LOS ANGELES – Tucker Kraft lives by a simple rule.

When the Packers’ second-year tight end catches the ball, he expects the first defender to miss. Kraft did that in spades en route to a career-high 88 receiving yards and two touchdowns during Sunday’s 24-19 win over the Los Angeles Rams at SoFi Stadium.

Both of Kraft’s scores came during a turning third quarter for Green Bay’s offense, which benefited from a pair of takeaways from Xavier McKinney.

After McKinney committed a loose fumble early in the quarter, Kraft converted a pass in the flat into the longest reception by a Packers tight end in 12 years en route to a 66-yard touchdown that put Green Bay up 17-13 took the lead. the time.

When McKinney picked off Matthew Stafford on the next series, the 6-foot-4, 259-pound tight end put an exclamation point on a seven-play, 54-yard scoring drive for Green Bay when he muscled his way into the end zone on a TD of 7 meters.

“It just goes back to my own rules, the standard I set at the beginning of the season – don’t let a DB tackle me in space,” Kraft said. “Sometimes that still happens, but I always try to make the first one miss. But head down, bull in a Chinese store. That’s exactly what I do.”

With it being a big September, Kraft was expected to have a heavy workload against the Rams. Fellow tight end Luke Musgrave was active but did not play in the game after missing practice this week due to an ankle injury.

What couldn’t have been predicted is Kraft tying the Packers’ third-longest TD catch of the Super Bowl era, behind only Paul Coffman (78 yards in 1979), Tom Crabtree (72, 2012) and Jackie Harris (66 yards). , 1993).

Kraft felt the Packers were well-positioned to break an explosive play from that formation, based on the looks the Rams gave to Green Bay’s offense in the second and middle divisions.

Looking at second and sixth after a Josh Jacobs run, LaFleur turned up the dial and Kraft and Co. performed as quarterback Jordan Love hit his tight end with a pass. Sophomore receiver Dontayvion Wicks helped throw a block downfield to set up Kraft for the score.

If Wicks has learned anything about playing with his 2023 classmate, it’s that the play is never over.

‘He’s nice. He’s tough,” Wicks said. “He’s probably not going down on first contact. You can’t stop blocking when Tuck is in there. That’s a great time for us. It’s not just the guys on the outside that play in the passing game. It’s the tight ends ends, too.”

Creating big plays is part of the job description for Kraft. For those who have defended him in practice, it’s no surprise that Kraft comes up big on game days.

“I feel like Tucker can be the best tight end in the game without a doubt,” cornerback Eric Stokes said. “He continues to show it week in and week out. He’s getting more and more confident and he and Love have bonded, and it’s become very dangerous.”

‘Reed is out there somewhere’: The Packers couldn’t have started faster than Love who sent out a 53-yard pass that brought down sophomore receiver Jayden Reed at the Rams’ 2-yard line despite being triple covered.

The explosive win set up Jacobs’ first touchdown with the Packers, putting Green Bay up 7-0 at the time. When asked what he saw on Love’s deep ball, Reed joked: “I saw confidence.”

“There were three guys, I looked up and told myself you have to make the play,” Reed said. “In college they used to say, ‘F– it, Reed’s out there somewhere, so just hand it over.’ That is the confidence of ’10.’ I can’t throw the ball, I just have to play.”

Combined with Kraft’s 66-yard TD, Sunday marked the first time Love threw two 50-plus-yard passes in the same game.

Reed, who finished with four catches for 78 yards, also added two carries for 19, making him just the sixth player in NFL history with more than 400 receiving yards and more than 100 rushing yards in the first five games of the team’s season.

He is the first NFL player to do so since San Francisco vs. Roger Craig in 1985.

“Just finding mismatches, holes in the defense,” Reed said of the key to his overall success. “The coaches do a great job of putting us in position to make plays and making sure we get open. They do a great job there.”