Oakland Raiders: The good, bad, and ugly from week two loss to Denver

Good: Derek Carr Rebounds

What a difference a week makes, huh?

A week after a game in which he literally threw his team out of contention with three picks – one, of the pick-six variety – and a second half of the game that was JaMarcus Russell-esque, people were calling for Carr’s head.

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It’s true that since signing his mega-deal, Carr has looked like anything but the franchise quarterback the Raiders are paying him $125 million to be.

While he had a solid first half against the Rams in the season opener, he came out in the second half and set the world on fire – and not in a good way.

On six second half drives against LA, Oakland’s offense managed zero points, three punts, two interceptions – one of them being the aforementioned pick-six – and 136 yards of total offense. Suffice it to say, Oakland’s second half offense against the Rams was a dumpster fire.

Against Denver, Carr came out on fire – just like he was against LA . Carr again led the team to points on the first drive of the game – this time, nine play, 67-yard drive that netted a field goal – but, he was crisp. Sharp. Precise.

And, as an added bonus, he took some shots downfield, and had some success.

For the game, Carr finished a fantastic 29/32 (91 percent), for 288 yards, a touchdown, and most importantly, zero interceptions. One of the things that killed this team though, was that Carr led them to just 19 total points.

But, Carr put together a solid 60-minute game, made some big throws, and kept his team in it. It was a strong rebound performance after a dumpster fire of an opening game. He was decisive, had great pocket awareness, and didn’t seem to be plagued by the happy feet he seemed to have against the Rams.

This is the Derek Carr the Raiders need to see if they hope to crawl out of an 0-2 hole, and get themselves back into contention.