QB Carr keeps Raiders winning
Derek Carr felt like a OAKLAND college kid again. A week after suffering a gruesome dislocated pinkie on the golden throwing hand that is so crucial to the revival of the Oakland Raiders, the quarterback didn’t take a snap from center Sunday against the Buffalo Bills.
It was either shotgun or pistol — just like when Carr was at Fresno State.
“It brought me back to my Fresno days a little bit, so that was nice with the tempo and those kind of things,” Carr said Monday, diving into a short week
with a showdown looming against the Kansas City Chiefs on Thursday night with first place in the AFC West at stake.
“That was cool. We worked on it a lot in the offseason. It’s cool to actually take it out there and use it against Buffalo.”
Call it a bit of extra precaution, if not protection. Carr ditched the glove that he used after returning to the Week 12 game against the Carolina Panthers, and had the injured digit taped to his ring finger against the Bills. As he did in the days leading up to the game, he reported no issues.
When asked about the tape job, he insisted, “No pain, no pain.”
Added Carr: “It’s great. I’m off the injury report, so I really don’t know what you’re talking about. It’s more of a fashion statement.” Funny guy. The Raiders fashioned another type of statement, though, with offensive coordinator Bill Musgrave devising a game plan that resulted in Carr taking all 67 snaps from a distance that eliminated potential stress that could come from exchanges under center. Carr didn’t take a snap from center during practices last week, either.
“By any means ... however we need to do it,” wide receiver Michael Crabtree said.
It is just like the Raiders (10-2), during this charmed season, to turn a hint of adversity into another layer of potency. Carr, a candidate for NFL MVP honors with his 24-5 touchdown-to-interception ratio and 100.3 passer rating, didn’t miss a beat with the adjustment. He passed for 260 yards and two TDs, including a 37-yard floater to Amari Cooper off a pump-fake. And two other would-be TDs were dropped.
While the passing clicked, the rushing attack remained in sync, too, with the backs getting the ball from different angles. Oakland rushed 32 times for 139 yards, with a 4.3-yard average gain.
“We’ll put together another plan this week, and I’m not going to divulge whether it’s going to be that or he’ll go back under center,” coach Jack Del Rio said. “Obviously, you saw that we operated just fine. He’s comfortable either way, really.”
Throughout the season, the Raiders have frequently used shotgun formations on obvious passing downs. Complementing that with the pistol Sunday was the major alteration. In the shotgun, a quarterback will typically line up about 8 yards deep for the snap. In the pistol, the quarterback is about 4 yards off the line, with the running back usually aligned beside him.
A reporter told Carr that, ac- cording to the analytics site ProFootballFocus, the Raiders used the pistol on just two snaps the entire season before Sunday. He seemed surprised by that. “Gotcha,” he said. “Wow. OK. There you go. They know better than me.”
In the midst of the shotgun/ pistol snaps, the Raiders sped up the tempo with hurry-up packages, too. Not only did the faster pace result in a five-play, 57-yard field goal drive in the last 30 seconds before halftime — another confident message in that they aggressively pursued points in that situation — but it fueled momentum as the Raiders rallied from a 15-point deficit by scoring 29 unanswered points.
“It’s just another tool in our toolbox that we have,” Carr said. “It’s so we can use it as a weapon, whether we need it or don’t need it.”