Green Bay Packers v. Raiders: Gut Reactions & Highlights

The Green Bay Packers moved to 6-1 on the season with a win over the Oakland Raiders. Here are the gut reactions and highlights from today’s performance.

While the Oakland Raiders were able to move the ball effectively for much of the day, it was a Derek Carr fumble that allowed the Green Bay Packers to make this a multiple score game and an eventual blowout.

The win moves Green Bay to 6-1 on the season and as always, there are plenty of takeaways from their performance, with a lot of positives from this Packers’ offense. Here are my gut reactions and highlights from today’s game.

• First off, Aaron Rodgers was absolutely fantastic today. From his command of the new offense, to his efficiency, and of course some great throws, Rodgers was on point today. In total, he finished 25/31 for 429 yards with 6 total touchdowns and a perfect passer rating of 158.3.

• Speaking of this offense, the last few weeks everything has started to click with the new Matt LaFleur system and it is beautiful.
• This Green Bay Packers’ defense had no answers for Josh Jacobs who rushed for over 100 yards or Darren Waller who had over 100 yards receiving.
• The Packers have had issues this season with pass-catching tight ends (Zach Ertz a few weeks ago and Waller today) and things are only going to get more difficult with having to face Travis Kelce next week.
• What a catch from Aaron Jones. A last-second adjustment allows him to find the ball and it was a heck of a redemption after last week’s dropped pass. This is a difficult play more most receivers, let alone a running back.

• I mentioned it last week, but it was clear once again – the Packers really miss Darnell Savage on the back-end.
• We finally got to see a few pass attempts to Danny Vitale, keep giving that man the ball!
• ANOTHER Kevin King interception!

• Considering how gruesome the hit on Geronimo Allison was last week, he bounced back with a very nice game against Oakland. And as a matter of fact, the rest of the receiving core did as well.

• Derek Carr’s fumble out of the end zone was a HUGE momentum shift. It resulted in a likely 14 point swing and the Green Bay Packers would then blow the game open with a touchdown drive to start the third quarter.

• The Aaron Rodgers’ deep ball to Marquez Valdes-Scantling is becoming a weekly occurrence and it is fabulous. MVS also had another big play that ended in a touchdown and totaled 133 yards on just two receptions.

• The Raiders do focus on getting the ball out of Carr’s hands quickly, but even so, the Packers’ pass-rush did not have much success getting after him. This means we, unfortunately, didn’t get to see the Za’Darius Smith and Preston Smith Halloween sack dance. Hopefully next week we do.
• Green Bay stuck with Darrius Shepherd as their return man, but he still looks uncomfortable back there and is playing very conservatively.
• It’s been an up and down season for Jimmy Graham but today was an up as he caught four passes on four targets for 65 yards including a red zone touchdown.

• As we’ve seen for much of the season, the defense would bend – as they gave up quite a bit of yards – but they didn’t break as they came away with three red-zone turnovers.

There are always areas to improve in, but this Green Bay Packers team is rolling right now as they sit at 6-1 and atop of the NFC North. Next week the Packers will travel to Kansas City to take on the Chiefs without their star quarterback, Patrick Mahomes.