Oakland Raiders: A look inside some numbers Derek Carr must improve in 2018

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Back in 2016, Carr was the comeback king, having engineered seven fourth-quarter come from behind wins. Of course, the counter argument is that it says something about that team that they had to have seven come from behind wins – but, that’s another argument for another time.

What matters though, is that when the pressure was the highest, Carr excelled.

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In 2016, with the Raiders trailing, Carr threw at a 63 percent clip (160/256), for 1,862 yards, tossing 15 touchdowns against just one interception on the year. Along the way, he rang up a Quarterback Rating of 102.5

2017 was a very different story though. For the year, when Oakland was behind – which was often. Very, very often – Carr led just one comeback win. He threw at a 59 percent clip (164/278), for 1,784 yards, with 13 touchdowns and seven interceptions. His Quarterback Rating when Oakland trailed last season was just 83.1.

Now, in a perfect world, Carr wouldn’t have to lead seven come from behind wins. In an absolutely perfect world, the Raiders would never be playing from behind at all.

But, this is obviously, not a perfect world and the fact of the matter is, the Raiders will find themselves playing from behind at points during this season.

Which means that if the Raiders are going to be serious contenders, Carr is going to have to be able to lead his team from behind and get back to playing his best when the pressure is the greatest.