The Green Bay Packers beat the Oakland Raiders 31-21 last night and while the starting offense was again productive, a few areas of concern have arisen. The offensive line struggled with pass protection and all of a sudden the receivers starting dropping passes.
Because of the pressure he was under Aaron Rodgers completed only 9 of 20 passes but did still manage to lead three touchdown drives. At running back Eddie Lacy and DuJuan Harris look excellent but on this night James Starks struggled. Harris has for sure locked up the number three running back spot and probably will push Starks for snaps once the regular season begins.
At receiver Randall Cobb and Davante Adams have come down with a bad case of the drops. Adams needs to step his game up to justify his draft status, but he’s going to make the team no matter what. Cobb maybe just had a bad night. He did miss most of last year so he is still shaking off the rust.
On defense the Packers suffered a crushing blow when nose tackle B.J. Raji was lost for the season with a torn biceps injury. Raji was having an excellent camp back at his best position and his loss could shake up the defensive line.
The Packers also saw how good Julius Peppers can be. Peppers had a sack and two tackles for loss and looked much more comfortable in his new outside linebacker role. Rookie Jayrone Elliot added another sack as did Nick Perry. The Packers scrubs gave up a couple of late TDs to make the score close, but for the most part the Packers’ defense played very well for the third straight week.
Next week will be the Scott Tolzien-Matt Flynn bowl. I have to admit that Tolzien definitely closed the gap with his 8-11, 107 yards and a TD performance last night. Flynn couldn’t anything going coming in after Rodgers in the first half. I can’t see Flynn being on the team as a third QB so if Tolzien beats him out Flynn will be most assuredly be cut.
The last preseason game is all about roster spots which I think makes it fun to watch. Guys are playing for their careers and going all out. One week later it gets real in Seattle against the world champion Seahawks. The Packers look to be ready to go.