Raiders News: Jon Gruden Calls Derek Carr A ‘Good Quarterback’ Despite Poor Game Against Chiefs

Julian Mitchell
Julian Mitchell
3 Min Read
Jay Biggerstaff-USA TODAY Sports

The Oakland Raiders were on the cusp of returning to the playoffs for the first time in three years. However, after back-to-back disappointing losses to the New York Jets and now the Kansas City Chiefs, they now find themselves on the outside looking in once again.

While going up against the Chiefs is no easy task, Derek Carr provided the Raiders by playing one of his worst games of the season. He finished with 222 passing yards, one touchdown pass and two interceptions on a 66% completion rate.

The stats do not look awful, but they truly do not tell the whole story. Both interceptions set the Chiefs up well, and one was even returned for a touchdown. There was a lot of talk going into the game about Carr’s struggles in cold weather, and he did himself no favors with the performance he put up.

Despite the bad game, Raiders head coach Jon Gruden defended Carr and still believes he can be a successful quarterback, via Vic Tafur of The Athletic:

“I think everyone struggles to a degree in cold weather,” Gruden said. “That is why a lot of people move south. I have to do a better job of helping him. I think it starts with me and ends there. He is a good quarterback. I think he has a chance to be great. It just wasn’t his day and wasn’t our day.”

This marks Carr’s second poor game in a row after completing just 15 of 27 passes for 127 yards against the Jets. However, the whole team struggled in New York so less of the blame could be placed on his shoulders.

In Week 12, Josh Jacobs only finished with 34 yards on 10 carries. This week he completely turned it around, rushing for 104 yards on 17 carries as he was really the only offensive power the Raiders had early on against the Chiefs in Week 13.

With the loss to the Chiefs, any hopes the Raiders had of winning the AFC West could essentially be put to rest as they now trail Kansas City by 2.0 games and also do not hold the tiebreaker.

A wild card berth is very much still in play for Oakland though, so Carr and the offense will need to improve their play moving forward if they want to be playing meaningful games in January.

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