Oakland Raiders: The good, bad, and ugly in season opening loss to Rams
By Kevin Saito
Ugly: Carr’s Performance
There really is no way (or reason) to sugarcoat it, but simply put, against the Rams, Carr flat-out sucked.
He had a fantastic first half, you can’t take that away from him. But, when the heat got turned up – as he should have expected it would – and it mattered the most, he crumpled like a cheaply made beach chair.
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Which is a real problem for Oakland’s $125 million dollar supposed franchise quarterback.
Carr’s second half performance was a continuation of what we saw over the course of 2017 – errant passes, wild inaccuracy, turnovers, poorly thrown balls, skittishness in the pocket, and a rush to panic if things start to break down.
Carr looked terrific in the first half. He looked to be in command of Gruden’s offense. He was doing some great things, and making really smart decisions. He looked a lot like the quarterback who was a legit MVP candidate during Oakland’s 2016 playoff run.
He was the exact opposite of that in the second half, often looking lost, confused, and completely overwhelmed. The Rams got a little heat on him – which again, should have been expected – but overall, the line did a decent job of keeping him clean.
He took just one sack, and was hit a few other times, but it’s not like he was under constant pressure on every snap.
Carr is supposedly the franchise quarterback the Raiders have been missing for a long time – and they paid him accordingly. But so far, the return on investment has been sorely lacking.
He is going to need to step it up and play like a true franchise quarterback in a big hurry.