It was a tale of two halves for Oakland Raiders quarterback Derek Carr and wide receiver Amari Cooper Sunday against the Kansas City Chiefs, as the two connected all throughout the first half, but couldn’t find a rhythm in the second half.
In the first half Cooper caught nine passes for 117 yards, as Carr found his top receiver open all throughout the half, and even a couple times when he was covered Cooper made some nice catches.
The result was the Raiders scoring 10 points and trailing 13-10, but the Raiders were encouraged going into the halftime locker room as a couple key turnovers by the Raiders led to the deficit.
Cooper commented on the connection he and Carr have and how practicing together helps them in game, via Paul Gutierrez of ESPN:
“It’s never what they’re doing. It’s what we do,” Cooper said of his connection with quarterback Derek Carr. “We just need to execute better. Play how we practice. Do the things we practice in practice.”
The Chiefs defense made adjustments in the second half of the game though, and Cooper caught just one pass for 12 yards in the second half leading to the Raiders being shut out. Carr said that despite the adjustments the Chiefs made defensively, he and Cooper remained on the same page:
“We could see it,” Carr said. “We knew what they were doing. Me and Coop were talking about it during the game. We had run a play, and he would come back and make sure we saw the same thing, exactly right.”
Overall Cooper finished with a season-high 10 receptions for 129 yards. It was the second straight game that he was over 100 yards receiving and overall through the team’s first six games he has 585 yards.
The Raiders travel to Jacksonville to take on the Jaguars next Sunday where Cooper will likely be shadowed by Jaguars rookie cornerback Jalen Ramsey.
