Establishing an identity — whether it’s running or passing the ball on offense, having the proper personnel to play defense, or just playing with a confident attitude — is big with football teams going into the season.

Nnamdi Asomugha thinks the Oakland Raiders found an identity at their Napa Valley training camp this summer.

“I think we’ve grown a lot in our focus,” said Asomugha, one of the NFL’s elite cornerbacks, who earned his first Pro Bowl selection as a starter following the 2008 season. “In previous years, we would leave camp and not quite know where we were as a team. But I think we’re a little more focused now and a little more confident than we’ve been in the past, so that’s going to help us.”

One of the longest camps in the 14 years that the Raiders have been coming to Napa — 31 days in length with 32 practices — ended Thursday morning with the Silver and Black working on their offense, defense and special teams at Redwood Middle School. The Raiders broke camp at 10:20 a.m., following a two-hour period in which they spent time passing the ball both in the red zone and during a two-minute drill.

“I think they said it was one of the longest training camps that we’ve had here,” running back Darren McFadden said outside the team’s fieldhouse. “I know for me, it has been a long one. But we’re here now, ready to get the season going.”

But before they start the 2009 regular season, the Raiders still have two preseason games to go: Saturday at home against New Orleans at 1 p.m. and Thursday at Seattle.

Between now and the opener, there’s work to do on both sides of the ball, said Asomugha.

“There’s some stuff on offense that we’ve got to do better,” he said. “We’ve just got to get sharper on our timing with the receivers and the quarterbacks.

“On defense, of course, we’ve got to stop the run better. We still have to mix things up I think a little bit more on defense so that we give offenses a different look. We’ve started to do that more in practice.”

As the team practiced, moving vans began arriving, with workers carrying gear and equipment out of the fieldhouse for the trip back to the Raiders’ headquarters in Alameda. Weightlifting apparatus, uniforms, tackling sleds, blocking dummies and all other gear will be moved back to their Alameda facility.

“We accomplished some things in the midst of camp,” said quarterback JaMarcus Russell. “I think we had a good one. Now we’ve got to carry it over.”

Russell appeared sharp with his throws Thursday, hitting receivers in different situations during the non-padded practice. He threw some of his passes with very nice touch, over the defense and to the open receiver; other passes were delivered with laser-like authority, with the receiver catching the ball with defensive pressure in the area.

It was the final day of installation for the Raiders as they continue to prepare for New Orleans.

“Excellent effort by our football team all through camp,” said coach Tom Cable. “A lot of work. We had a goal coming up here, and that was to leave here a better team, closer, and I think we’ve accomplished that.

“Now we have to get ourselves freshened up a little bit as we get ready to get into the last preseason game next week and get ready for regular season.”

The two-a-days of training camp and all the time spent in meetings can seem like a marathon, a grind that is physically and mentally wearing. Cable said the biggest thing the Raiders had to do upon leaving camp was to become a team, “more like a team that plays the game for each other, they work in practice for each other, they care about each other,” he said yesterday.

Scheme isn’t going to matter, he said.

“We’ve got good players like everybody else in the NFL. Scheme is scheme, everybody’s got a good one. It’s just a matter of doing it right for each other with the right purpose, and I think we accomplished that.”

Asomugha knew right away it was going to be a long camp — which began July 30 — as soon as he saw the schedule.

“It’s tougher for the younger guys, because they’re not going to get any breaks,” said Asomugha. “But (Cable) was good with giving veterans breaks and giving them either days off or periods off.

“When you’re a rookie, it’s hard to pace yourself.”

Minimizing penalties, being sharp in the red zone, and stopping the opponents’ run game are all on Cable’s checklist.

“The details that lie within that are probably what we’re really looking for, particularly Saturday and then again next week with Seattle,” the coach said.

Raiders Notebook

• The Raiders have a walk-through today at 10:15 a.m. in Alameda.

• Saturday’s Saints-Raiders game has a 1 p.m. kickoff at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum and will be carried by NFL Network.

The game will also be televised locally on tape-delay on KICU Action 36 Cable 6 at 5 p.m. There will be an encore showing of the game on Sunday at 1 p.m. on KICU.

• Cable plans on having the starters play most of first half, possibly also starting the third quarter, as Week No. 3 is the most important game of the preseason.

• Cutdown dates for NFL teams are Sept. 1 and 5. “The last seven or eight decisions that have to be made when we cut this thing down will be pretty tough,” said Cable. “I think there’s some real issue in terms of those last few choices about who’s going to be here, who’s not.”

• The Raider fields will be turned over to local soccer teams, namely the Napa Valley Soccer Club, Napa Youth Soccer League, Vintage and Napa high schools.