and offensive coordinator Bill Musgrave thinks that Murray will be vital piece to Oakland’s offense success, as Musgrave recently told Raiders Insider CSN Bay Area’s Scott Bair.

“He has been working a lot on his hands so he can be a good receiver out of the backfield, because we don’t want a guy that’s going to be a liability when we go to throw the ball. He’s really been working on that. Of course, he’s got the body and the ability to really be a good player at this level.”

“He’s got great vision,” Musgrave said. “Not just because he’s tall, even if he was 5-8. I think he’d have really good vision. He can anticipate things and jump through those cracks, almost before they open.”

Mix in former Auburn running back Jonathan Dwyer and maybe Trent Richardson, the Raiders will have the makings of competitive backfield.

Defensively for Oakland, you want to see who will line up in the secondary with future Hall of Famer Charles Woodson.

D.J. Hayden and T.J. Carrie have struggled at both starting cornerback spots this preseason. Hayden was getting abused by Minnesota wide receiver Charles Johnson for most of the first half, even giving up a 10-yard touchdown. The coverage appeared decent, but Hayden never looked back at Vikings quarterback Teddy Bridgewater and Minnesota took full advantage.

Will we see recently signed safety Taylor Mays hit the field Sunday and try to make an impression on his new team? Mays reunites with new Raiders defensive coordinator Ken Norton, who coached Mays when the two were at Southern California.

But the one guy that I’ve been really intrigued with has been rookie inside linebacker Ben Heeney.

Heeney has jumped off my television screen with so much energy and toughness that with questions about linebacker Sio Moore’s future in the Silver & Black, Heeney has a shot to make the team.

This preseason, the former Kansas Jayhawk leads the Raiders with 15 tackles and 1.5 sacks.

The Cardinals are coming off a 22-19 home loss to the San Diego Chargers last Saturday and have questions at running back.

Former 2,000-yard rusher Chris Johnson was signed recently to compete with a ho-hum backfield headlined by would-be starter Andre Ellington.

Last season, Johnson averaged 4.3 yards per carry (and a career-low 663 rushing yards and one touchdown) on 155 carries in 16 games (six starts) for the New York Jets.

Keep an eye on Johnson’s health throughout the game Sunday night after Johnson suffered a hamstring injury last week.

Ellington finished with 660 rushing yards and three touchdowns in 201 carries in 12 games for the Cardinals last season, but averaged a pedestrian 3.3 yards per carry. In the NFL, you always need two running backs and Arizona believes that the Ellington/Johnson tandem can be a lethal combo this season, if both are healthy.

Former Raiders and current Cardinals quarterback Carson Palmer should see extensive action, but I’d be surprise if he plays five plays in the third quarter. Maybe only two.

Future Hall of Fame wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald is always box office, even in a preseason game.

It would’ve been nice to see Fitzgerald’s heir apparent, wide receiver Michael Floyd Sunday, but Floyd is recovering from surgery after dislocating three of his fingers early in training camp.

Overall, the “dress rehearsal” game will be the last time that the fans will get to see the potential starters on both sides of the ball play.

By the fourth and final preseason game (Arizona at Denver, Oakland at Seattle respectively), Raider fans or Cardinal fans should not expect to see Carr or Palmer in the game, respectively.