A quarterback battle broke out at Lambeau Field, one that saw a vintage Aaron Rodgers vastly outperform Derek Carr.
Rodgers was responsible for six touchdowns while Carr was eventually benched for Mike Glennon in garbage time as the Packers (6-1) pulled away for a 42-24 victory.
Too much Rodgers was the story for the Raiders ((3-3). The Green Bay superstar signal-caller had a perfect quarterback rating, finishing with 429 yards on 25-of-31 passing. Carr was once again effective, but nowhere near enough to match his counterpart.
The two quarterbacks combined for 722 yards and eight total touchdowns.
Green Bay’s red zone defense came up huge twice to prevent two Raider touchdowns. An interception from Carr with than eight minutes left all but sealed Oakland’s fate.
Carr’s costly mental mistake, fumbling the ball into and out of the endzone on second and goal, robbed the Raiders of a chance at a go-ahead touchdown instead giving the ball to the Packers with less than two minutes remaining in the first half.
The risk was not worth the reward for Carr. On second down, the smart play would was to get down inside the boundary and keep the clock running for a third and goal from around the two yard line.
The turnover turned to be a dagger.
Instead of being up 17-14, Rodgers took Green Bay 80 yards in 97 seconds for a 21-10 Packer lead at halftime.
The Packers carried that momentum into the second half, reaching the endzone on each of their first two possessions post-halftime to claim a 35-17 lead.
The Raiders offense was effective early, out-gaining the Packers 135 yards to 94 in the first quarter. Then, with the second snap of the second quarter, Carr found newly extended tight end Darren Waller open down the right sideline for a 28-yard score. But the touchdown was called back on a holding by David Sharpe. Still, Oakland overcame a first and 20, eventually scoring on a Carr connection with right end Foster Moreau.
Despite having the 28-yard touchdown catch nullified, Waller gave the Jon Gruden and the Raiders exactly what they were expecting when they gave him $9 million per year, catching a game-high seven passes for 126 yards and two scores.
Rookie running back Josh Jacobs matched Waller’s effort, gaining 124 yards on 21 totes.
Carr, given his best protection this year, played his best game of the season. He finished with 293 passing yards and two scores.
At 3-3, the Raiders finish their two-week road trip in Houston, facing the Texans (4-2) and MVP candidate DeShaun Watson next Sunday.
Last modified October 20, 2019 3:35 pm
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