Oakland Raiders drive Carr to a 24-13 upset of 49ers
OAKLAND, Calif. — The Oakland Raiders ended their three-week roller-coaster ride on a high and sent the Bay Area rival San Francisco 49ers to their lowest point under coach Jim Harbaugh.
Derek Carr threw three touchdown passes and the Raiders bounced back from a shellacking last week by beating the 49ers 24-13 Sunday and putting a major dent in San Francisco’s dwindling playoff hopes.
The Raiders (2-11) followed their exhilarating first win of the season against Kansas City with a 52-0 loss at St. Louis before delivering their most complete performance of the season against San Francisco (7-6).
“It’s great for us to come off of a bye week and perform the way we did today,” said Raiders safety Charles Woodson, who sealed the win with a late interception. “Being able to bounce back from the way we felt last week was big for us. To win this game, the Battle of the Bay, your crosstown rivals, it’s a big win.”
Carr completed 22 of 28 passes for 254 yards and completely outplayed counterpart Colin Kaepernick in the best performance of his rookie season.
With a second straight loss, the 49ers (7-6) are in danger of missing the playoffs for the first time in Harbaugh’s four-year tenure. San Francisco trails three teams by two games in the NFC wild-card race with three games remaining after making three straight NFC title games.
“There is no surrendering,” Harbaugh said. “You look for the next thing to win at.”
A Thanksgiving night loss at home to rival Seattle prompted CEO Jed York to apologize to fans on Twitter and raise even more speculation that Harbaugh will not be back next season for the final year of his fiveyear contract.
Harbaugh sparked the chatter of where he might wind up when he went to Raiders owner Mark Davis for a chat before his first game in Oakland since his tenure as an assistant with the Raiders in 2002-03.
Raiders interim coach Tony Sparano is making his case to keep the job by winning two of the past three weeks.