Career start No. 127 the biggest of them all for Carr
HENDERSON, Nev. (AP) — Derek Carr has started 126 games during his eight-year NFL career.
There has been none bigger than No. 127.
Carr will lead the Las Vegas Raiders into the NFL's final game on Sunday night against the Los Angeles Chargers in what likely will be an all-or-nothing showdown between AFC West rivals.
For Carr, who has one year left on his contract and who has expressed his feelings about being a Raider for life, the game on Sunday is the most consequential of his career.
"If you look back to the last three games, they've all been the biggest games of our career," Carr said Wednesday. "I feel like that's kind of been the feeling around our team and around my heart for the last month. And so, this one's exciting, obviously, because it's the last one and it really tells you what happens. But at the end of the day, I feel like the last month we've been playing in our playoffs."
That's because a 1-5 skid that followed a 5-2 start to the campaign left the Raiders near the bottom of the AFC standings.
Suddenly, though, a three-game win streak — including road wins in Cleveland and Indianapolis after Carr led last-minute, gamewinning drives — has Las Vegas on the brink of pulling off what seemed unimaginable less than a month ago.
The Raiders will make the playoffs for the second time in the past 19 seasons with a win. They also could sneak in with a loss if both Indianapolis and Pittsburgh lose, but the most direct path to extending the season would be win No. 57 for Carr.
Not to mention give Carr his first opportunity to compete in the playoffs.
The Raiders were 12-3 when Carr went down with a broken leg in 2016 and wasn't able to play in the postseason. The Raiders, who are 44-67 since then, are 56-70 during Carr's career.
While there's no been no denying his ability to lead gamewinning drives during his career, a win Sunday could silence the detractors who've questioned whether Carr is a quarterback who can lead a franchise to a championship.