Green Bay Packers v. Raiders: 3 things we hope to see

As the Green Bay Packers prepare for their third preseason game against the Oakland Raiders, these are three things we will hopefully see from them throughout the game.

While it is only the preseason and of course, the score of the game does not matter, there are still plenty of takeaways from the Green Bay Packers’ first two games. Both positive and negative.

Obviously, the biggest thing that we hope to see on Thursday night is no injuries, especially if Aaron Rodgers is under center. However, staying healthy won’t be making the list as it is simply a given.

But what will be featured in this article are three areas that have given this Green Bay Packers team struggles through the first two games. Now, granted it is still very early but with that said, if they hope to come out of the gates swinging against Chicago in week one, they will have to be much better in these aspects of the game.

Improved Special Teams Play

Watching the Green Bay Packers’ special teams units the last few seasons it’s almost as if we were just waiting for something to happen. That poor play culminated last year when the unit would rank 28th in special teams DVOA by Football Outsiders.

New special teams coach Shawn Mennenga has set out to turn what was once a weakness into a strength, but it has been a bit of a sloppy start. Through the first two games, we’ve seen penalties, missed tackles, a Teo Redding fumble, Mason Crosby sending the kickoff out-of-bounds, and a number of decent returns from the opponents.

To their credit, they’ve also scored a touchdown on a fumble – although that was more so due to Houston’s error, rather than Green Bay making a good play – and Darrius Shepherd has looked very good as a return man. However, moving forward things need to be more buttoned up.

Better Tackling

This is another area that hasn’t just been an issue this preseason but is a problem that the Green Bay Packers have been dealing with for a number of seasons now. After the Baltimore game, head coach Matt LaFleur stated that over the first two games that they had missed 43 tackles. Forty-three!

Yes, a number of these tackles are coming at the end of games from players who likely won’t be on the final roster, however, we’ve seen it fairly prevalent as well with the starters.

In Training Camp, LaFleur doesn’t have the team do any live tackling at any point, just drills to work on form and technique. From a health standpoint, I am 100 percent on board with this, there is nothing worse than losing a player to injury during practice.

With that said, if you aren’t going to do any live tackling, you have to find effective ways to get that practice time in. Hopefully, we see improvement over the final weeks of the preseason.

An Effective Running Game

The rushing attack is going to play a much more prominent role in this Green Bay Packers’ offense under LaFleur than it did with former head coach Mike McCarthy. Yet up to this point, it has been quite underwhelming.

Against Houston, Green Bay would average only 3.3 yards per attempt on the ground. Then in Baltimore, they would total only 55 yards and their average would drop down to 3.1 yards per carry.

In their defense, they have gone up against two very stout defensive fronts and their lead back has been rookie Dexter Williams while Aaron Jones and Jamaal Williams have been sidelined with injuries.

Given these circumstances, as well as the offense just being that much more effective when Jones is in the game, there is no reason to hit the panic button at this point. But it would be nice to see a more effective running game this Thursday night than what we’ve seen in the first two weeks.