The Oakland Raiders were able to keep their playoff hopes alive with a win over the Los Angeles Chargers in Week 16.
Raiders quarterback Derek Carr managed to provide one of the signature plays of the game by showing off his mobility on a bootleg for a three-yard touchdown to secure a first-half lead. The Raiders took care of business by beating the Chargers 24-17 while putting a smile on the face of head coach Jon Gruden for a change.
Carr has not used his legs to make plays very often in the 2019 NFL season. Regardless, that does not mean he is incapable of doing so.
Gruden knows full well that Carr can turn it on when he needs to, via Scott Bair of NBC Sports:
“That was something that we were really looking for and are excited about,” Gruden said. “He is much better athlete than people realize and we have been encouraging him to do more things like that. It was a bootleg designed for Waller and a fullback. The Chargers did a nice job covering it, but Derek made a play. That’s what we need. You need to be a threat to run and that’s what he did today. It was a big play for us.”
Carr added that he has plenty of juice in his legs left to spare if Gruden wants to call more running plays for him:
“I turned it up to fourth gear,” Carr said with a smile. “I still have more in me. I can shift it up to another gear.”
Carr’s athleticism has long been one of the more underrated aspects of his game and it is clearly not something that opposing defenses have felt the need to put an emphasis on stopping. As a result, it seems Gruden is happy to take advantage by getting him into open space when possible.
Unfortunately, this is an adjustment that may have come a little too late for the Raiders as they now hope for a prayer to get into the postseason. They could have used an added element to help restore this offense when during their abysmal outing in the second half of the 2019 campaign.
Regardless, Oakland is still holding out hope that the stars will potentially align if they can come out with a win on the road versus the Denver Broncos in the season finale. If not, Gruden’s plans for Carr speed may have to be put on hold for another year.
