Raiders beat Packers in an 80-yard war in Winnipeg
Oh, Canada. Never again. Because of problems with the IG Field artificial surface in both end zones, the Raiders and Green Bay Packers played Thursday night on an 80-yard field.
Key players from both sides remained on the bench, and an announced crowd of 21,992 watched the Raiders beat the Packers 22-21 in what could be the last time you play an NFL team play an exhibition game on Canadian soil.
Daniel Carlson won the game with a 33-yard field goal with eight seconds remaining.
Of the 90 men on the roster, 41 didn’t play and 24 didn’t even make the trip from Alameda. That should be enough to drive home the point to those who were actually on the field not to be too secure.
Some takeaways with three of four exhibition games in the books: No complaints from Raiders
coach Jon Gruden: Yes, it was strange to play on an 80-yard field, but Gruden hinted it might not have been necessary.
“I’m not going to make a big deal about the field,” Gruden said. “We liked the field. We thought the field was perfectly ready to roll. You’ll have to ask Green Bay about that. It didn’t impact our play-calling or our evaluations. We just adapted, as they did, to the new dimensions.” Has Mike Glennon won the job
as backup quarterback?: Given that Glennon was out of the game after a quarter (he was 4 of 9 for 38 yards) and Nathan Peterman took it the rest of the way means it’s likely he’ll be No. 2 behind Derek Carr.
Not so fast, according to Gruden, who noted that he usually keeps three quarterbacks.
“I’m not going to get into anything right now other than we’ve got two pretty good quarterbacks.”