Like so many times before, the Oakland Raiders should have won on Sunday against the Jacksonville Jaguars. However, they were shut out in the second half and gave up two touchdowns in the final five-plus minutes. Of course, this culminated in a 20-16 loss at home which drops them to 6-8 on the year.
For all intensive purposes, that loss eliminated Oakland from the playoff race. While they were a team with a lot of promise, Derek Carr and Jon Gruden failed again to make the 2019 season one of prominence for the Raiders.
Obviously this game held more significance then just a December scrum between two middling teams. Indeed, it was the final game at the Oakland Coliseum; with the Raiders moving to Las Vegas in 2020. Next year the team will open Allegiant Stadium, a natural-grass field just off the Las Vegas Strip.
Therefore – when Carr left the field on Sunday – Raider fans did not respond with any emotional goodwill. Instead, they booed Carr off the field. For example, take a look at this video of the quarterback walking to the tunnel.
https://twitter.com/StanfordVoice/status/1206366895563132929?s=20
In a word, yikes. Of course the Oakland fans were going to be in a surly mood given the circumstances. Furthermore, the Raiders close their tenure in Oakland with just one winning season over their final 17 years in the city. This happened when they went 12-4 in 2016, and Carr was playing at an MVP level before getting hurt. Still – when I watch players around the league every Sunday – I realize Carr is a pretty solid quarterback.
When asked about the reaction, Carr handled it like a pro.
“Oh gosh,” Carr said when asked about his being booed off the field. “What’s new with our crowd? Whenever we don’t win, that’s going to happen. Trust me, it’s not under my skin. It’s nothing.”
Then he was asked if he had any message to give to the fans, and with a hint of emotion he said this:
“Message to the fans? I’m sure they don’t want to hear anything right now.”
Finally, Carr wasn’t bad on Sunday. He went 22 of 37 for 267 yards and touchdown without turning the ball over. His rating on the season sits at 100 even, exhibiting some of the best play of his career.
Sometimes, fans don’t know how good they have it. The blame on Carr comes with the territory when a franchise doesn’t win. But this is a really solid player by most benchmarks. Perhaps some of the blame should be placed on Gruden, who should have found a way to make the Raiders just a play better than the Jaguars; who flew cross-country and had nothing to play for.
