After a decisive 31-10 win over the Arizona Cardinals last week, the Oakland Raiders failed to recapture the dominating instinct they possessed. While the score doesn't really show it, the Green Bay Packers won in nearly all facets of the game, especially on defense as they limited the Raiders to 187 yards, no offensive touchdowns, and added two interceptions.
Three-and-outs
It seemed like several of the Raiders' possessions were of this variety through the first half and a little of the second. After giving up seven points, the team was able to drive down the field and get three points off of a Sebastian Janikowski 46-yard field goal. However, those would be their only three points for a really long time.
The rest of the first half was as unexciting as a Cleveland Browns vs San Francisco 49ers game. It's a pity that that game won't be happening this season. It would've generated some great numbers. Anyways, the point of the comparison is that nobody could move the ball. The Packers would manage a little, but the Raiders offense practically stood still. They might as well have put their punting team on first down so that they can rest their starters and put in a fresh squad whenever they were actually ready to play.
The only moments of note in this half would be Damarious Randall's interception on Derek Carr and a couple of 50-yard punts. That's right, it was so bad that punting was pretty big.
So did the misery end after the first half? Nope, not at all. In fact, it was worse because it seemed that the Packers had revived on offense. The Raiders started the second with a drumroll please, *drumroll* yep, a three-and-out! The Packers responded by marching down the field with Joe Callahan under center and scored a touchdown to make it 14-3.
Some improvements....but not really
Three-and-out, then another drive that led to a field goal. However, the trend finally ended, as Raiders' rookie QB Connor Cook came on and was able to lead the team down the field for.......a field goal. Very anticlimactic, but that's what happened.
The Raiders got the ball back after a Packers' three-and-out only down 17-6 and a chance to really narrow the gap. Instead, Cook regressed and threw an interception to Josh Hawkins who proceeded to run it back 47 yards.
With Marquise Williams now taking charge, the Packers were able to make a 36-yard field goal. Two three-and-outs later, the possibly only exciting part of the game happened the Raiders blocked a punt deep in Green Bay territory and picked it up in the end zone. Sadly, their kicker Giorgio Tavecchio missed his extra point and the game would end at 20-12 as the Packers ran down the clock.
Any good points?
Honestly, the only one that comes to mind was Cook being able to somewhat do things on offense. He was still a relative non-factor and didn't do much to up his position on the depth chart. The defense was solid, but the Packers don't really have any solid QBs behind Aaron Rodgers because they've never really needed one. On the other hand, the Packers running game was strong, getting nearly 150 yards on the ground.
As one can tell, this was a pretty bad game for the Raiders. Nothing was working on either side of the ball except for pass defense. But then again, the quarterback competition they came up against was even worse than theirs, so that's not really something to stay positive about. Nobody on the roster stood out in particular and the Raiders better hope that they bring their A-game next week in order to prove to head coach Jack Del Rio that they deserve a spot on the team.
If you would like to check out a preview and recap of last week's game, follow these links here and here, respectively.