Oakland Raiders: Derek Carr is Set Up for a Big Game Against Kansas City

Oakland Raiders quarterback Derek Carr has seen fair share of struggles against division rival, Kansas City Chiefs. On Sunday, he has a perfect opportunity to buck this trend.

With a victory on Monday night, Week 1 is in the books and the Oakland Raiders shift their focus to the Kansas City Chiefs. After defeating the Jaguars 40-26 on Sunday, Kansas City also enters Week 2,1-0. Similar to last year, the defending AFC West Champs were impressive on offense, but their defensive performance give plenty of reasons to be optimistic about Derek Carr’s Week 2 performance.

In ten career games against the Chiefs, the Raiders quarterback has accumulated 2,313 yards, 13 touchdowns and nine interceptions. Those numbers average out to 231 yards and a little more than one touchdown per game.

The division rival has certainly given Carr trouble, but Gardner Minshew’s performance on Sunday should excite the Raiders captain.

After Nick Foles went down early in the game, Minshew came off the bench for Jacksonville and carved up Kansas City’s secondary. The sixth-round rookie finished the game completing 22 of 25 passing attempts for 275 yard and two touchdowns.

Of course, you could argue that since Minshew wasn’t the starter heading into the game, the Chiefs weren’t prepared for him and that is what led to his big day. However, by the same token, the quarterback didn’t get a chance to fully prepare for the defense he was about to face either. The young signal-caller deserves plenty praise for his performance, but if a late round draft pick is able to come of the bench and pick apart the Chiefs defense, Carr should have no problem.

The receiving corps will obviously be a big factor in the Raiders passing attack. In Week 1, Jaguars wide receiver DJ Chark tore up Kansas City for 146 yards and a touchdown. As a rookie in 2018, the receiver only managed 174 yards and zero touchdowns in 11 games, so Chark nearly matched an entire year’s worth of production in one game.

Overall, Oakland has a much more talented receiving core than Jacksonville, hence why Keelan Doss initially chose to stay on the Jaguars practice squad over the Raiders roster. The wide outs will be open and as long as the offensive line gives Carr enough time, he will able to find the open man.

Completing 22 out of 26 throws against the Broncos on Monday night, proves that he is more than capable of doing so.

Protecting the quarterback was an issue for the Silver in Black in 2018, but after a Week 1 performance where Carr wasn’t even touched, it looks like the offensive line has significantly improved. Of course defensive linemen Frank Clark, Chris Jones and Emmanuel Ogbah present a challenge for Oakland, as those three have combined for 72.5 sacks in 13 seasons.

However, the Raiders offensive line had no problems handling Von Miller and Bradley Chubb, who have combined for 120 sacks in 11 seasons; so there is reason to believe the line will hold up again.

All signs point to a big outing from Derek Carr in Week 2, and all that’s left is executing on game day. The Raiders will probably need it because the winner of this game might be the first team to 35.