Getty Oakland Raiders QB Derek Carr.
Nothing seemed to go right for the Oakland Raiders on Sunday against the New York Jets. It wasn’t the type of performance you’d expect from a team on a three-game win streak. The Raiders still have a shot at the playoffs, but they have a tough road ahead. Derek Carr has gotten a lot of heat in recent years and it was looking like things were cooling down as he was having a good season. Well, he just gave the naysayers a lot of ammo after the game versus the Jets.
He was eventually taken out of the game when it was out of reach. While he was obviously taken out to prevent any injury or freak accident, a media member asked the quarterback about getting “benched” and things got awkward.
“I mean, it was for other reasons than you’re trying to make it seem,” said an obviously irritated Carr.
What the video cuts out is the painfully awkward moment of silence after Carr answered the question.
Saying Carr Got Benched Is Very Misleading
Derek Carr was taken out of the game relatively early, but it’s incredibly misleading to say he was “benched.” It was not Carr’s fault that the game got out of hand. The offensive line did not have its best showing and his receivers consistently dropped passes. He’ll get a lot of the blame because he’s the starting quarterback, but Jon Gruden even acknowledged that he took him out because the game was out of reach.
“That’s always hard,” Gruden said about taking Carr out of the game. “He didn’t want to come out; I didn’t want to take him out. But I’m doing what I think is right. And I’m sure I’ll be second-guessed for that, but I think I’m doing what’s right for our football team.”
Sunday’s game didn’t inspire much confidence, but the team is still over .500 and in the playoff race. If Carr gets injured in a game that the team is obviously going to lose, the season is over. Gruden made the right call and Carr shouldn’t get that much heat for it.
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Raiders ‘Got Faced Kicked In’
The Raiders are young and very talented. They’ve won more games than most expected and that’s an achievement in and of itself. However, this team has the potential to make some noise in the playoffs and hopefully, this loss serves as a reminder that the team still has work to do.
“We got our face kicked in a little bit,” Carr said at the postgame press conference. “You try and look forward and hopefully, it wakes everybody up… We better show up [against the Chiefs] or they’re going to beat us by 50.”
Oakland can still tie for the AFC West lead with a win over the Kansas City Chiefs in Week 13. They’ve shown that they can bounceback before. The game against the Chiefs will give us a really good idea of what exactly this Raiders team is.
“As frustrating as [this loss] is, let’s be honest, these six games that we’ve won, no one thought we could do that with who we have,” Carr said. “We’re still a good football team, but it is what it is. We’re still building that foundation.”
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