Don’t look now but the Oakland Raiders have now won two of the last three games. The Raiders, after earning their first win of the season by defeating the Kansas City Chiefs, then lost in embarrassing fashion to the Rams. To turn around and deliver a solid performance against the San Francisco 49ers was very impressive.
Said Head Coach Tony Sparano of the game. “Big difference in a week. Hard fought game. This is the way rivalry sports games are supposed to be played. Really proud of the guys in that room. It took a lot of courage to do what they did today, a lot of courage. I love that group in there. They’re resilient. I’ve been saying it over and over again, resilient bunch of guys. Thought they played really hard, both sides of the football, today, special teams. They fought really hard.”
Quarterback Derek Carr was especially impressive in the win, completing 22/28 passes for 254 yards, three touchdowns and zero interceptions. The Raiders also converted 6/13 third downs compared to just 3/11 for the 49ers. The defense played well sacking Colin Kaepernick 5 times and intercepting him twice. Rookie linebacker Khalil Mack chipped in with two of those sacks. Several others played extremely well including second year Tight End Mychal Rivera who caught seven balls on seven targets for 109 yards and one touchdown. “I honestly thought Derek played really well tonight. Best game? I don’t know. I think he threw really well though. We had a lot of people down there in the box today and they didn’t want us to run the ball. They obviously wanted to see whether or not we could beat them throwing the football and Derek was able to do that” says Sparano of Carr.
There is no doubt that this offseason will be another interesting one for the organization and for the fans. Interim Head Coach Tony Sparano is making his case to keep his job and remove the interim tag winning two of the past three weeks, and the final three weeks will obviously be instrumental in determining his immediate future. Sparano, to his credit, isn’t thinking too far down the road. Asked if this kind of game can change the organizational thinking from the ownership on down Sparano responded by saying “Listen, I don’t know what anybody thinks. I really don’t. At this point right now, I care about what the people in that locker room think. I know what they think; I really do. As I said, we’ll decide when this is over. Right now it’s not over”.
The Raiders, with three games remaining, have lost the top spot in next year’s draft and currently pick fifth. This may be a blessing in disguise as the Raiders may not have to choose between Carr and potential number one pick overall pick Marcus Mariota. Making the wrong decision in such a scenario could result in General Manager Reggie McKenzie losing his job if in fact he remains after the final game of the season.
I’m sure Derek Carr wants to prevent the Raiders from making this decision as well.
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