Raiders WR Amari Cooper downplays big game

ALAMEDA — Amari Cooper has spent most of this season answering questions about why he hasn’t been catching more passes after becoming the ninth receiver to top 1,000 yards in each of his first two years with the Oakland Raiders.

Instead of gloating after coming off the best game of his career with 11 catches for 210 yards last week against Kansas City, Cooper maintained the same even-keeled persona.

“I just play, man,” Cooper said Wednesday. “You try to play good every week. If it doesn’t happen I just move on. If I do play good, I just move on.”

While Cooper maintained that the lack of production after recording just nine catches for 51 yards during a fourgame losing streak didn’t leave him frustrated, it must have come as some sort of relief for the Raiders (3-4) when he finally broke out in the 3130 win over the Chiefs last Thursday night that might have saved Oakland’s season.

Cooper caught a 38yard TD pass off a fleaflicker to cap Oakland’s opening drive. He added a 45-yarder for a touchdown later in the first when he caught a pass in the secondary and outraced the defenders to the end zone, becoming the first Raiders player with two TD catches in the first quarter since Mervyn Fernandez in 1989.

He didn’t slow down from there, adding a key 39-yard catch to get the Raiders out of a hole on their game-winning drive as he ended up with the second-most receiving yards in a game in Raiders history and won the AFC Player of the Week award.

“He got back to being himself,” coach Jack Del