Why They Won: Green Bay Wins In Oakland
By Kenn Korb
Dec 20, 2015; Oakland, CA, USA; Green Bay Packers cornerback Damarious Randall (23) carries the ball for a touchdown after an interception against the Oakland Raiders during the first quarter at O.co Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports
The Early Lead
The game began as innocuous as you might expect from this team at this point; there were three punts between the two offenses, with little movement from either side.
Then three plays into the second Oakland drive, things got positive in a hurry for Green Bay.
Derek Carr threw an interception to Micah Hyde, who took off towards the end zone with it. He nearly scored too, reaching the Oakland 2 yard line. Though that ended up coming back some on a penalty, Green Bay would eventually score a touchdown on that possession to set themselves up with a 7-0 lead.
As if that wasn’t nice enough already, the next Raiders drive was even more immediately profitable for the Packers. On this instance, it was Damarious Randall coming away with an interception of Carr. Unlike Hyde’s return however, Randall was able to take the ball all the way in for an immediate score.
Just like that, it is 14-0 Green Bay. This was all with little help from the offense, too.
In the early going, the offense managed little on its own; outside of the easy TD set up by the first interception, the offense only managed a single decent drive the entire first half — and that one ended with a James Starks fumble.
Because of the early exploits of the defense, the Packers were able to give themselves a decent cushion to work with while they found their offensive footing — and to survive some defensive missteps once Oakland managed to find theirs.
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