Oakland Raiders Film Review: Derek Carr’s touchdowns and interceptions

Week 3 at Minnesota Vikings

If you just look at the stat sheet, the Raiders signal caller appears to have put together a solid performance by completing 79.4 percent of passing attempts for 242 yards, two touchdowns and one interception.

However, Carr’s stats were inflated during garbage time and he struggled for the majority of the game.

The interception above is what that led to the infamous disagreement between The Athletic’s Arif Hasan and Derek’s brother, David. The writer’s claim is Derek throws this ball as if he is under pressure which leads to an overthrow, and the latter cites the coverage as the reason for the errant throw. I’ll appoint myself as the judge for this circumstance, and I think both parties are correct.

Minnesota is playing a variation of cover two here and what makes this call unique are the outside linebackers. Both play close to the line of scrimmage to take away Jacobs as a check down option for Derek, as David pointed out; and since the inside linebacker, Eric Kendricks (54) is playing in the middle of the field, Moreau is open on the out route.

The outside linebacker, Eric Wilson (50) is in the passing lane, so the quarterback has to throw the ball over Wilson’s head.

Carr recognizes this and instead of keeping his feet planted and throwing the ball with more arc, he gets happy feet and hops when releasing the ball. These poor mechanics lead to the overthrow and interception, as Hasan suggested.

Ultimately the passer makes the right decision, but doesn’t execute.

A lot of the credit for this touchdown goes to Gruden for dipping into his bag of tricks. The right outside linebacker (Wilson again) is in man-to-man coverage with whoever comes from Oakland’s backfield to his side. With the motion, this means Wilson is one-on-one with J.J. Nelson, and a fast guy on a linebacker is exactly what you want offensively.

The linebacker sees the hand off, so he starts to defend the run and stops widening with Nelson. By the time Wilson realizes this is a trick play, it’s too late, the receiver is already 10 yards down the field and couldn’t be more wide open.

Credit to Carr for throwing a perfect ball and letting the play design give him an easy touchdown.

A perfect example of how garbage time inflated the veteran’s stats in Minneapolis. The score is 34 to 7 and the Vikings have their backups in. The cornerback on the top of the screen is Nate Meadors (44), who was originally on Minnesota’s practice squad and is no longer on the team’s roster.

Meadors is making a questionable decision by playing seven yards off the line of scrimmage near the goal line, leaving him susceptible to any short route. Williams, the targeted receiver, runs a slant and Carr doesn’t hesitate to advantage of the numerous mistakes made by the corner.

An excellent pre-snap read and throw would be more significant, had the play come a few quarters earlier and against the Vikings starters.