WR Cooper continues vanishing act
OAKLAND >> The most effective route that Raiders receiver Amari Cooper ran Sunday was the one through a crowd of reporters and out of the locker room. He didn’t have to answer for yet another baffling disappearance.
Cooper, the third-year receiver who was the No. 4 overall pick in the 2015 draft, appeared on the verge of stardom last season when he caught 83 passes for 1,153 yards and five touchdowns. But he was nearly shut out Sunday for just the second time in his career — he caught just one fourth-quarter pass for eight yards in Oakland’s 30-17 loss to Baltimore, and was targeted just twice in the game.
Cooper has just 13 catches for 118 yards in five games this season, and his only touchdown catch came on the Raiders’ opening drive of the season at Tennessee.
During this three-game losing streak, it has been particularly bad — just four catches total for 23 yards. In addition to his lack of production, Cooper has had seven drops this season, though he didn’t have any Sunday because the Raiders only looked his way twice.
Through five weeks last year, Cooper had already amassed 26 catches for 456 yards.
“I wouldn’t say it was by design not to have him get more targets,” coach Jack Del Rio said. “The read went away from him a couple of times, a couple of times it was supposed to be to him. I’d like to see him get the ball more. To me it’s about execution right now. I’m not going to sit here and get into how or why individuals aren’t getting the ball. I don’t see where that’s going to help us.”
• Raiders’ left tackle Donald Penn stepped out of his car to confront a fan in the parking lot after Sunday’s loss, and there are conflicting reasons as to why.
On one hand, Penn said in a tweet it was because the fan threw a bottle at his car. But in an Instagram video, the fan, Salvador Chavarria, said he never threw a bottle at Penn’s car.
Two weeks ago, Chavarria posted on Instagram a conversation between him an Penn over Instagram direct message. Among profanities written by Penn responding to Chavarria’s trash talk, Penn tells Chavarria to “Find me after and say it to my face,” to which Chavarria says, “Don’t get our QB leg broken again.”
• Down 27-17 with 8:58 to play and faced with a fourthand-3 at the Baltimore 44-yard line, Del Rio sent out the punt team.
According to Associated Press, the last time a team punted on fourth-and-3 or less while down two scores in the fourth quarter was in 2012. So what happened? Marquette King punted into the end zone (after a chorus of boos) and the Ravens went on a 13-play, 54-yard drive that ended in a Justin Tucker 44yard field goal to account for the final margin of victory.
Del Rio was ready for the question in the postgame gloom.
“Hindsight is always 20/20 on things like that,” Del Rio said. “You’re thinking you’re going to pin them inside the 20. We didn’t. You’re thinking the defense will give us a stop and get the ball back. We didn’t.
“A fourth-down call with nine minutes left in the game ... was that the difference today? I don’t think so.”
• It was clear from the outset that QB Derek Carr, despite being listed as questionable, would be inactive. He spent the early portion of warmups socializing, with EJ Manuel and Connor Cook doing the throwing.
“We went through that whole issue,” Del Rio said. “Decided that it was best not to play him today. He was pushing pretty hard to play. There was enough of a decision where I made him questionable.”
Manuel said, “I was preparing to play. I was going to be ready for whatever came up.”
Asked about the possibility of Carr facing the Los Angeles Chargers in Week 6, Del Rio said, “Yeah, I have that feel.”
• Del Rio alluded to a “confidence problem” with the defense, but outside linebacker Bruce Irvin wasn’t so sure.
“I think we’re just facing adversity right now,” Irvin said. “It’s the fifth game. We have 11 more games. We have time to turn it around, but it’s if we want it or not. We have to come into work and take this (stuff) serious or we’ll continue to lose.”