Palmer: Packers have bulls-eye on their backs

GREEN BAY, Wis. Carson Palmer was prepared to stay home throughout the entire 2011 season rather than re-join the only team he had ever played for, the Cincinnati Bengals. Then the Oakland Raiders lost their starting quarterback, Jason Campbell, to a broken collarbone. It didn't take long for Oakland to contact the Bengals about a trade, and soon, Palmer went from his couch to the football field. With Palmer leading the Raiders (7-5) into Green Bay this Sunday, he'll need to orchestrate a lot of points to keep up with the Packers' No. 1 scoring offense. "They've got a bulls-eye on their backs with being undefeated," Palmer said in a Wednesday teleconference. "It just shows you how good they are to stay undefeated because everybody wants to be the team to knock them off and nobody's done it. We're excited about the opportunity, but we just need to get a win for our own record." Since Palmer became Oakland's starter, the Raiders are 3-2 and are tied with Tim Tebow and the Denver Broncos atop the AFC West. "I stepped into a good situation," Palmer said. "It's an exciting time to be here. (There are) a lot of expectations for us." Palmer made his Raiders' debut in the second half of a blowout loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in Week 7. In that game, he threw three interceptions while completing 8 of 21 passes for a passer rating of 17.3. But Palmer has been much better since, throwing eight touchdowns and six interceptions in the last five games. "I'm starting to get more and more comfortable every chance I get to step on the field," Palmer said. "It's just kind of been a whole bunch of stuff studying a new playbook, new terminology, new formations. And then new guys different route runners and different speeds and different body language at tops of routes. "It's been just kind of getting on board with everything, starting over again." Oakland started to play well beginning with Palmer's second start and went on a three-game winning streak. Then they traveled to Miami last weekend and lost, 34-14, to the Dolphins. "We didn't play very well and there's no excuse," Raiders coach Hue Jackson said about that loss. "We didn't play good. We didn't play the way I know we're supposed to play, so we lost." While Palmer has continued to improve in recent weeks, it has been Oakland's running game that often dictates how well the team performs offensively. The Raiders are fourth in the NFL in rushing yards, even though starting running back Darren McFadden has been out since Week 7 with a foot injury. In McFadden's absence, 245-pound backup Michael Bush stepped in and kept Oakland's running game among the best in the league. But when Bush struggled against the Dolphins last Sunday with only 18 rushing yards, the Raiders' offense struggled moving the ball down the field. "Over the last couple of weeks, people have slowed us down a little bit (in the running game)," Jackson said. "We need to get back to playing Raider football and get back to doing what we do."Follow Paul Imig on Twitter