GREEN BAY – Antoine Cason lay helplessly on the perfectly manicured turf along his sideline, looking up from his stomach as Jordy Nelson deftly averted Cason’s only help, safety Roman Harper. Nelson streaked effortlessly into the end zone; Cason could only pick himself up.

Nelson beat Cason’s hand attack at the line of scrimmage at the Carolina Panthers’ 41-yard line and quickly gained several steps of separation – all Aaron Rodgers needed – and Rodgers hit the wide receiver in stride en route to a 59-yard touchdown. It was the sixth play of the Packers’ opening drive Sunday afternoon, and 57 minutes of game play remained, yet that touchdown essentially crippled Carolina.

"That does a lot for the game when you can help out your crowd, get them involved, especially a noon game where a slow start can equal kind of a subdued atmosphere until you really get going," Rodgers said. "But today we went down and scored, got the ball back, scored again. That's what you want to do."

The Packers (5-2) just decimated the Panthers from there, blowing out the NFC South leaders out, 38-17, in front of over 78,000 at Lambeau Field. The sight of Carolina defenders chasing green and gold contrails – or lying helplessly on the ground after Eddie Lacy and James Starks trucked over them – was far more vivid than any one Packers touchdown.

And in the first half, the touchdowns were plentiful.

There was Rodgers to Nelson, then Lacy breaking outside for an easy walk-in, then Starks splitting two Panthers at the goal line and a quick strike to Randall Cobb in the flat for three yards.

It’s nothing the Packers haven’t executed before, but the fact that the defense forced two, three-and-outs and another punt to set up those scores made the Packers’ 28-3 halftime lead feel all the more complete.

"When you look at it how the offense came out and was just methodical down the field, a touchdown gets you up, 7-0, and then as a defense when you can come out there and go three-and-out and get ‘em right back on the field, good things usually can happen," Packers linebacker A.J. Hawk said.

"I think when you set the tone like that, at home, use the fans to our advantage, yeah that’s something you want to do every week. It obviously doesn’t happen but today it did."

And, frankly, a little less difficult than it could’ve been.

"I would never say it’s easy, but when you’re executing and everyone is on the same page you know you’re going to be successful," Nelson said. "That’s what’s frustrating when we do go have a bad game is that it’s not that difficult just to execute and do your job, so we just gotta stay consistent with that and we’ll have more results, hopefully, like this."

Carolina (3-3-1) did manage a 33-yard Graham Gano field goal as time expired in the first half to cap a 65-yard drive, inflating the Panthers’ offensive numbers to 113 total net yards in the first 30 minutes.

It took the Panthers up to that drive to actually produce more total offense than total penalty yards, as the Packers’ league-worst run defense quickly bottled up Jonathan Stewart and contained – yet pressured – Newton into poor throws.

"We did a pretty good job of shutting it down," linebacker Clay Matthews said of the Panthers’ zone-read rushing attack. "We knew where to be, especially after the success Miami had last week. It was good to see."

In the decisive first half, the Packers rolled up 271 yards of total offense, including 87 rush yards, while Rodgers posted a 153.4 quarterback rating on 15 of 17 passing.

The Green Bay defense, which began the game as the league’s worst against the run, held the Panthers to just 39 yards on the ground in the opening half. That, coupled with the quick scores on offense, turned Carolina’s offensive attack one-sided.

That allowed the Packers to let loose in the pass rush for the entire game, with linebackers Julius Peppers (1 ½), Nick Perry (1) and Matthews (1/2) all bringing down Newton.

"With the offense putting up so many points and the defense forcing a few of those three-and-outs early one, we forced them to be one dimensional," Matthews said. "As I’ve said all year, we’ve got some studs on the defensive side of the ball, especially in the pass rush aspect. And that’s exactly what we do – put pressure on and get him uncomfortable. We were able to create that interception (by Packers corner Casey Hayward) as well as a few errant throws."

The second half was elementary, but the Packers put the finishing touches on the route when Rodgers hit Davante Adams for a 21-yard touchdown in the third quarter to push the score to 35-3.

Mason Crosby got into the act to make it 38-3 before the Panthers finally found the end zone with 9 minutes, 39 seconds left in the game when Newton found Kelvin Benjamin from 13 yards out.

"It’s as fun as it looks," Adams said of the offensive output Sunday afternoon. "When we got things rolling, whether it’s coming to you or whether it’s Eddie, or whoever it is, it’s fun. You’re running around out there and you look at how it makes the difference in everybody in the stadium, our sideline and coaches, it’s a good feeling."

Carolina backup quarterback Derek Anderson then led another touchdown drive in the final minutes.

Rodgers, whose day was finished after the third quarter, finished 19 of 22 for 255 yards and three touchdowns and a rating of 154.5.

Since the low point of the season offensively – a 19-7 loss in Detroit on Sept. 21 – the Packers have won four straight and averaged 36.3 points per game in doing so. And in that span, and despite being pulled from two of those games, Rodgers has 13 touchdown passes against zero interceptions.

"It's a lot more efficient," Rodgers said of the offense. "We're still not hitting some of our yardage and plays per game goals but we're being very efficient, and that started in the Chicago game."

"I don’t think we’ve played our best football, that’s for sure, as a team and we’re what – 5-2?" Hawk added. "So, hopefully that’s an encouraging thing. That’s a good thing that we haven’t gotten where we need to be but hopefully we’re going to start getting there and peaking at the right time."