Raiders make it close but fall to Chiefs 40-33.
Several positive indicators, even if the result is lacking
Takeaways from the Raiders’ moral victory that wasn’t a moral victory, since there’s no such thing:
The Raiders leapfrogged the 49ers on Sunday in the Bay Area NFL power rankings, looking a lot better in a 40-33 loss to the Chiefs than the 49ers did in a 43-16 loss to the Seahawks.
The Raiders looked like a real team, with a real quarterback and real (though not great) defense. While Kyle Shanahan
“I think we should’ve been on top of it. But the turnovers really, really hurt us. Who knows? The better team who didn’t make the most mistakes won.” Doug Martin, Raiders running back, on the team’s three lost fumbles
was melting down in Seattle, Jon Gruden was cool in Oakland.
The Raiders have the livelier house, too. The Raiders tried to take themselves and their fans out of the game early with the worst opening 10 minutes in history, but when the Raiders made a third-quarter charge, the Coliseum was rocking.
This is your lovely parting gift, Raiders, from the fans you’re leaving behind. May the Las Vegas high-rollers and casino moguls bring the heat to the yard like these folks have for decades.
If you’re an NFL quarterback and you want to look good, never go against Patrick Mahomes of the Chiefs.
Derek Carr actually outplayed Mahomes on Sunday, by an eyelash, but you know who was going to be featured on all the highlight shows.
Mahomes is a combo of Happy Gilmore and Mikhail Baryshnikov. Remember how Happy hit his best golf shots while he was on the move, not standing still? And Baryshnikov was more dramatic and athletic than any other dancer.
Mahomes, in his first year as an NFL starter, same deal. Which makes him the most spectacular player in the NFL.
By comparison, Carr appears clunky and sackable (three Sunday, to Mahomes’ zero). But there was Carr, dueling the league’s hot kid even.
“I was outside myself, I was so upset about some of the plays (Mahomes) made today,” Raiders’ coach Jon Gruden said. “He was scrambling. I was really proud of our quarterback, too. It was a shootout between two great, young quarterbacks.”
Nice scramble by Gruden on that one.
The stats show Carr with a passer rating of 123.2 and three touchdown passes, Mahomes with 120.0 and four TDs. But when the kids get out in the street or at the park to play pickup football, guess who they want to be. No offense, Derek.
Sadly for lovers of sideline dramatics, Gruden and Carr have dialed way back on their Kabuki theater.
Carr said their detente was not planned.
“He’s yelled at me about 27 times this week,” Carr said. “It’s all out of him trying to get me to the place he thinks I can get to. ... When he first got hired, the big thing was, can I get along with him, can I handle him . ... We’re building chemistry. So we don’t sit down (and plan not to) shout at each other. We may do it again.”
Please.
Dink-n-Dunk Derek busted out. Carr did not have another of his sub-200-yards-with-30plus-pass-completions days. It was 29 completions for 285.
Furthermore, two of his field-stretchers, including an almost-32-yard-touchdown to wide receiver Marcell Ateman, were a fingernail from completion.
“There’s going to have to be games when we have to throw it short, and people hate it,” Carr said. “But you turn on some of these other (quarterbacks), they’re throwing the ball 5 yards behind the line of scrimmage, get 15 or 20 (yards). Sometimes those are schematic things, trying to get people in space and make ’em miss tackles.
“That (criticism) stuff doesn’t bother me. When I go to coach Gruden’s office after the game and we talk, I just want to make sure I’ve executed what he wanted.”
It looks like Carr, whose Raiders’ future looked dim a few weeks ago, and Gruden have settled into a groove, or as close as any Gruden-quarterback groove can get. It’s always going to be a bumpy ride, but Carr is learning to deal.
Carr said he’s reached the point where Gruden will send in a play, the other team will make a sub, Gruden will want to make a change after the coach-to-QB headset is shut off, and Carr will read Gruden’s mind. Who needs a headset when you have ESP with your coach?
Yogi Berra would not approve.
In a legendary moment, the former Yankees manager tussled with infielder Phil Linz on the team bus after a Yankee loss when Linz wouldn’t stop playing his harmonica. The one universal law of sports: Losers don’t play music.
In the Raiders’ postgame locker room, Tahir Whitehead cranked up his boombox. The times, they are a-changin’. And, no, that wasn’t the tune he was playing.