For Carr, road challenge is loud and clear
Derek Carr embraces the noise. He strolls to the line of scrimmage in a raucous stadium and lets the smothering sound of enmity wash over him.
“I’m just so locked in on my assignment, and everyone else’s assignment, that there’s no time to hear anything else,” Carr said. “So I’m not going to lie: I love when it’s loud.”
This is either convenient or persuasive rationalizing, because the Raiders will face an avalanche of noise in the season’s opening month. Their 2017 schedule sends them on the road three times in the first four weeks: Tennessee on Sunday, Washington on Sept. 24 and Denver on Oct. 1.
Oakland also plays three other games this season in the Eastern time zone (Buffalo on Oct. 29, Miami on Nov. 5 and Philadelphia on Dec. 25), one
more in the Central time zone (Kansas City on Dec. 10) and one in Mexico City (New England on Nov. 19).
That shapes up as a daunting odyssey over the next four months, full of long flights and challenging circumstances. Carr might savor the noise during road games, but it does present a formidable hurdle.
Namely, his offensive teammates usually cannot hear him. That’s a problem.
“You don’t want to have false starts and things like that,” Carr said. “You want to play clean, and I think those are the toughest obstacles. As a quarterback, it’s super nice to be in your own little zone where you really can’t hear anything else.
“But the little communications like, ‘Hey, step off (the line). Hey, step on.’ You can do those things at a home game, but on the road it gets a little tougher.”
The Raiders can find solace in their recent history away from the Oakland Coliseum. They also had three road games in four weeks to launch the 2016 season — and they won all three, beating New Orleans, Tennessee and Baltimore.
And, naturally, the Raiders lost their only home game during this stretch, to Atlanta.
Oakland actually has a better road record (10-6) than home record (9-7) under head coach Jack Del Rio. The Raiders split their eight road games in 2015, then went 6-2 last season.
But this year’s schedule is especially imposing given the frequency of long airplane flights. The Raiders will try to mitigate the effects by spending a week in Sarasota, Fla., between their games in Buffalo and Miami.
Del Rio acknowledged the heavy travel load was a prime topic of conversation in the offseason.
“We put a plan together in terms of how we want to approach the season,” he said. “How we can minimize the impact of all the traveling we’re going to do. How we can travel really well and take care of business on the road.
“All the adjustments, all the things we need to do to take care of our players and put them in the best position to have success. That’s what we work toward. I ask the team to keep it simple: recover from the last one, prepare for the next one and then go compete our butts off.”
Carr, starting his fourth professional season, has become a veteran at handling the travel. It wasn’t easy in his rookie season, but he made some important adjustments before his second year in the NFL (2015).
Asked what changes he made, Carr said, “The way I hydrate, the way I eat, the way I try to get my rest. A lot of things. You have to do the right things for your body so on Sunday you’re at your peak performance.
“All those things were important, and I just stayed with my routine. I trust the people in this building to tell me what’s best for us and for me as an individual.”