Time to start putting some respect on Derek Carr’s name
By Nick Ellis
The few knocks on Derek Carr have been his unwillingness to throw the deep ball, and his struggles against the Chiefs in Kansas City. Sunday, he put those criticisms to rest.
Whether you love Derek Carr or not, you cannot argue that the Kansas City Chiefs have time and time again made him look like a below-average quarterback. The Chiefs had won the last five meetings against the Raiders, and the Raiders had not won a game in Kansas City since 2012.
Sunday, Carr and the Raiders went to Kansas City and defeated the returning Super Bowl Champions in a back and forth shootout that saw Carr play one of the best games of his career. Although Carr threw an interception early, where he overthrew Waller on third down, he bounced back like great quarterbacks do, throwing for 347 yards and three touchdowns in a 40-32 victory over Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs.
Carr silences critics
Not only was Carr able to finally win in Kansas City, but he did it by doing what everyone says he refuses to do; throwing the deep ball. In the second quarter, we saw Carr close the gap and hit Nelson Agholor for a 59 yard touchdown to cut the score to 10-14 in favor of the Chiefs.
In that same quarter, Carr would find rookie Henry Ruggs deep for a 72 yard touchdown to take the lead, becoming the first Raiders QB since Rich Gannon to throw two touchdowns deeper than 50 yards in the same game.
As the game went on, Carr was able to continue to be a great leader, keeping the offense on the field, leading the team down the field to continue to score points, and did something that he has failed to do in the past against the Chiefs, which is make good decisions with the ball.
Next. Raiders Derek Carr vindicated with big win at Arrowhead Stadium. dark
Carr has played at an exceptional level this season, especially when having Henry Ruggs on the field. He was able to spread the ball around, completing passes to ten different receivers. Critics will be waiting for Carr to make another mistake, but until then, it is hard to argue that he is playing some of the best football of his career, throwing for eleven touchdowns against just one interception, as well as holding a 3-2 record after playing one of the toughest, if not the toughest, opening schedules in the league.