Raiders Smiling for Once : Pro football: It’s not so much their 19-3 victory over the Packers as their new attitude toward each other.

CANTON, Ohio —  The difference is undeniable.

The 1992 Raiders, a 7-9 club, and the team that opened the exhibition season Saturday share the same silver and black uniforms, but little else.

The big change was not evident so much on the field, where the Raiders beat the Green Bay Packers, 19-3, in the Hall of Fame game before 23,863, but in the locker room afterward.

NFL exhibitions, especially season-opening ones, can be poor barometers of what lies ahead.

Regulars often play no more than a quarter. Reserves star in roles they won’t fill in the regular season. And alignments are often merely basic versions of the sophisticated game plans that are pulled out when they play for keeps.

No, the big change came after the game, when the Raiders flashed smiles rarely seen in the tension-filled days of last season, when losses, feuds, disputes over playing time and battles with the media made a trip into the locker room feel like a visit to a war zone.

It’s easy to smile after a victory, but Saturday’s joy seemed broader based.

There was:

--Coach Art Shell, who seemed relieved to be back to coaching football and not mediating disputes.

“There are a lot of good players on this team,” he said. “We are not dead. Some people may think we are. But we’re alive and well.”

--Quarterback Jeff Hostetler, who seemed overjoyed to be out of the quarterback controversy that he agonized over in past seasons with the New York Giants.

“They are looking for leadership here,” he said, “and I hope to fill the bill.”

Hostetler played the first half of Saturday’s game, completing eight of 13 passes for 43 yards, including a two-yard touchdown pass to John Duff, a rookie free agent.

--Defensive lineman Anthony Smith, who seemed happy to contribute Saturday after struggling for playing time last season, despite 13 1/2 sacks.

Smith intercepted a Ken O’Brien pass in the second quarter and huffed and puffed for 40 yards to the Green Bay one-yard line to set up Hostetler’s touchdown pass.

“That’s a start,” Smith said. “Next time, I’ll get in.”

--Backup quarterback Vince Evans, who seemed excited to still be playing at 38.

Evans picked up where he left off in last year’s regular-season finale, when he led the Raiders to a victory over the Washington Redskins.

Evans threw two touchdown passes Saturday, a 24-yarder to rookie Charles Jordan and a three-yarder to Greg Harrell.

--Rookie quarterback Billy Joe Hobert, who could smile despite an embarrassing day as a kicker. Filling in for Jeff Jaeger, who has a calf injury, Hobert missed two of three extra-point attempts (one on a bad hold) and set up one time on the 30-yard line instead of the 35 for a kickoff.

“I was embarrassed,” he said, “especially on national TV.”

--And finally there was Jordan, whose football career consists of one year at Long Beach City College.

Picked up in a tryout camp after spending two years working in his family’s restaurant and several years doing nothing, Jordan finds the change in his life, precarious as it is, thrilling. He caught two passes for 44 yards.

“I went to bed at 9 o’clock last night,” he said after the game, “so that today would come faster.”

It came all too quickly for the Packers, whose offense consisted of a 49-yard field goal by Rich Thompson.

Defensive lineman Reggie White, the richest of the off-season free agents, played only three series and had little impact in his Green Bay debut.

There could be losses ahead to turn off those smiles. But, at least for Saturday, peace has broken out in the Raider locker room.