Rookies give Carr hope despite tough season
ALAMEDA – Derek Carr spent part of his bye week defending himself against accusations he cried after getting sacked one of six times in a blowout loss in London. If he wasn’t crying because of physical pain, he had all the right to because of how bad his offensive line was in a 27-3 loss to the Seahawks in Week 6.
Carr withstood six sacks that night, tied for the most sacks he’d taken in a single game in his then-68-game career. Rookie left tackle Kolton Miller, playing on a faulty right knee, allowed three sacks against Seattle to bring his two-game total to six sacks allowed and 15 quarterback pressures surrendered, per Pro Football Focus. Rookie right tackle Brandon Parker wasn’t good, either.
But after a much-needed bye week, to rest both mentally and physically, Miller and Parker played arguably their best games of their young careers in last Sunday’s 42-28 loss to the Colts. The Raiders’ defense was terrible, but Carr played like the best version of himself (21-for28 with 244 passing yards, three passing touchdowns and his first career rushing touchdown), thanks in large part to his two rookie offensive tackles enjoying a similar bounce-back performance as their quarterback.
The Colts didn’t sack Carr and mustered only four total pressures, according to PFF. Those four allowed by the Raiders was the second-lowest total of any team in Week 8. Miller, after allowing those six sacks and 15 pressures in his previous two games, allowed only one hurry, no sacks and no hits in 29 passblocking snaps against Indianapolis, according to PFF. Without Amari Cooper and Marshawn Lynch for the first time, the Raiders offense figured to take a step back, but Miller and Parker helped it do the opposite.
“You have to be able to have time. That’s why I was able to get to the third guy or fourth guy in some reads,” Carr said Tuesday. “That’s all the offensive line.”
The Colts came into Week 8 tied for fourth in the NFL with 21 sacks, so they hardly entered Sunday a push-over in the passrushing department. The 49ers, Oakland’s Thursday night opponent, rank tied for 25th in the league with 16 sacks. If Miller, Parker and the interior offensive linemen play like they did in Week 8, keeping Carr on his feet in Week 9 should be a cakewalk.
Silver linings come sparsely on a daily basis at Raiders headquarters these days, but the vast improvement of two vital future pieces in such a short span came as a pleasant gift despite loss No. 6. Sutter’s Jaya Bains rises up for a spike as her teammates look on during the first set of the team’s playoff match against the Lassen Grizzlies on Tuesday. finally starting to play like she knew they could.
The fourth set would prove to the home crowd that their team can fight back from a slow start. After a 15-8 lead by Lassen, the Huskies would force the Grizzlies to call timeout when they tied it up at 20 points apiece.
Now the Huskies were
able to get in the head of Lassen. The Grizzlies started to make mental mistakes through bad communication and Sutter took advantage of it by taking the fourth set 25-21.
Now it was time for the fifth and final set. Lassen came hot out of the gate taking an immediate 3-0 lead. Sutter would respond with three of their own and keep it close. After a slight distraction from a
member of the audience, Sutter was able to regroup and start to pull away.
With a 13-12 lead, the Huskies added two more points to advance in the playoffs with a final score of 3-2.
Maddy Kunkle finished with 32 assists, five digs and three aces. Following Kunkle was Hannah Crother with 12 kills and two blocks.