Breakout game in comeback win
Amari Cooper might have been the poster child for the struggling Raiders offense over the past month, dropping a number of passes and disappearing from the stat sheet at times.
He reappeared in a big way Thursday night with a career performance in the Raiders’ dramatic 31-30 win over the Chiefs.
Cooper caught 11 passes for 210 yards, a career high and the most by a Raiders receiver since Art Powell set the franchise record of 247 yards in 1963. Entering the game, Cooper had 146 receiving yards for the season — a number he surpassed midway through the fourth quarter.
Asked what the difference was Thursday, Cooper shrugged and said: “Nothing, man.”
“I just went out there like I do every game,” he said. “I expect to have a big game every game, and I’m happy tonight it turned out that way.”
One difference: Quarterback Derek Carr threw the ball in Cooper’s direction, often. Cooper had 18 catches in his first six games. Carr targeted him 19 times Thursday, including on touchdowns of 45 and 38 yards.
“We have a lot of playmakers at the receiver position,” Cooper said. “And we went into this week saying that we wanted to take more shots, more explosive plays.
“It was huge for me, it was huge for the team. Anytime that anyone can create some explosive plays, get first downs, we’re going to have more plays on offense. And eventually we’ll keep scoring.”
It started on the first series of the game, which began with a 12-yard pass from Carr to Cooper. After Carr found tight end Jared Cook on a playaction pass for 24 yards, the Raiders dialed up a flea flicker, with Carr throwing deep to Cooper up the left sideline.
The connection worked again on the Raiders’ second drive. Cooper, running a slant, found a pocket in the Chiefs’ defense and applied a burst of speed near the 30 to outrun safety Eric Murray to the end zone.
Cooper, who was held to one fourth-quarter catch Oct. 8 against Baltimore, said getting involved early was “great.”
“When you get that first touch, you know, it creates a little bit of confidence,” Cooper said. “You start to go out there and believe you can really do your thing.”
Teammate Michael Crabtree said that despite Cooper’s early-season struggles, he expected Cooper to re-emerge.
“I just told Amari, ‘Be you. Everything is coming together,’ ” Crabtree said. “I don’t worry about Coop.”