Quarterback Derek Carr
Derek Carr came to play Thursday night.
With a quarterback rating of 101.2, the Oakland Raiders signal-caller threw the ball for 417 yards, and three touchdowns, but most importantly led a game-winning drive in the final two minutes of regulation. The Silver and Black topped the Kansas City Chiefs in the final moments of the primetime battle 31-30, and inched closer to .500. Following the game, the former Fresno State Bulldog met with reporters to discuss the dramatic evening.
Here are the quick hits from Carr's media session:
No. 4 broke down what went into the final drive of the game.
"Yeah, I was just trying to find a one-on-one. At that moment, you just have to find a one-on-one with the coverages that they're playing and give somebody a chance. There's nothing technical about it. At that point, I'm telling the guys in the huddle, 'Look I've got to give somebody a chance now. Go make a play.' They did a couple of times."
Carr shared what it was like to go through a four-game losing streak.
"I know personally I just look at things and I try and do more and so to fight through, especially when you're already fighting pretty good, you're fighting, your competing, and then to come out on the other side of it. Now we have a lot of work to do to be better, but to come out on the other side of it, I just thank God, man, to be honest because it was hard. It was frustrating."
He praised wide receiver Amari Cooper, and explained what he saw from the third-year player Thursday.
"You guys are going to think I'm crazy but there was no difference. We put him in positions to make plays, obviously. We knew that there were certain things that we liked. Nothing changed in his demeanor or his mentality or the way he worked or anything like that. We just stayed the course. We know what we have here and we know that if we just stay the course and work and grind through the tough times… Even today was tough. That's a tough time against, probably one of if not the best team in football right now. For 'Coop' to just continue to grind and get on the other side of it, I just felt good for him. You guys know Amari. I think we all felt good for him."
At the end of the day, playing football is about having fun, and that was Carr's focus against the Chiefs.
"That's all I focused on today. My main focus coming into today was making sure I knew who I was, remembering who I was and having fun. That's everything that I stressed to my teammates. We prayed together before the game, and that's what I said then. I said, 'Don't forget who's you are and who you are.' Then I said, 'Have fun.' I told my teammates that I loved them, but it's time to have some fun. I think all of Oakland was able to have some fun tonight. You guys know, my biggest joy is looking around and seeing the smiles and the high fives, the chest bumps and all those things. Speaking of chest bumps, I think I got higher than Coop on that one (laughing). So next time he does it, he's going to try and sit on my head. I think the main things was that we had fun."
Carr closed his presser by saying the season is far from over, and there's much to be accomplished.
"We keep working. The same thing that we've been doing all season. We work hard. We have to do the little things. We have to take all the right notes. We have to show up early. We have to take care of our bodies and we have to compete our tails off. We have a process that we go through. You guys hear coach say it all the time and he's brain washed it in us. We have a process that we go through. We take care of our bodies. Then we prepare and then we compete. He always says recover, prepare, compete and that's what we have to keep doing."
